Before I started writing, I assumed that authors were in full control of things like titles and covers. Little did I know that there is an entire team of publishing professionals that weigh in on these kind of decisions. Self-published authors have much more autonomy, of course, but those of us who write for traditional publishing houses must remain flexible when it comes to titles, because they … [Read more...]
Take the Character Quiz
Characters are the heart of every story. Each must be unique, fully developed, and compelling. A challenging task for an author. I found it especially daunting with The Heart's Charge since I had four main characters instead of the usual two. When we meet someone in real life, we don't instantly know their deepest secrets and spiritual passions. In the beginning all we really know about them is … [Read more...]
Indulging My Inner Librarian
I loved going to the library as a child—whether the school library, where teachers often sent me when I had finished my work and was bored or the local library, where I would check out more books than I could carry each week in the summer. Even in college I loved poking around the library just for fun. But in 1986 I got a completely different view of the library. I accepted a job working the … [Read more...]
In the Beginning . . .
No, my title for this blog post doesn't refer to the first line of Genesis. I’m talking about beginning a new novel. “There is something delicious about writing the first words of a story. You never quite know where they'll take you.” ― Beatrix Potter As Beatrix Potter said (I quote her often on this), there is something delicious about writing the first words of a story. And if a writer is … [Read more...]
Not Perseverance After All
Hi friends, Happy to be back with you today! As the title alludes, this originally was going to be a post about preserving through difficult times, but then I realized, to my surprise, it wasn’t about perseverance at all. To say life has been a rollercoaster lately is an understatement. I went in for cataract surgery a couple weeks ago. Everyone told me it was easy. Everyone around me who’d … [Read more...]
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