If you’re not a novelist, I bet the subject heading looks like Greek to you! Those who’ve read my blog for a while know that WIP means Work-in-Progress, but what is a Pantser? Novelists fall into two general camps: Pantsers and Plotters. Pantsers write “by the seat of their pants.” They avoid outlines and anything…

We just got back from a quick trip to Baltimore. Here’s a look inside my imaginative (others might say “sick”) mind: -the man riding in the hotel elevator with us was on his way up to meet his illicit lover for a tryst -The body of a suicidal woman dropped past our hotel room window while…

I finally made it out to the beach this morning. Weather wasn’t the best, but it felt so good to get out of my little writing cubby here in our room. I hobbled around for about an hour and it was exactly what I needed to refill the well. I can’t believe that this is…

John’s teaching a photography workshop here with a couple of other photographers, and as you can imagine, I wasn’t going to let a chance at a few days in the Outer Banks pass me by! It’s pouring rain, but the photography students appear undaunted as they learn to make use of any available light. And…

A few weeks ago, I had dinner with a friend who is exactly my age and is a teacher. We talked about ageism in the workplace, and she said she is very careful not to reveal her age because she might then be perceived negatively by her coworkers, not to mention her students. I’m 57 1/2 and…

Is this war going on at your house, too? I love Netflix! As my faithful blog readers know, I love storytelling of all kinds and am as addicted to movies as I am to books. John is even more addicted, if that’s possible. In case you don’t know, through Netflix you can rent one or…

For the past two days, I’ve been reading the revised manuscript of BEFORE THE STORM aloud. Author/friend Emilie Richards started me doing this long ago, and it’s the best way to catch  errors, really hear the rhythm of the words . . . and satisfy my life-long yearning to be an actress. Of course, it…

What do you think?? I love it. Still a long time until this will be in the bookstores, but publishers come up with covers early (usually) so the sales force has them on time. Often there are some small (again, usually) changes between this version and the final, but I’m delighted. The house in my…

Honest, it is! Every writing task  takes me much longer than I think it will. Here I am, still revising BEFORE THE STORM. I’m rewriting the ending now–it’s technically the same ending, but I’m expanding on it a bit. Or a lot, actually. And writing it in more of an immediate here-and-now way instead of having…

Not only my brain. Sitting in this chair for hours and hours, days and days, is getting to the rest of me, too. The book’s good, though. It really is. I need people to remind me of that when I’m in the middle of writing the next one and feel like chucking it all. It’s good, but I…