Tag: writing process

  • How My Writing Partner Broke My Brain (and helped me rediscover my mojo)

    Last year was a difficult one for me, I won’t lie. My youngest daughter’s move away from home was fraught with trauma, and so mine inevitably was, too. I spent the first five months of the year on 24-7 text alert as I tried to keep her glued together, the next month helping her transition…

  • The Hardest Part of a Book to Write is ‘The End’

    As much as I may whine and grump about a work-in-progress at around the halfway to two-thirds mark in my first draft of a book, over time I’ve discovered there’s a far more difficult part to write: the end. Not just the actual words, but the whole ending. The climax followed by the resolution. The wrapping up…

  • Self-Publishing: The Devil is in the Details

    With Forever Grace being my third self-publishing effort, you’d think I’d have the hang of the process by now, wouldn’t you? Ha. Not. 😛 It turns out that the process is more of a continuous learning curve than something set in stone. And (for me at least) that learning curve is jam-packed with every kind of niggly…

  • Progress Report

    I’m making a concerted effort to blog on a more regular basis, and to keep readers better updated on what’s happening in my writing life. So with a view to the whole two-birds-one-stone thing 😉 , here’s where things sit right now: Forever Grace, the third book in my Ever After contemporary romance series, is now…

  • Plotting Armageddon: A Progress Report

    If you didn’t catch the news yesterday, I’m back to work on Sins of the Warrior, the fourth and final chapter in the Grigori Legacy series. I’d set aside the story at the end of August, feeling the need to take a break from my characters and get refocused. Now, after writing and releasing a contemporary romance novella,…

  • When Good Stories Go Bad…

    I’m currently in the middle of writing Sins of the Warrior, book 4 in the Grigori Legacy. Or at least, I was in the middle of it. But when I passed the 50k mark, writing became slower and more difficult…until I felt like I was swimming upstream in thick, gooey oatmeal. Why oatmeal? Because not only was it…

  • Baton Blog Hop

    Good morning! Today’s Social Media Monday post has been pre-empted by an invitation from the fabulous Mia Marshall to join in my first-ever blog hop. Mia is the author of a paranormal mystery series called Elements, with wicked cool covers and reviews that say things like “artfully crafted plot” (RT Book Reviews). You should totally…

  • The Deep, Dark Depths of Writerly Despair

    I’ve hit that point, folks. I’m just past the halfway mark in Sins of the Warrior, book 4 in the Grigori Legacy series, and everything is falling apart. I have plot holes big enough to fly a 747 through. I’ve got so many threads tangled up together that what began as a skillful weaving of a tapestry now resembles my dog’s breakfast…after he…

  • Writing the Supernatural Thriller

    (This post originally appeared in September 2013 on Urban Fantasy Land) Like many people, I’m fascinated by the possibilities in the world of the paranormal. I’ve dabbled in the Tarot, am intrigued by Earth-based religions, and firmly believe in unseen energies (remind me to tell you about my experience with a Ouija board one time…not…

  • Becoming Lucifer

    (This post originally appeared in October 2013 on The Qwillery) Writing a fully three-dimensional character isn’t an easy task to begin with, but when you’re writing from the point of view of consummate evil? Trust me, it can be even tougher. And slimy-er. And just plain ickier. That was the challenge I faced in writing…