Do You Have a Favorite Indie Bookstore?

I’m lucky to be surrounded by talented writers here in North Carolina and to count so many of them as my friends. I’d like you to meet one of them, Anne Clinard Barnhill. Anne writes historical fiction and her latest novel is At the Mercy of the Queen, the story of Anne Boleyn’s cousin, Madge. I…

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Story Weekend: Music

Sunday night is the Grammy Awards and American Idol is gearing up and I have music on my mind. I thought it would make a good topic for Story Weekend, so here we go. You may interpret the theme any way you like. If you’re new to Story Weekend, here’s how it works: I pick…

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We Need a Few Good Movie Stars

One of my Facebook friends, Stephanie, asked me what actors I’d like to see play my characters in the movie versions of my books. I hasten to add there are no movie versions planned at the moment, but we can fantasize, can’t we? I’d love to know who you think should play some of the…

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My Favorite Reads of 2011

Each year, I like to share my favorite reads from the last 12 months. As I looked over the books I read in 2011, two things stood out to me: 1) much of my recent reading has been nonfiction as I research the time and place of my work-in-progress, and 2) I started quite a…

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Story Weekend: Hair

I can’t believe we haven’t had hair as a Story Weekend topic yet. (Isn’t this a stunner of a photograph? That’s me, in my dreams). Whether “hair” makes you think of childhood perms, fright wigs, your grandma’s snow-white bun or the broadway musical, tell us about it! If you’re new to Story Weekend, here’s how…

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Backlist on Fire! (and a Contest)

As you probably know, last year I published five of my out-of-print books as e-books. Well, today I checked my records to see if it was worth the time and effort. Uh. . . YES! You bought over 50,000 of them in 2011! I’m staggered by that number, especially since I never thought those books…

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New Covers for my Backlist E-Books!

When I first made my out-of-print books available as e-books, I designed my own covers.  I found designing the covers fun, time consuming, and a wake-up call to the fact that I am not a graphic artist! I had a professional, author Patricia Ryan, re-do one of them and it was beautiful but I eventually realized…

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Story Weekend: Holiday Magic

Okay, I’m going to admit it. I can’t think of a personal story for this topic, but it was suggested by a friend and I think it’s a good one, so I’m leaving it up to y’all to share your own stories. Remember that anyone who comments on any of my blog posts before December…

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Visit my Photo Gallery!

As part of my new website design, I’ve updated my photo gallery. Here’s one of my favorite pictures. You can see why I used to be able to dress up as Yoko Ono for Halloween, can’t you? I got a super big kick out of all the comments for Story Weekend this time, which is…

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