That time I accidentally deleted my manuscript… It’s been a really crazy month! For Thanksgiving I treated myself to this super-awesome writing software called Scrivener, because all the cool kids in my writing group use it. But here’s the thing. I’m not good with technology. Like, not even a little bit. I think the reason…
Here’s my Goal Check in from last month: Status: I finished the villain arc edits! And they are deliciously evil. Status: The witchcraft themes are loosely connected, but I wouldn’t say they’re done yet. NaNoWriMo November is NaNoWriMo, short for National Novel Writing Month. Here’s the crazy premise: You can write a 50,000 word novel…
I’ll confess: I’ve been fascinated by witches since I was a little girl, which is why they’ve ended up in my historical fiction, Trouble the Water (coming 2023). Set in 1740, my novel Trouble the Water is an adventure book that shifts between Scotland, London and Virginia colony. Last year I spent a week researching…
Good news: I went to Scotland to research my book back in 2022! Bad news: I caught Covid! I had a very mild case and tested negative quickly, so I was able to still see a lot. It also helped that the tour guide, Anne Daly with Mary Meanders had recently overcome it a month…
I’m going to Scotland! My novel Trouble the Water is going to be part of a series. The bulk of Book 1 takes place in Williamsburg, Virginia and on a ship but some action also takes place in Glasgow, Scotland. Book 2 will take place mostly in the Scottish Highlands, so I thought it would…
After the whirlwind of finishing my book to hand into a structural editor on May 31, I’ve found June a bit of a let down. It’s like when you’re a kid and have been waiting for months for Christmas to come and then an hour after opening your gifts you feel…meh. All these characters have…
Writing the first word of your book can feel like embarking on an exciting journey. Not everyone finishes. Personally, it took me two attempts at novels abandoned half-way through before I was able to actually complete a full manuscript. This blog posts offers some tips to finish writing your book. Publishing your book, is a…
Hi everyone, May should be about Mother’s Day and the unofficial start of summer. Instead, I’ve blogged about the Uvalde school shooting and after the leaked draft opinion to overturn Roe v. Wade I wrote about Abortion and Birth Control in the 18th century. I hope our country can get its act together. Beyond awful…
April has been a particularly bumpy month. My daughter came down with Covid (along with five other kids in her theater group) and I managed to tear my calf muscle a week ago, so I’m limping, taking glorified Advil from the doctor, and start physical therapy next week. Good times. Beyond that, there are some…
Hey readers! It’s been a pretty eventfully month on my novel writing journey. Remember how I told you I submitted my manuscript to The History Quill‘s beta reader program? (A beta reader is someone who reads your book before it’s published and gives you feedback so you know if you are on the right track…
Novel Update #2 It’s been called lots of different things. “Sagging Middle Problem.” “Marathon of the Middle.” “The Middle of the Book Sucks Syndrome.” I’m there, people. For non-writers: When you are writing a book usually the opening is really strong, the climax is the stuff Netflix dreams are made of, but that big section…
“Writers write,” said the published author. I was at the Pflugerville library’s special Valentine’s Day event – a panel of romance novelists talking about their books and how they got published. At the time I had two partially written manuscripts stuck in the middle and an intense fear of the internet. The writer suggested that…
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