As someone who writes fiction as my side job, I seek inspiration, either from other people or from places. Additionally, as a writer who is about to publish my 4th novel, I use places almost as I use characters in my novel—they must have a personality and purpose. Setting is very important to me, and…
Tag: novels
A Little Teaser for My Upcoming Novel: Little Milestones
*** Well, I’m officially getting excited! As I posted a few weeks ago, I finally decided upon the name of my fourth novel, LITTLE MILESTONES, and I have a first draft of the cover. When it gets to this point, it begins to feel as if things are coming together. I’m sharing the first cover…
The Wonderful, Wacky World of Writers
I’m just gonna put this out there because it makes me sad: too many people are not reading. They are spending their time on other things, which is great, but I would like to see the average books people read a year climb (see a piece I wrote last year about average number of books…
Finally…The Name of My Upcoming Novel Came to Me (with help from my mother)
A postcard for you, my dear readers. 🙂 And a special thanks to my mother, for the constant inspiration and support of my side-career.
Fictography For Old Time’s Sake and as a Teaching Tool: Back Home
/FICTOGRAPHY/ def. — The intersection of photography (submitted by readers) and fiction (written by me!). A few years ago, I executed a writing challenge whereby readers submitted travel photos they took, and I would write the story that I imagined went along with that photograph. Today, as I write this, my students are engaged in…
Book Review: A Piece of the World by Christina Baker Kline
* After reading Christina Baker Kline’s wonderful book Orphan Train last year, I knew I had to read her newest book, A Piece of the World, based on a woman named Christina who was supposedly a muse of Andrew Wyeth’s and the subject in his painting Christina’s World (pictured above). Knowing little about art except…
When You Majorly Alter Your Work in Progress After Writing 50,000 Words: The Hard Truth About Writing A Novel
* Today, my dear readers, I am going to give it to you straight. Straight up, as Paula Abdul once sang. And believe me, what I’m about to share with you is going to cause me to do quite a bit of work. Lots and lots of work. But in the end, I am hoping…
Deciding to Be A Hallmark Movie in Annapolis, Not Just Watch One
* Last night, my college roommate and dear friend, Elizabeth, and I took to the streets of Annapolis for the annual Parade of Lights. Our husbands were engaged otherwise, and so we were on our own. A resident of Shady Side, south of Annapolis her whole adult life, she had never been to see the…
I Decided To Have A Go At It
Last summer, I wrote a short story called Life With Nan. You can find this story in my recent publication The Postcard and Other Short Stories & Poetry. What’s happened to me after writing that story is interesting. Just as Contelli’s Mimosa, a short story I wrote in college, became a full novel entitled Beneath…
Bucket List Item – Staying at the “Real” Inn Significant
*** Tomorrow, my birthday wish will come true, thanks to my husband. When he asked me what I wanted for my birthday, I told him I wanted to stay at the Sandaway Suites & Beach in the quaint, Eastern Shore town of Oxford, Maryland. It just so happens that it’s the real-life inn that inspired my…
Mother’s Day & Some New Reviews
*** Mother’s Day is this upcoming Sunday. Do you know what I want for Mother’s Day? I don’t want to do a damn thing. Nothing. I want to turn off my brain, have someone else serve me brunch (which we have already arranged, thank goodness!), and do, as Audrey Hepburn says in Roman Holiday, “just…
Through Books, You Can Travel
*** One of my favorite aspects about reading novels is that they allow us to travel to places we may never get to experience, at least not the same way the author sees them. Books such as Adriana Trigiani’s The Shoemaker’s Wife or Alice Hoffman’s The Museum of Extraordinary Things—two books I can’t and have no desire to…
