Story Weekend Theme: Mailboxes

What’s your mailbox story? Do you decorate yours for the holidays? Did you receive something extraordinary in yours once upon a time? Did a neighbor kid who doesn’t like you put something icky inside? The mailbox in the picture was painted for me by my stepdaughter, Brittany, (aka Pretty Handy Girl) as a surprise, back…

Read More

The Theme for this Story Weekend: Trees

I don’t know about you, but I can think of dozens of personal stories to write about trees, from the cathedral they formed over my childhood backyard to the yearning I had for them that led me to move back to the east coast from San Diego. How about you? What tree stories are in your life?…

Read More

My "Early Works"

I was digging through some memorabilia and came across a few books I wrote when I was twelve. I’ve shared Witchville with the blog before, but I’d forgotten about these two. The ‘stories’ are three short novellas, all simply dreadful. I wrote The Tonsil Twins for my younger brother and cousin, who had their tonsils out…

Read More

Hearing Voices: Point of View in Fiction Writing

The Midwife’s Confession is written from five different points of view, and I’m here to tell you, that was a challenge! Every one of my twenty novels has had multiple points of view, but never before have I had to balance five female voices in one story. Want to know the hardest part about multiple…

Read More

I Want to Zipline! What's Your Fantasy Adventure?

Today’s paper had an article on all the places to zip line in North Carolina. I love anything that gets me up in the air, so the article really got me excited. I have a feeling I’ll never get to zip line, though. I’m not sure it’s the best activity for someone with funky joints,…

Read More

Story Weekend Theme: High School

Our theme for this Story Weekend: High School. (I hope my international readers will help me with the correct term for “high school” in their countries). That’s my high school on the left in Plainfield, New Jersey, after it’s 1906 unveiling. Are you new to Story Weekend? No problem! Everyone is welcome. Here’s  an opportunity to share a tiny snippet…

Read More

Where is your Third Place?

Remember the show Cheers? Every person had his own seat at the bar. Each of them drank the same drink every day. Norm walked in and everyone said in unison “Norm!” You knew these folks were in a place of comfort and camaraderie. If you’ve read my blog for a while, you know I spend…

Read More

The Mistake So Many Self-Published Authors Make

I sat in the Opium Den this morning, studying the revision letter my editor sent me about my twenty-first novel,  The Good Father, which will be published next spring.  As usual, my editor had a bunch of suggestions and I could see that she was right on target on every point except one (and she…

Read More

The Agony and Ecstacy of Synopsis Writing

Remember my new idea? The one that came to me so perfectly formed that I knew the book would write itself? Well, it may be true that the book will write itself, but the synopsis is another matter altogether. A good synopsis is incredibly important. Even if you’ve already written your book, you will still…

Read More