Tag: featured
Nomadic Lifestyle And Writing
I’ve got the boxes broken down and stored in my garage. There’s a stack of plastic storage bins next to them. I ought to give them away. I’m determined not to need them again and the thought of dragging them out gives me hives, but I can’t quite let them go. I spent seven moves […]
Exclamation Evolution
I love the exclamation mark. I’ve used it, and fairly regularly, for as long as I can remember. I like how it can signal glee, surprise, bemusement; how it can turn a blunt-sounding sentence (in a text, say) into something softer, something more playful. And I confess I use it in part because I know […]
The Unexpected Pleasures Of Writing A Book
I am in the middle of my third novel. And frankly, I can’t think of the first pleasure of writing, let alone any unexpected ones. Because right now, I just want to run naked out into my field, amongst the cows, coyotes and raccoons, screaming “these characters are making me crazy! Aaaggghhhhh!!!” But alas, the […]
Sex In Women’s Fiction, Part 3: Advice From The Experts
Part 3 of our Sex In Women’s Fiction Series, Read part 2 HERE It’s surprisingly easy to write bad sex. In fact, cringeworthy sex scenes are so ubiquitous that the UK magazine, Literary Review, hands out an annual award to distinguish the somewhat awful from the truly terrible. According to their website, the purpose of […]
Five Ways to Increase Micro-Tension
How do we keep readers invested in what will happen next? As writers, we want readers on the edge of their seat, even in scenes that don’t justify heart-pounding action. Micro-tension, a term I first encountered in Donald Maass’ The Fire in Fiction, offers a solution. Recently I’ve been working on micro-tension in my own […]
Zombies Ate My Cookbook: How The Undead Inspired Me to Write
“You’re a food nerd and a zombie nerd. You should write a cookbook for the zombie apocalypse.” It was those words, from my dear friend Paul and the best idea man I know, that sparked the inspiration for my first book The Art of Eating Through the Zombie Apocalypse. This was in 2008, and at […]
The Journey from Entrepreneur to Author
I am the owner of ttcInnovations, a small business dedicated to creating training solutions for clients that drive employee performance. This is a tough industry, dominated by big-name companies. Overcoming the name-recognition, woman-ownership and small-business stigma is just one of the battles I face as I work to expand my company. Remaining relevant to my […]
How Motherhood Influences My Writing
When I first told people that I had a book being published, the number one question people would ask me was, “Where did you find the time?” What I don’t even bother telling them is that I’ve got a computer filled with several other completed manuscripts that I hope will someday find a published home. […]
Three’s a Crowd – Writing an Effective Multiple Point of View Novel
Since reading my very first Jodi Picoult novel, I have loved books written in multiple points of view. Everyone has a different opinion of the world and the people in it. Everyone has a different past that has led them to those opinions. And everyone believes they are right about the world from their own […]
Sex In Women’s Fiction, Part 2: Sex Sells (Sometimes)
Part two of our Sex in Women’s Fiction series: Read Part One HERE Before we went out on submission with The Wild Woman’s Guide to Traveling the World, my agent, Jennifer Johnson-Blalock, asked me to make a few revisions. The goal was to make the book stronger and more saleable to readers and publishers alike. […]
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