Inspired by Life ... and Fiction

Novelists bound by the pen, sisterhood, & more

♫♪ On the road again… ♫♪

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I don't think this is the first time I've titled a post with the words to Willie Nelson's iconic song, but Ken and I are on the road again—this time a three-week trip south from our southeast Missouri home into Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina, and who knows where else! Best of all, we're meeting up with some dear friends from our newlywed days in the Smoky Mountain National Park in Tennessee, … [Read more...]

Cover Model Interview

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For almost all of my books -- My Stubborn Heart is the only exception -- Bethany House has organized a cover photo shoot. And I've had the pleasure of interviewing all of the people who posed for those shoots. Sometimes, they were friends of Bethany House employees. Sometimes they were models. Every couple on my covers was also a couple in real life. The same is true of Let It Be Me's cover … [Read more...]

Headshots and Deep Thoughts

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One of the joys of the writing life is getting headshots. Really. I mean who doesn't love getting their photo snapped, over and over, and over and over. I really don't mind, but I was surprised to realize it had been four and a half years since my last headshots were taken. My time flies when you're stuck at home! There's the angst of what to wear. And what if my hair doesn't cooperate. Does … [Read more...]

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and Mystery

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I promised a full post on this fascinating subject, and I’m delivering! On our last full day in Boston, rain was the forecast. We looked online the night before trying to find tickets for a museum. Any museum. We only found availability at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, which, after looking at the website information, was right up our alley! Works of art displayed in a historic home, … [Read more...]

Two Queries & a (really cool) Giveaway

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I'm currently finishing my first contemporary novel (for Focus on the Family—tentative release date of Spring 2022, Lord willing) and I gotta say, I'm really enjoying a break from writing "real life" historical fiction. Not that I won't return to that. I will. In fact, I've already started the third and final full-length novel in the Carnton series (Christmas at Carnton is a novella). So as … [Read more...]

A Day of Filming

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We’re getting closer! My newest novel, “Chasing Shadows,” will be released in just two more months, on June 8. So, a few days ago, my publisher, Tyndale House, sent a film crew to my home to interview me about the book. It was quite interesting to have my home transformed into a recording studio, with lights and cameras and complicated-looking equipment. It seemed like there was a lot going … [Read more...]

What To Do After Completing a Book

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I recently received an email from a writer named Payton who completed the first draft of her first book. She had a lot of great questions. Here's one: "What does your process intel after finishing that first draft? What should I do?" This is a question I actually get from a lot of new writers completing a book. Let me tackle the question by first sharing what my process is. Second, I'll finish … [Read more...]

Modern Day Time Portals

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I love stepping back in time. Through the pages of a book, the visual delight of a period movie or television series, looking at old pictures, digging into research, or even working on a craft that has been practiced for hundreds of years. There is something about the past that is just so romantic and enticing to me. It probably comes as no surprise, then, that when my daughter and I met up in … [Read more...]

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