The days are busy. So are the nights. You work. You write. It's what you do. You walk around with a notepad and pen all the time, a blue tooth attached to your ear, and a cell phone in your pocket. Your phone is almost always on. If you're not in the car, you're, most likely, in front of a computer. Once a week, you have dinner with your family (the ones who live close … [Read more...] about Busy signal
writing
Knowing your characters
Some of my writer friends listen to music while they write. Not me. The tune, the words, the meaning, the associated emotions--too much of a distraction. See, to me, each song is a story in itself. That story pulls me away from the one I'm working on. But . . . on occasion, I'll hear a song that reminds me of a situation or a character in my novel. That helps if I get … [Read more...] about Knowing your characters
Would you like some dignity with that?
The daytime temperatures had been in the 90s. At 9:45 pm, I was still too hot. I needed something really cold. An ice cream cone. Vanilla. Yum. With a bedroll on his back, Traveler entered the fast food restaurant from another door, arriving at the counter just ahead of me. He was wearing a quilted khaki-colored vest over a threadbare, red and brown flannel shirt. His blue … [Read more...] about Would you like some dignity with that?
Dreaming of Cyrus
When I sat down to write The Courier, I knew who I wanted Cyrus Driskoll to be at the beginning of the the book. I knew who I wanted him to be at the end. I had a rough idea of how I might get him from A to Z. To me, the most important objective was exposing his guts so that we could really see him. Because The Courier was my first novel, I was surprised at the clarity of the … [Read more...] about Dreaming of Cyrus
Stronger
When I was younger, I was reluctant to share my writing. It was so . . . personal. When I was in my twenties, my husband, kids, and I moved west. My parents lived in the east. So Mama and I didn't get much of a chance to hang out. When my parents visited, Mama and I stayed up late. We both understood the way households work. If we wanted to talk--really talk--we had to do it … [Read more...] about Stronger
