Speaking at Quail Ridge Books

  I always love speaking at Quail Ridge, one of my two favorite Independent Bookstores (the second being Quarter Moon Books in Topsail Beach). Quail Ridge does a good job getting the word out and it has a wonderful setup for the audience. I had such a good time. My favorite part of a speaking…

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Marcus's Operation Bumblebee Tower

If you’ve read Before the Storm or Secrets She Left Behind, you know that my character, Marcus, lives in an unusual house. After World War II, the US Navy ran a secret program called Operation Bumblebee  on Topsail Island (where I just happen to be for the weekend). The program was designed to develop and test supersonic…

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States' Rights

I’d like you all to welcome Alexandra Sokoloff to my blog. Alex is one of my Scribbler buddies here in North Carolina, and she is . . . well, she’s one of a kind! And she’s the master of intelligent, spooky books. I can relate a bit to what she writes below, since I lived…

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The Sequel Dilemma Revisited

                                Want to win a copy of The Courage Tree? Check out Emilie Richards’ interview of me on her blog and leave a comment by June 3rd. Good luck! I can’t sleep. It’s this dang sequel dilemma. Remind me never to write…

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How Do You Read?

Want to win a copy of The Courage Tree? Check out Emilie Richards’ interview of me on her blog and leave a comment. Good luck! In my last post (which must have set a record for the number of comments on my blog!), several people mentioned two quirks about reading novels that fascinated me. The…

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Secrets She Left Behind

Today’s the big day! Secrets She Left Behind should be in stores this morning. It’s the story of a family–a complex, extended, messy, and wildly secretive family. It’s suspenseful and surprising, poignant and ultimately uplifting. I can’t wait to hear what you think of it!  If you haven’t seen the book trailer for Secrets, you can…

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RedRoom Picks My Video as Video of the Week!

Wow, this is so nice! RedRoom.com, which is a community of readers and published authors, selected one of my writing videos as its video of the week. I’m so pleased, and pleased for John as well, since he produced it (he also produced my video for Secrets She Left Behind. You can see all my…

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Podcast, Newsletters, Kindle and Song

I played around with this title until I liked the rhythm of it. A more apt subject heading might be “miscellany”, but that doesn’t have much of a ring to it. So here we go!   Podcast: One of my neighbors, high-schooler Kelly Williamson, had to create a podcast for a school assignment and she asked if…

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A Few More Topsail Island Party Pix

With my honey, John. So rare for him to be in front of the camera rather than behind it!                   With some of the guests–Mike and Linda Hendricks and Sandy Sly. Everyone on Topsail Island looks so tanned and healthy. It’s clear that beach living agrees with…

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