Booksellers, Friends and Food
I’m at SIBA this weekend–the trade show for the Southeastern Independent Booksellers Alliance. What that means is row upon row upon row of publishers showcasing their upcoming books to booksellers, and in many cases, giving those books away. Publishers bring some of their authors with them to meet booksellers in the Southeastern US. It’s also a chance…
Read MoreOh Happy Day!
I didn’t think it was ever going to happen! After several months of “everything that can go wrong going wrong” (with the exception of a hurricane, but the season’s not over yet), I now own a vacation…
Read MoreHook, Line and Linker
During my twenty-eight years of writing, I’ve heard plenty of advice from other authors. One tidbit stands out: tighten the relationship between characters. I know exactly where (in Albert Zuckerman’s Writing the Blockbuster Novel) and when (1995, as I wrote Reflection) I read this suggestion. It’s stayed with me all these years and I draw…
Read MoreOn the Road Again
Just a quick post tonight, since I’m traveling. We’re staying at a B and B in a cute little town in New Jersey. This is a trip for pleasure as opposed to work, although I did bring my manuscript with me and am working on revisions during the down time– plus I’ll be breakfasting with…
Read MoreMy Characters are Party Animals!
Wow, was I young. I was looking through the scrapbook I kept during the early years of my career and found this old article from a Richmond, Virginia newspaper. For the first several years of my writing career, I maintained my private practice as a clinical social worker. It was so hard to make the choice…
Read MoreHow a Jersey Girl Became a Southern Writer
I was recently invited to write a guest post for the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance blog, and I wrote about my transition from Jersey Girl to Southern Writer. You can read the post here , and I offer it with apologies to everyone in New Jersey, especially my family, my friends and my agent. You…
Read MoreRevising on the Porch
A few readers have asked me what’s happening with my work-in-progress, The Lies We Told, due to be published next June, so I’m here with an update. I’ve shared with you the synopsis process, the outline process, the writing process, the revising process and the torturous rush-to-deadline process. That was followed by two weeks of…
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