Posts Tagged ‘Diane Chamberlain’
The Last Song
Today is our last full day on Tybee Island. All five of us have worked so hard and achieved or surpassed our goals each day. So far. I have some hefty goals for today and can’t wait to buckle down. I’m so grateful to Mary Kay Andrews for inviting us to her beautiful cottage in…
Read MoreAnd Then There were Five
Second full day on Tybee Island. 6 pages so far toward my daily goal of 10. Margaret snapped this pic of me happily typing away. One of my characters whom I pictured staid and reserved and very serious, turns out to be irreverent and a little kooky. I’m glad she didn’t wait any longer to let me…
Read MoreThe Reveal
Time for the reveal! We’ve had so much fun working with our friend Elizabeth as we remodeled our Topsail Island condo. The before and after pics don’t match up perfectly–this isn’t HGTV after all!–but you get the idea. To start with, we painted the unit a buttery yellow, replaced the sofa and loveseat, painted the…
Read MoreShelf Paper Sunday
Well, Sunday is usually one of the days I update my blog, but this evening I have no time. You can see what I’m doing here: cleaning out my newly refaced cabinets at our Topsail Island condo, as well as many other household-y tasks. We just have two days here because snow, a rarity on the North…
Read MoreThirty Years Ago. . .
About thirty years ago, I was published for the first time. Not a novel, but an op-ed piece in the Los Angeles Times. I was working as a hospital social worker at the time, and after a particularly moving encounter with a family in the ER, I took a break and wrote this fictionalized account…
Read MoreMy Desk, Three Months Before Deadline
Even the dog bed is askew. Pictures of my characters. Manuscript pages everywhere. Almonds to snack on. Hand lotion for my weary fingers. My singing stuffed warbler, sent to me by a reader, sits in front of my printer. I can squeeze him whenever I need a bit of June in the midst of February. Thich Nhat…
Read MoreHeat Seekin' Again!
Welcome UK readers! I was thrilled when my publisher released The Lost Daughter (known in the US as The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes) in the United Kingdom last year. It was embraced by so many new-to-me readers and made #1 on the Heatseekers’ Chart. The Heatseekers’ Chart in the UK contains books by up…
Read MoreDe-Trite-Us
One of the worst crimes a writer can commit is to be predictable in his or her storyline and characters. This holds true even in genre fiction, where a certain formula is generally followed: In a romance, boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy and girl reunite forever. In a mystery, a crime occurs, there…
Read MoreAll By Myself
People sometimes ask me how I deal with the isolation of writing. I’ve recently been in touch with a former co-worker from my days as a hospital social worker and communicating with her reminds me of what it was like to work with other people. It’s been a long time since I’ve done that! The…
Read MoreWhat's Your Quirk?
Today I was twice reminded that I have a quirk. This morning, I received a request to speak at an event and had to ask my standard question: “Can you describe the venue to me, please?” Here is my ideal venue in which to speak. It’s a large, low-ceilinged room, perhaps a meeting room or ballroom…
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