Digging out from the Winter Storm of 2012.

Oops! The week’s flown by and I’ve finally caught up on all the emails while the power and internet were out so I can spend some time writing instead of shivering to stay warm in a dark house.


I’m currently proof reading and critiquing a rough draft of a friend’s novel that I’m excited about as well as critiquing several queries and synopsis’s. Oh the joys of a writer’s life and the hours willingly spent to help peers toward their publishing goals. Doing these things helps to sharpen my abilities and so I’m happy to do it for friends. (Now don’t you all flood me with emails asking me for the same service.) My answers to your requests will be to join a writer’s group and learn there first.

On my writing front, I have a few irons in the fire. The first is my novel Dark Days of Promise (e-book) due to be released September of 2012 through Desert Breeze Publishing. Next, a short that I hope to have available for e-readers early this summer and the other is a full length Inspirational Romance.

I am a discovery writer, which means that I’ve learned to be careful not to plot and plan in detail for once I do, I tend to lose interest. It’s so much more fun to take the journey and solve the character’s problems as they jump from the fire to the frying pan! I find that creating these problems is almost as fun as digging out of them! Creating the fiery problem is easy, but getting Miss Main Character out of said problem in a believable manner may take me a lot longer to figure out than it takes you to read about it. I’ve been known to take days, weeks, and even longer to solve a particular problem. (My daughter still hasn’t forgiven me for leaving her favorite character, the Romantic Lead, hanging on the face of a cliff. Don’t worry, he’s not there now. I let him sit down to dine with the villain, his brother, until further notice. But maybe the Romantic Lead is the villain, hum …) I still haven’t figured that one out to my satisfaction.

I much prefer to write romance than science-fiction. I think I’m a romantic deep down. (Hence the Romantic Lead in each of my novels.) The sci-fi demon at our house is my personal Romantic Lead and love of my life. Once asked if all my Romantic Leads are patterned after my hubby, I couldn’t resist answering with this. “If they are all gorgeous and look half their age (which he did at his last birthday, and still does), yes.”

Hmmm . . . (me rubbing my chin as if I had a beard shadow.) Maybe there’s a story in that. Of course my publisher and I agree that I should write Sweet or Warm Romance, not Steamy. That genre is for someone else.

‘Til next time -- take a mini vacation -- read a book!