Just another couple of months! I’ve heard from many of you that you can’t wait for BAY to be reissued in paperback. It will be on sale in trade paperback size on August 29th. The same cover as the hardcover–which I really think goes well with the story.          

For those of you new to my blog, here are some definitions that might help: The Opium Den: this is Starbucks, where I write most mornings. I used to write there in the evenings as well until I realized I was consuming about 1000 calories of baked goods a day on top of buckets of…

I’ve seen a triplet of spelling bee movies lately. Here’s what I think of them. Akeelah and the Bee                                          Parents, PLEASE take your late elementary and early middle schoolers to this moive! As a matter of fact, it’s a wonderful family movie. The story is of a young inner city girl with a gift for spelling.…

I miss only four things about Northern Virginia, where I lived for more than twenty years before moving to N.C. nearly a year ago: my friends, Trader Joe’s, Ikea, and my beloved interfaith gospel choir, Mosaic Harmony (that’s me in the picture, second from the top).  I didn’t rush into finding a new choir because I don’t want…

ME AND EMMA, by Elizabeth Flock Loved this book. It came out as trade paperback (the large-sized paperback) from my publisher, Mira Books. It’s the story of two young sisters, Emma and Carrie, told from Carrie’s point of view in first person. The sisters try to run away from their emotionally distant mother and abusive…

A heartbreaker of a movie. I thought Heath Ledger was phenomenal, (although there were a couple of scenes in which he looked so much like George Bush–to me, anyway–that I couldn’t keep my mind on the story). People I spoke with who were uncomfortable with this movie told me the sex scenes were too graphic…

I read a lot of books, but I watch tons of movies. Four or five a week. I love stories in any form and they feed my creative well. John and I rarely actually go to the movies, but we rent from Netflix on a constant basis. Love those little red envelopes! We like classics…

Can’t figure out why your character needs to move to California (besides the fact that you want your story to take place there)? Want something unexpected to happen to your character when she walks into a restaurant? Use the List of Twenty. Author Patricia McLinn shared this exercise with me years ago. She and Emilie Richards and I plotted…

I adore fan mail. Ninety-five percent of it comes via email and I try to answer it right away. I used to let it pile up and then it hung around my neck like an albatross, which took all the pleasure out of receiving it. I enjoy it much more now that I get back…

    before                     after It’s been nearly a year since we moved into our house in North Carolina and we still don’t have it fixed up as we’d like (or I guess I should say, as I’d like). You walk into the large living room through the front door and it looks something like a used furniture store. Since…