I did my best writing of 2015 sitting outdoors in the Spanish sun, writing in a lined spiral notebook. “Go write!” Peter Murphy, of Murphy Writing Seminars, told us. “Tell a secret, tell a lie, and never tell anyone which is which.” I sat at a wooden table outside our cottage at L’Avenç, a beautifulContinue reading “Writing in Spain”
Tag Archives: Lydia’s Story
When an Author Has an Urge for Something Different
“I love your books! When is the next one coming out?” Music to a writer’s ears, to be sure. But what happens when a writer has the urge to write something different than her previous novels? Maybe a different genre, a stand-alone that is not part of an established series, or a young adult novelContinue reading “When an Author Has an Urge for Something Different”
Starting the Whole Dang Process over Again
A dungeon in Lleida, Catalonia, Spain. Might work it into a new novel. Beginning a new novel is both exhilarating and scary. I enjoy the new ideas for plot details, setting, and characters that pop willy-nilly into my brain. Old characters poke their heads in to say, “Can I be in this one? You saidContinue reading “Starting the Whole Dang Process over Again”
The “Nature” of Setting
I have always wondered how a person’s surrounding affect they way they live. How is it different to grow up on the flat land of Illinois in the midst of corn fields and soy beans, compared to a city overlooked by an ancient castle (Edinburgh, Scotland), or the lushness of tropical trees and flowers. DifferentContinue reading “The “Nature” of Setting”
History Is Real
One of the challenges of studying or writing about historical figures, real or fiction, is imagining them to be as real as we are. Somehow people of the past lose their reality as flesh and blood, and seem to reside only on the printed page or in the flatness of a photograph. It takes aContinue reading “History Is Real”
Seeing a Project Through to the End
I am currently working on finishing a writing project that I began at least nine years ago. Yes, nine years. It was the project I was working on before my trip to England and the inspiration for The Gate House, my first published novel. After that I wrote Lydia’s Story, a follow-up to The GateContinue reading “Seeing a Project Through to the End”
Believe in Your Work
I was delighted to find out that my latest book, Lydia’s Story, is one of the top two sellers at my publisher, Sage Words Publishing. This is a small publisher and hardly puts me on the New York Times bestseller lists, but it still tells me that people out there are reading my book, andContinue reading “Believe in Your Work”
Forward to the Past
Writers never throw anything away, or at least they shouldn’t. This week I pulled out an old “almost novel” that I wrote before my first one, The Gate House, was published. This one, tentatively titled Nara of the Islands, is really the original story of my protagonist who appears in both The Gate House andContinue reading “Forward to the Past”
Fiction Meets Real Life
In my latest novel “Lydia’s Story,” the main character helps a group of Jewish children escape France during World War II. I just came across this website, “Ariege Pyrenees,” that shows the real life route across the Pyrenees that many people — Jews, downed RAF and American airmen, and others in danger from theContinue reading “Fiction Meets Real Life”
NaNoWriMo (What the Heck Is That?)
This year, for the first time, I participating in National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo for short. The goal is to write 50,000 words during the month of November. This is a pretty short novel, but a darned good start. I have been so caught up in the release and promotion of Lydia’s Story thatContinue reading “NaNoWriMo (What the Heck Is That?)”