“The only way to their future is through the past.” I am ridiculously excited about today! In a pinch-me kind of way! After years of work, and about fifty- probably more- edits, this story is finally ready to be unveiled. I’ve been asked for a longer excerpt from the book, so here it is: …Ian moved quicker now, but Logan didn’t back away, fueled in part by her own curiosity and because nobody pushed her around. When his golden eyes locked on hers, a strange, sweet feeling swept through her. The man…dazzled. With his fallen angel beauty framed...
Finally! It’s here and I can show it to all of you!!! It’s a day that’s been a long time coming- the cover reveal for Shadows of Ghosts! A big shout out to the awesome marketing crew at The Wild Rose Press for their work on this- and especially to Debbie Taylor for her awesome artwork. But first, a little taste of the story: ‘Driving to South Carolina to claim an inheritance from a total stranger didn’t figure into Logan Dean’s long term plans. But she’d be a fool to pass up an opportunity, and her mother didn’t raise...
I first began writing badly. It’s how we all begin writing, I suppose, if we are to be completely honest. Much the same way that the Mona Lisa was not Da Vinci’s first, your best work will almost never be your first, although if you are very lucky, there may be some gems sprinkled throughout. Last weekend, on Saturday to be precise, I had the privilege of taking a writing workshop with Margie Lawson. I don’t have a lot of time these days, wedging precious family time in between too little sleep and too many sweets, and it seemed...
MODES OF TRANSPORTATION I was researching how long it would take for a horse to get from Wick, Scotland, to Inverness, Scotland, and thought I might as well blog about it so when I forget in six months, maybe this will pop up in my search and I’ll save myself some time. So…it’s about 103 miles from Wick to Inverness (never mind the fact that Loch Dornoch is in the way) and a horse can travel anywhere from 10 to 40 miles a day. Here’s the breakdown, courtesy of Cartographer’s Guild: https://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=19730 Roads/trails: 20-40 mpd Off road: 15-30 mpd...
Graveyards III So as usual, life totally got in the way, as did edits, and familial obligations, and a million jillion other things. So I am finally posting my last (for now) blog post in the graveyard series! Both of these graveyards are located in Paris, France, one above the city, Cimetiere du Montparnasse, located at the corner of Rue Froidevaux and Rue Victor Schoelcher and the other is very close by, under the city, the Paris Catacombs. If you are planning on visiting the catacombs and you allow yourself an extra hour or two, you will have ample...
When we decided in 2014 to travel to Europe, I was a little bit hesitant to suggest that first on my list were a couple of graveyards that I had wanted to visit for years. We were traveling with friends, and I wasn’t too sure how they’d react, so I bumped them down on my list, from number one to maybe number three or four so I wouldn’t appear too macabre. Happily, they were on board with my plan, so we were able to visit all of them. So here they are, in no particular order, because I apparently...
Looking at that 85,000 word manuscript and wondering how to cut it down to 75,000 so you can submit? There’s an easier way than pulling it apart and completely rewriting it, a process that takes another two months out of your schedule and leaves you cutting out important scenes and making hard decisions about dialogue and character development. By taking a weekend (or two) and carefully combing though your MS using the “Find” command in Word, you can eliminate literally pages of unnecessary words, overused words, and “fluff” words, turning your work into the lean, mean writing it is...
When I decided to set my gothic romance series in Charleston, SC, it was with sort of a vague, romantic notion. Driving through the area, on our north-to-south migration from Ohio to Florida migration, we’d driven through the area countless times, and I’d fallen in love with the salt flats, and the beauty of it all. We’d vacationed in the Outer Banks, stayed in Beaufort area a few times, and driven down all along the coast, even staying in Savannah for a weekend. But we’d never actually visited Charleston. So we made plans to stay there for a few...
Yeah, I’m one of those graveyard people. Whenever we travel, I always schedule a stop at a graveyard (or two) along the way so we can take a tour. It’s always amazing to me how beautiful they are, how peaceful and how different each region is. No matter where you go, there are always fresh flowers on many of the graves, and most are well tended. The mix of old and new fascinates, as does the rich history of the people buried there. We like to pay our respects to the ones who came before us, and I thought...