In the four years that my team and I have been posting blog posts, I’ve noticed a strange trend—posts about sad or difficult things tend to get WAY more attention than posts about successes and joys. In a similar vein, posts about something that scares or disturbs people gets more interaction than posts that are unremittingly positive.
Read MoreThis morning I decided to go for a—well, not a hike. More of a ramble through the prairie grasses, really, but it was in a small wildlife refuge not far away. My goal for this early morning ramble was twofold: to get ideas for writing and to slow and soften my energy to the point that nature forgot that I am “human”.
Read MoreAs I come to a close on the active writing part of book 3, I find myself casting my thoughts to the next story. Yes, there is a book 4 bubbling around in the back of my mind. It’s starting to take shape, growing out of the character development in book 3.
Read MoreAs I take a break from beginning production on Triangle: Book Two of The Azellian Affairs, I find myself reflecting a bit on writing. One aspiring writer I met recently worried that she couldn’t write stories as good as the ones she was reading. This is a very real, and very legitimate fear. I still face it. With every new book it pokes at me—I’ve just gotten better at facing it and fear doesn’t change my behavior any more.
Read MoreWhen I was digging through my old stories, I found treasure untold. First of all, yes, I do hold onto copies of old stories, excised chapters and failed starts. You never know when inspiration might strike!
Read MoreI recently interacted with people who are struggling with another very real and very legitimate fear: “okay, I got over all those hurdles to begin writing, wrote a book, published it and now it’s not doing as well as I’d hoped it would. What if my time is being wasted and I’m losing money and it’s all for nothing?”
Read MoreOne of the more interesting aspects of being a writer is that secretly held fear that we authors are really terrible and our friends and people who know us are just being nice when they praise us for what we wrote. This perspective really dominated my thinking for a very long time. At times, it prevented me from being willing to go through the process of publication. At others, it nudged me not-so-gently into putting my book into contest after contest to prove to myself that this not-so-secret fear was just hot air.
Read MoreOur society loves to play with the concept of “the one”—the “prince” or “princess” who is our soulmate, bound to us through all eternity. We see it over and over again in romantic comedies and romance stories. For some of us, it’s a knight on a white charger who will battle our demons and rescue us from our lives. For others, it’s a person with whom they have an intense, soul-deep connection. Still others fight against the concept and dismiss it out of hand.
Read MoreIt’s been a while since my last post—and I apologize to my readers.
Such is the life of an author—the muse can get derailed by all kinds of unexpecteds and apparently, the blog muse is very similar. In my case, however, the derailing was in the form of something quite exciting: I was quite focused on my launch of Book Two, Triangle: Book Two of The Azellian Affairs. I’m happy to say my book launch at Tattered Cover Bookstore in Denver, Colorado went beautifully—I was able to share my experiences on writing the story and the process of getting it launched with a fun group of people. I do so love to stand in front of people, answering their questions about being an author—and questions about my book and the backstory that underlies it.
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