Welcome!

Thank you for joining me on my journey as a writer!  My current work in progress is the Mel Goodman series.  It's about a witch returning to her small home town in Michigan, where she's caught up in a whirlwind of magic, romance, and murder.  The first book in the series, Punch Drunk Magic, will …

I’m Reading: The Happy Ever After Playlist by Abby Jimenez

(contains spoilers) The Happy Ever After Playlist by Abby Jimenez has been taking the Romance world by storm, and for good reason. It starts with the perfect meet-cute involving an adorable lost puppy, and fulfills all our sighs and yearning for a solid romance from there.  The biggest reason this should be in your TBR …

I’m Reading: Saddled, by Linda G. Hill

I'm finding myself more and more drawn to light, uncomplicated, wholesome reads. When everything around me is bleak, I want my fiction to be escapism. That's why Saddled was such a refreshing read, both as a beta reader and a purchaser. A woman executive at a condom manufacturing company falls hard for a new temp. …

I’m Reading: Eve Silver’s Dark Gothics

When I told my partner about wanting to write some gothic elements into my current book, he asked me how many gothics I'd read and enjoyed. I'd read the classics of course, Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. They weren't my favorites. Northanger Abbey was my second-least-favorite Jane Austen, although I found out later that it was intended as a parody …

I’m Reading: Mariana Zapata

If you asked me last year what romance tropes I was fairly "meh" about, the list would have included sports romance and slow-burn. Reading Mariana Zapata has reminded me once again that it isn't about the trope; it's about the writing. I started with The Wall of Winnipeg and Me on recommendations from an agent. …

Houseplant Writing

January 2 was supposed to be my big return day from taking December off from writing. But it wasn't. January 1 was my first day at the gym after graduating from physical therapy for knee surgery, and (as my family and friends won't be shocked to hear) I overdid it. That plus a big office …

NaNoWriMo Project

I'm doing my very first ever NaNoWriMo! I've always wanted to participate, and never managed a clear enough schedule to do so. This year, I've got a project in the hands of beta readers and cleared the deck for November. I'm excited to announce my NaNo project, with the working title "Inheritance:" When professional psychic …

3 Writing Lessons from Dungeons and Dragons

Tabletop role-playing games (RPGs) have a lot to teach you about writing. You create characters and tell a collaborative story in real time, so of course it's good practice for your novel! Taking away the setting elements (fantasy, sci-fi, horror), you find lessons that apply to any writer in any genre. Here are the first …

Three P’s of Writer’s Block

It happens to every writer. You get to a point somewhere in the middle of the book and the plot that has been rolling merrily along simply evaporates. Where do we go from here? It's an intensely discouraging moment for all of us. In some cases, it can even convince people to put their writing …

Writing Polish: The Bulldozer Sentence

Literature trained a lot of us to drone on a bit. William Faulkner's Absalom! Absalom! has a single sentence that clocks in at 1,288 words.  Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables offers up an 832 word gem.  Modern writing, especially genre writing, are more about the sharp. One of my biggest revision tasks revolves around bulldozer sentences. These come …

Writing Polish: Putting Things in Order

One of the most valuable experiences of having a good critique partner or editor is finding all the mistakes you didn't know you were making!  In the current draft of a Witch in Wine Country, my critique partner found a couple of bad writing habits that, while not terrible, added up to clarity problems when …