Throwing in the Towel on Scrivener

Look at the top of my dining room table. It’s so beautiful, I could kiss it. It looks like home to me, and I’ve been homesick. You might remember back in October when I was teaching myself how to use the writing software, Scrivener.  I was so enthusiastic. Many of my writing friends use Scrivener to…

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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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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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Do You Read the Last Page First?

A friend called the other day. I hadn’t spoken to him in a couple of months and I knew he and his family were going through some difficult times. He wanted to catch me up, telling me “so much has happened since I talked to you last.” (I really did receive this call, but I’m…

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Let's Have a Worry-Free Week

All right, I will settle for a semi-worry-free week. I spend too much time worrying about things. One of my main worries is always the book I’m working on. Will I meet my deadline?  Will it please my readers? Will the reviews be good? Will it make any bestseller lists? Etcetera, etcetera. I was thinking…

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