Inspired by Life ... and Fiction

Novelists bound by the pen, sisterhood, & more

Tell Me When

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I'm very happy to introduce my friend Christine Bierma as my guest blogger today. Besides being an excellent writer herself, Christine is the founder of Launch Right a social media boutique company that has been an invaluable resource to me and other authors. Welcome Christine!!  My husband and I went to out for dinner this past weekend to celebrate his birthday. I spent some time alone at … [Read more...]

How Much Sensuality is TOO Much For Christian Fiction?

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Recently I was tagged in a Facebook discussion about one of my books. While I’m not able to catch or read every tag, this one caught my eye because it was about the sensuality level in my books. The initial comment was this: “Who’s finished Searching for You by Jody Hedlund? Great story but, um, a bit steamy in my opinion...” The ensuing discussion was really interesting. Some agreed … [Read more...]

Soul Care and a Free Ebook

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I'm not very good at slowing down. I tend to push forward through exhaustion, writer's block, life obstacles. I'm a pretty determined person, so it's easy to just keep moving. This last weekend, I stepped out of life for 24 hours and spent it with two of my heart sisters. These are women who were my neighbors...and then they moved away. For at least seven years we talked about trying to connect … [Read more...]

Picture This

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Hi friends, Deadly Isle released last week, and I wanted to share a behind-the-scenes peek at part of my story development process. I’m a visual learner and a visual writer. I picture the story playing out like a movie in my head as I write. To foster this aspect of my writing process, I utilize Pinterest. Image credit: Amy Adams & Taylor Kinney I create a storyboard featuring … [Read more...]

Did Jane Austen Ever Receive A Valentine?

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At this month's meeting of the Minnesota chapter of the Jane Austen Society of North America, author Candice Hern again graced us with an interesting and lively talk. I love it when Candice speaks, because she knows her stuff and is passionate about it. She is a Regency aficionado and avid collector. Plus she's a lot of fun. Her presentation this time was about valentines during Jane … [Read more...]

A Garage Sale Tale

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Many of you know that my husband, Ken, and I have a date every Thursday morning to scout out our city's many garage sales. Our dates started shortly after we moved to Wichita, as an exploration of Wichita's many unique coffee shops. But one week we spotted a garage sale sign on our way home from a coffee shop. And well...the rest is history. I started sharing some of our garage sale purchases … [Read more...]

My Favorite Covers of 2018

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I created Favorite Covers of 2017 and 2016 posts and wanted to continue the tradition! I'm a fan of books. Writing them. Reading them. Their back cover blurbs. Their covers! Thus, I thoroughly enjoyed glancing back at lots of 2018 covers in the name of "research". After many completely unscientific tabulations, here are the ten covers (in no particular order) that I liked best. I love … [Read more...]

When Writers Retreat

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I love to go on writing retreats . . . but not because of the actual writing. It's getting together with other writers that truly feeds my soul. Last year, I recruited a group of Texas authors and one adorable Okie to join me on a weekend retreat. We had so much fun, we decided to do it again. So for our second annual Winter Writers' Retreat, we rented a house in historic Jefferson, TX. And not … [Read more...]

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