Inspired by Life ... and Fiction

Novelists bound by the pen, sisterhood, & more

Reading, Writing, and Miracles

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Hey, friends!! I hope you enjoyed James Scott Bell’s visit to Inspired by Life … and Fiction back on the 2nd while I was away. Jim is such a great writer and such a great human being. I feel blessed to call him and his wife Cindy my friends. If you haven’t read any of his books, my favorite is Try Dying, but that status comes with some bias. When I was going through a time of deep grief, … [Read more...]

Footwear Fun!

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Writers are a quirky bunch. We talk to imaginary people, dream up ways to torture characters we claim to love, and have been known on occasion to show up to work in our pajamas. We all have different ways of getting into the writing zone, too. Some create playlists for each book they write to set the mood. Others load up on coffee and dark chocolate. Me? I put on bookish socks. Fun socks make … [Read more...]

Moving Vacation

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Aloha, friends, and happy Wednesday!  Yep. I titled it right. We took a moving vacation. What is a moving vacation, you may ask. We have one month to pack up and move from our home of 25 years in Maryland to a cozy new home in Florida. Yay for Florida. However, it’s a lot to purge, give away, and pack up in a month. So, what did my hubby and I decide to do? We took an eleven-day … [Read more...]

River Cruise Dreams

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Earlier this summer I reached a significant (cough, cough) birthday and was able to realize my dream of going on a river cruise to celebrate. Today I thought I'd share just a few photos with you. We went on Avalon Waterways and traveled through Hungary, Slovakia, and Austria, ending in Germany. We took walking tours of historic places like Budapest and Vienna, and enjoyed views of the … [Read more...]

Five Decades! Wow!

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Yesterday marked fifty years of marriage for Ken and me. It's hard to wrap my mind around that fact, but it's true. We were so blessed to celebrate the occasion a little early last month with all our kids and grandkids on a family vacation in Divide, Colorado. There were 23 of us in all and it was a wonderful time of hiking, swimming, mini-golf, board games, and s'mores around a nightly … [Read more...]

Put on Your (Imaginary) Dancing Shoes + a Giveaway!

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Wonderful Australian author Carolyn Miller is joining us today! The heroine of her new book is a ballet dancer, which I love. When I entered Kindergarten, I clearly remember the teacher doing a "What do you want to be when you grow up?" unit. My answer: "I want to be a ballerina." Books like Carolyn's give me a chance to live out that childhood dream vicariously! Details on the giveaway she's … [Read more...]

Traveling back in time and books

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This weekend we're back in DC while I attend a conference. We arrived yesterday, and it has felt like a homecoming, y'all. I haven't been back since an incredibly quick 12 hours in 2015 on my way to a study abroad in Brazil, and it's a bit scary how much I settled back into knowing how to walk around and find things. We left in 2002 to move to Indiana, and I've always said this area is one of the … [Read more...]

Research Mode

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I’m currently researching the possibility of a project so I thought I'd pull back the curtain and let you see a bit of my process. I say possibility because as interesting as the history is, I’m not sure yet if I can make it into a compelling novel. Which, honestly, is often the way a book project starts for me.  Research mode, for me, entails several different things.  First, … [Read more...]

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