Welcome!

Thank you for joining me on my journey as a writer!  I'll be posting reviews of favorites from my reading list, along with tips and advice, beta reading pet peeves, and other tools I pick up along my journey to trad publication. Interested in sneak previews of upcoming books?  Contact me to be a beta …

I’m Reading: The Simple Wild by K.A. Tucker

Calla Fletcher is pure city girl. A banking analyst and aspiring social media influencer in Toronto, her life is all about fancy coffee and high fashion. Then she gets the call. Her estranged biological father, an Alaska bush pilot and small airline owner, is sick. Calla must decide if she wants this chance to repair …

How to Receive Beta Reader Feedback

I can talk about writing craft and grammar, POV and character development. I can (and will) discuss how to give feedback on other people's work. But one of the hardest skills a writer must develop is the ability to receive criticism. Some people reportedly love criticism. They leap to the harshest editor they can find …

I’m Reading: Written in the Stars by Alexandria Bellefleur

Elle's blind date with the beautiful, snobby sister of her new business partner is a disaster, but she considers that emblematic of her life in general. It's for the best, really. Darcy strikes her as a particular kind of stick-up-the-butt snob who would hate everything about Elle and her chaotic life. But every time her …

Commas and Hyphens in Adjectives, Oh My!

Multiple adjectives modifying a single noun need commas, right? But in a writing group I'm in, we spent some time debating why this sentence is incorrect: "He sat at a hand carved, oak dining table." We could all tell by instinct that it is incorrect, but had trouble expressing why. The correct punctuation would be: …

I’m Reading: Finding Joy by Adriana Herrera

Warning: Contains Spoilers 26-year-old American Desta Joy Walker begin his life in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The country was his father's first love as well as the place of his death. When Desta tries to follow in his father's footsteps as an aid worker, he finds the shoe doesn't quite fit. He reconnects with his heritage …

Double-Duty Description

I struggle with description. I'm not a visual person. In fact, sometimes I have to pull up a bunch of images or videos online to serve as a guide when trying to really evoke a person or place. So when I encounter description in a book, the question of "how much" description to use is …

I’m Reading: Suddenly Psychic by Elizabeth Hunter

While I love Paranormal Romance, the genre has been flooded with vampires, shapeshifters, and twenty-year-old ass-kicking women. A new genre has popped up for readers who like their magic a little more subtle and their relationships a little more varied. Paranormal Women's Fiction features older women with magic, struggling through life changes, identity, and the …

Writing Polish: Going Off Subject

I'm getting back into the grammar weeds today, based on common problems I'm seeing in beta manuscripts. In this case, I'm talking about the subject of a sentence, and making it clear to your readers which character is acting at any given time. Sentence 1: Chris turned around.We have a basic simple sentence here with …

I’m Reading: A Cruel Kind of Beautiful by Michelle Hazen

Jera McKnight has sworn off men. Relationships will only end in heartache, since her last boyfriend convinced her she could never keep a man happy. Instead she pours her heart into her drums, making music and fighting towards the big time with her best friend Danny and lead singer, Jax. When gorgeous Jacob accidently throws …

I’m Reading: The Match by Sarah Adams

Evie works for Southern Service Paws, helping clients with disabilities match with highly trained service dogs. When she gets an email to meet with the father of Sam, an eleven-year-old girl with epilepsy, Evie is especially eager to help someone with her own diagnosis find independence. The problem is that the email setting up the …