My last day of teaching for the school year was this past Friday. I’m currently 39 weeks pregnant, and waiting for baby girl to arrive. I hope she gives me a few days to rest before she decides to enter the world! This transition has been more challenging than I’d anticipated. After all these months […]
novel
Novel Intro: The Blizzard of 1888
One of my goals this summer, besides finishing the draft of my next historical novel, is to blog about it. I got to the next phase of my nonfiction project this past week by launching the website (I’ll be writing about and promoting that in the next post), so I’m starting to shift my Words From […]
The Big Deadline
Our second child’s due date is October 17, 2016. It’s a big deadline. There are many baby-related things we need to do before that date: pick a name; find and clean all of the baby toys in the attic; convert my office to the baby’s room (which is the only part I’m feeling sad about). But those aren’t […]
March Writing Life Update: Agent Acquired!
It’s been awhile since I’ve done an update on my writing life, but there hasn’t been much news to share… until recently. In this first quarter of the year, I’ve been working steadily on two long-term projects: the new nonfiction website/book, and my next historical novel about the Blizzard of 1888. (Contrary to my original […]
February Book Review: Tom Sawyer, College Reunion, Polygamy
Welcome to the monthly book review! At the end of each month, I review the books I’ve read. Enjoy! The Book: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain The Category: Classic children’s fiction In Three Words: Old South Adventure Biggest Takeaway: I read this long ago, and decided to re-read because Mark Twain is going to make a […]
How I Create Characters
One of my blogging goals for 2016 is to “show my work.” Last week, I wrote about how to brainstorm a book idea; this week, I’d like to share how I create characters. Whether I write historical fiction, YA literary fiction, or short stories, my trademark is writing from multiple perspectives. So my first step […]