Sunday Soundtrack: Summertime’s Calling Me

One thing about living in Florida is that we stay warm pretty much all year. And even though this winter’s weather has been weirdly warm, I know it won’t last. I’m hard at work on the second Dogwood Mountain novel, this one set in summer, so I have hot days and firefly nights and ice cream on my mind. Going to college in South Carolina taught me to love beach music....
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2017 Reading List

Earlier this month, I got into a testy professional conversation with an online colleague who was bemoaning how colleges/universities are no longer permitted to teach the dead white guy literary canon because diversity, or something equally stupid. It pissed me off. Not only is that claim patently untrue, but it also denigrates the many brilliant writers who don’t happen to be white males...
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RWA National: So You’ve Written a Book – What’s Next?

In this session, authors Jennifer Blackwood, Brenda St. John Brown, Chanel Cleeton, Megan Erickson, AJ Pine, and Lia Riley discussed ways to increase and enhance their online profiles through social media.  I was taking notes as fast as I could, so I’ll just clean them up a bit. TWITTER Create a profile for author you, interact as author self. Streamline everything. Make banners, etc. that...
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RWA National: Finding Your Voice and Making It Yours

Friends and critique partners Jeannie Lin and Bria Quinlan led this session on identifying the elements of your writer voice and how to develop it. True voice is unique to each writer; you know you’ve found your distinctive voice when people either love it or hate it. Consider the following non-romance authors John Grisham, Jon Krakauer, and Stephen King—there’s no way you would...
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RWA National: Not So Fast–Finding Success While Writing in the Slow Lane

Apparently I have a theme lately, and that’s how to function as a writer in a publishing world that seems to value speed over all. What happens when your natural process doesn’t seem to match the demands of the market? Bestselling authors Meredith Duran, Julie James, Sherry Thomas, and Lauren Willig discussed how being a slower writer affects their process and their careers. The...
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