Christmas Scavenger Hunt
Hello all. This being Thankgiving day, it feels like a great time to announce a special surprise I've been planning for my readers. A scavenger hunt! The rules for playing (and the prize!) are explained below.But first, please admire the pretty graphic I designed to advertise the hunt. (Hey, I spent an hou

On Writing Conflict
Life isn’t without conflict, so why should your novel be? In fact, conflict is essential in a novel. It is what makes a reader want to turn the pages of your book. It is with the resolution of conflict that character growth happens and your readers read the last page with a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction.One type of conflict is internal. This is something that is within your character. One example of this is a character that has been hurt by a man in one fashion or another. Another man enters the picture and she finds herself falling for him. Before she can truly love him, she has to resolve the inner conflict created by the pain her ex caused her.Another

The Joy of the Surprise I Wasn't Expecting....
Because I have to self promote--this is my new Christmas story, Mission of Christmas, now available from Lyrical Press Will one man’s Christmas cheer thaw Ms. Scrooge’s heart?Now, on to the main event.We al

Chocolate Ice Cream
Lured you in with that chocolate ice cream, didn't I?Well, here's the real subject of this post. Although feel free to indulge your chocolate fantasies while you read about...deep POV.(Insert evil editor laugh here.)Did you know that deep point of view can be the most powerful tool in a writer's arsenal? Yup. With third or first person in the past tense, you can make readers see that world going on in your head as you write, feel as if they're your characters as they read. It's how to give life to a story and break through that invisible ceiling you've been banging your head against because your writing isn't compelling enough and you don't know how to gi

Some time ago Tod...
Some time ago Todd Leopold of Cnn.Com wrote an article pertaining to two newspapers that had decided to drop their coverage of books. This is a travesty to writers and readers everywhere. Though it is true that much information can be found on the internet, not everyone is an internet user.Mr. Leopold states “For all the titles released, for all the Web sites devoted to covering books, my perception is that books don't matter as much in our society as they once did. I could be wrong. Maybe they still DO matter -- and maybe they never did, at least to a mass audience.” (http://www.cnn.com/SHOWBIZ/blogs/marquee/index.html). I must ask this question, if books never mattered to