Inspired by Life ... and Fiction

Novelists bound by the pen, sisterhood, & more

A Midsummer Romance (& a giveaway)

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I'm delighted to host author Alyssa Schwarz here on the blog today while I'm on a family vacation in the Caribbean! Be sure to comment for a chance to win the giveaway she's offering. (More on that at the bottom of the post.) Thanks so much for contributing to InspiredByLife, Alyssa! - Becky Teamwork makes the dream work. I can’t count all the times I’ve heard this phrase: classroom … [Read more...]

Some bookish quotes for you

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Last week and this week, I've been surrounded by some pretty amazing young women in my day job. I'm also writing book three and in copy edits for book two. It's been full, y'all. Fun, but full. I'm honestly pretty tired as I've poured into more than 55 women each week. So today, I wanted to share some fun bookish quotes with you. These are from classic books, and I thought you'd enjoy them. … [Read more...]

Lessons Learned & Joyful Reminders

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Hi friends, and happy Wednesday!  I just returned from hosting a writing retreat, and I had the best time. While I was the one teaching, the sweet attendees taught me just as much, if not more. We stayed at two cabins in West Virginia, and while that might bring something rustic to mind, these cabins my family loves to stay at are anything but. The owner has the best … [Read more...]

An Amazing Night

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I recently shared about my experience participating in a book festival in Hungary. (You can read about it here.) During that same trip to Europe, I also had the opportunity to participate in one more book event. This one took place in Bratislava, Slovakia. Martin, the publisher who produces my books in the Slovak language arranged an event at a large bookstore. As authors, we never have … [Read more...]

Pink Bags and a Special Birthday

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Today our adorable first granddaughter becomes a teenager! This is a special day of memory for our family because July 22 was also my amazing mother-in-law’s birthday! This will be Mom's third birthday in heaven but she had a couple of very sad birthdays over the years. Mom's brother—her only living sibling—died on her birthday in 1991. And unbelievably, five years later, Ken’s dad, my dear … [Read more...]

Writing Up a Storm

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On the afternoon of Wednesday, July 3rd, revisions for my next biblical novel (tentatively titled Star of Wonder) landed in my inbox. Although the revisions weren’t extensive, the editors wanted a change in the opening part of the book that then had to be followed through the entire book. The change required me to cut all of Chapter Two.  I’m actually kind of excited about that cut … [Read more...]

An Adventure in Branson

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A couple weeks ago my husband and I celebrated our 32nd wedding anniversary with a trip to Branson. I had only been there once before, back in 2018, as part of a writing retreat, but I had been wanting to return. I'm so glad we did. We had a marvelous time. We stayed in a lovely little cabin tucked into the woods. So quiet, peaceful, and wonderful shade with a breeze to cut back the … [Read more...]

My New Novelette–and a Kindle Sale!

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As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I wrote a novelette just for my newsletter subscribers. I’m happy to announce that it will drop in my newsletter on Saturday, August 3,  for current readers and will be a welcome gift for any new people from then on as well.  I’ve wanted to do this for a very long time, but I kept overthinking it and talking myself out of story ideas. Then the total eclipse … [Read more...]

The Joy of Medieval Dog Names

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I recently read an article about medieval dog names found in a book called "The Names of All Manner of Hounds." Someone was thinking about commercial appeal even in the 15th century. How do you decide on a name for your dog? Once my family ran through a series of US general names: We had Patton and MacArthur and Ike, but I couldn't bring myself to name a dog Schwatzkoff (sp?), so we then went … [Read more...]

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