I had lunch today at a new Raleigh restaurant called The Grape, with a group of writers and one very savvy bookseller. This group has been together for a long time, but they’ve welcomed me into their midst and they’re just super! Nancy Olson, owner of my favorite Raleigh bookstore, Quail Ridge Books and Music,…

                                                 We had a visit from my oldest (as in, I’ve known her since kindergarten) friend, Barbara (DeCamp) Hammach and her husband Bill and very cool teenaged kids, Jamie and Libby. They live in Chicago and I hadn’t seen them in 7 years. Too long! Here we are (with one of John’s art photographs behind…

The more I thought about my story and my friend’s story, the more I realized I needed to let mine go and start fresh. So I said goodbye to Natalie and Haley, who had so much promise. They may return in some other form one of these days, but for now, it’s back to the drawing board.…

Last  night, a good friend and I were emailing back and forth. She and I write for the same publisher, and we began describing our works-in-progress to one another. To our horror, we discovered that a major plot element in our stories is very, very similar. Frighteningly so. No publisher would publish two similar stories…

If you’re familiar with my blog commenters, you know that I have a very faithful fan in Margo Petrus. Well, Margo is also a terrific artist, and at my request, she sent me some pictures from a recent art fair where she displayed her work. Here she is sketching a portrait of her dog, Kramer,…

I realized that in order to talk about my WIP without giving away any story elements, I’ll have to speak in general terms. So here goes:    I’m writing this book without my usual giant outline. As a matter of fact, I have exactly two sentences describing the story and that’s it! So I’m starting fresh.…

I had a great conversation with my editor yesterday, and we had a meeting of the minds regarding the book I’ll write next. Still a bit tentative as I work out the details of the story, but I am EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The story I have in mind is going to be suspenseful, touching, heart-wrenching, redemptive, compelling…

I really love Elizabeth Berg’s books. She writes about ordinary people struggling with ordinary situations, but she makes their journeys compelling and sympathetic. (My favorite of hers is THE JOY SCHOOL, which I listened to on tape). Last night I was paging through a book she wrote in 1999, ESCAPING INTO THE OPEN: The Art…

Now, this is downright spooky. In this morning’s email, I received questions from two separate people asking me where the post (below) could be found, since it helped them in their own writing process. It was part of my former blog and I was going to simply send the inquirers to that link, but then a third email…

Every day I receive email asking when my next book will be out, so it’s time I updated you on where things stand. Let’s just say it’s been an interesting year! What is certain is that I’ll be staying with my wonderful publisher, Mira Books. There is not a nicer group of people in publishing…