Hollyhill Book of the Ordinary – 2
(A few years ago, my Heart of Hollyhill books were reissued with new covers. I loved writing about my Hollyhill people and decided to give Jocie a nudge to write more about Hollyhill. I can’t say...
View ArticleMeet Darcie from The Refuge
Fall is here. The trees will soon be turning color. That made me think about one of my books that has a definitely autumn scene cover. The Refuge is the last Shaker book I wrote. It’s been out a few...
View ArticleA Day of Storytelling
Yesterday was the Cave Run Storytelling Festival here in Kentucky at Cave Run Lake. I suppose it’s not too hard to understand why I love storytelling. I’ve been called a storyteller, but I do my story...
View ArticleThe Joy of Snail Mail
Sometimes a writer gets something fun in the mail – a letter handwritten in an envelope with a stamp on it that lands in said writer’s mailbox. Years ago when I was writing books for younger...
View ArticleThe Glow of Morning Glories
A few years ago, I planted some morning glory seeds beside a trellis in my yard. When I did I had to think my father would have wondered if I’d lost my mind after the way we’d always had to fight what...
View ArticleBirthdays and Smile Wrinkles
Let us never know what old age is. Let us know the happiness time brings, not count the years. ~Ausonius I just had a birthday. They have a way of coming around faster than they used to. When I was...
View ArticleThe Joy of Grandparenting
Nobody can do for little children what grandparents do. Grandparents sort of sprinkle stardust over the lives of little children. ~Alex Haley Did you know this Sunday was Grandparents Day? It’s not a...
View ArticleA New Title Reveal
“Good books don’t give up all their secrets at once.” ~Stephen King Maybe neither do titles of those books. But a book needs a good title. Maybe even better than good. Something catchy. Something that...
View ArticleLabor Day for a Farm Girl
“Farming is not just a job, it’s a way of life.” – Unknown For most people, Labor Day is a holiday when you don’t have to work. You have the day off. You can go on a picnic, go fishing, read a book,...
View ArticleA Story Needs a Few Clouds
“A cloudless plain blue sky is like a flowerless garden.” (Terri Guillemets) Ah, the beautiful sky. And what can make the sky even more beautiful? Clouds, of course. And their shadows floating over...
View ArticleMy Romantic Louisville Book
As those of you who read my blog posts here and have read my novels already know, I’m not a writer who sticks to one type of story or theme. Most publishing experts would tell me that’s where I go...
View ArticleA Shaker and a Sheriff
One more post about my Shaker book, The Innocent, since there are only a very few days left of the book’s 99 cent e-book sale on Amazon. Always be sure to check the price before you click the buy...
View ArticleMy Oxymoron Shaker Stories
An oxymoron – a figure of speech in which opposite or contradictory ideas or terms are combined. (e.g., thunderous silence, sweet sorrow, Shaker romance) I always do seem to do things the hard way. Let...
View ArticleCharacters – Real and Imagined
A few weeks ago after I had a book party to celebrate my new release, A Chance for Kallie Mae, and had fun answering questions those there asked me, I invited you all to throw some questions about my...
View ArticleA Trip Back Through Time in a Shaker Village
Have you ever met a Shaker? Probably not unless you’ve been to the Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village in Maine where two Shakers still reside in the only active Shaker village remaining. The other...
View ArticleSmall, Ordinary Pleasures
When I was looking for something to share on my FB author page today where I share tidbits of Shaker history. This morning, I hunted up an excerpt from my Shaker story, The Innocent, about my...
View ArticleStuck? Road Blocks on the Story Roads
“You’re not stuck, you just forgot you can change your mind” ― J.R. Rim A few posts ago, I invited readers to ask me a question that they might have asked if they could have been at my book event and...
View ArticleStory Glimmers
Since The Innocent is on e-book sale right now for 99 cents for a limited time on Amazon, I found this post written a few years ago for a different blog when the story was newly published. I rewrote...
View ArticlePray Anyway – Carlyn’s Story
In my books, while I never have everything thought out, I do have my main characters. In The Innocent, I begin with my female main character, Carlyn, and her dog Asher. I have the setting. For The...
View ArticleDo You Have Enough Reading Time?
“How did it get so late so soon?” ~ Dr. Seuss Somehow, Wednesday keeps sneaking past me and here it is Thursday already. The days can slide past but only minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day as...
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