✨HOW DOES IT FEEL WHEN YOU’RE IN THE ZONE?✨ I’ve hit my stride, finally. As we are approaching mid-July, I’ve made some pretty good progress with reading and writing. I’m about to hit 26,000 words on my work in progress, and my goal this week is to make it to at least 30,000 words. As… Read More The Madness of Writing a Novel (in my own words)
*** Readers of my blog, by now you are probably quite aware that I’m a self-proclaimed hopeless romantic and that I’m endlessly addicted to Hallmark Channel. I also write romance, so I decided to share a film with you that I just watched and thoroughly enjoyed. The movie is from 2015, and I knew nothing… Read More Reviewing a Movie for Romantics That’s Not a Hallmark Channel Creation
*** As many of us are still in the “working remotely” phase of this pandemic, I’ve decided to promote virtual book club visits to help promote reading and our sanity! I’m currently booked for a book club in July and have a lot of openings for book clubs who might want to read my books… Read More Booking Remote Book Club Visits
*** I’ve been asked questions about blogging recently, and so this podcast is for those of you who are thinking of setting up a blog and includes all the basic preliminary questions that should be considered before making the commitment. You have to begin at the beginning…which is to say…why will you blog and what… Read More Podcast 18: Blogging 101
*** As I promised last week, Podcast 17 discusses the MFA from my perspective (and how it helped me in many ways). I know a lot of writers wonder if they should tackle one. In this podcast, I break down my journey to earning my MFA in my forties. I hope this is helpful, and… Read More Podcast 17: The MFA Journey as a Writer (and a teacher of writing)
One of the biggest losses I’m feeling from completing the semester at home is the inability to execute my favorite “Five Senses” activity in the classroom with my writing students. It’s one of my favorite days in the classroom, where I play music and ask students to sit and write based on prompts pertaining to… Read More Two Exercises for Teaching Description and Using The Five Senses in Writing
*** Sorry it’s been a couple of weeks…I explain in the Podcast of where I’ve been and why I haven’t posted a Podcast in a while. I’m really looking to hear your thoughts about this one…so feel free to comment below and share your opinions on your readings and your approaches. I love to learn… Read More Podcast 16: Taking a Gander of What’s Out There Before You Write
Prologue You don’t have to listen to me. But it may serve you well if you do. More importantly, it may serve someone else well. And so, let me share with you something that has the potential to be one of the best choices you’ve made during this pandemic. In This Time of Self-Quarantine and… Read More There’s Something You Should Do During Quarantine and Social Distancing
✨THINGS THAT HAVE MOST AFFECTED MY LIFE✨My parents & familyMy husband and kidsHigh school & collegeWorking in baseballBeing a teacherFriendships.✨THINGS THAT HAVE MOST AFFECTED MY STORYTELLING✨Broken lovesGrandmothersLife in baseballRelationships (good & bad)Losing people we loveMaryland’s beauty . BLACKBIRDS PARK is the fictional version of Camden Yards in my novel entitled Baseball Girl. I worked at… Read More Baseball Nostalgia and Baseball Fiction
* Currently, I’m not writing anything, but next week, I will begin to dive deeply into novel number five, picking up with Chapter 3 where I left off before coronavirus intensified the nature of my working life. The novel is still to be named, which I hate, actually. I typically have to have a working… Read More What I’m Writing Now (or my current WIP)
* As authors, it’s important that we stay connected to our audiences. Blogging allows us to do just that. On a blog platform, we can connect with readers, showcase our work, and share other experiences that allow readers to get to know us. For all these reasons and more, it’s important to blog. Today’s podcast… Read More Podcast 15: Committing to Your Blog
*** What’s one of the first stories you remember reading as a child? The Tale of Custard the Dragon by Ogden Nash and Cinderella were two of mine. Now I prefer stories about fire-breathing dragons that torch fighting pits with Daenerys and love stories that make me feel so deeply for the characters, I want… Read More Happy World Book Day
