13 Valentine’s Day Occurrences Happy Valentine’s Day! No sappy trivia today (see yesterday’s post for that)! Below are just a few of things that occurred on Valentine’s Day in history. There were a lot of others I thought were cool, but had to zap to pare it down to thirteen. 1 ) 278…
So… Tomorrow’s Valentine’s Day. I often wonder how someone like me who used to rejoice when the annual Black Hearts Ball rolled around on Feb 14th came to want to write romance? Back in high school, I got dumped on Valentine’s Day. Yeah, a real kick in the teeth. I didn’t realize it at the…
I’m a sucker for puzzles. Nothing makes me happier than finding a solution. Must. Solve. Puzzle. Nearly any type of puzzle, as long as a bit of challenge exists, will keep me amused for quite a while. The sense of accomplishment is one of the reasons I like learning new things and coding (which involves…
13 Cold Remedies If you’re one of the many people suffering from a cold or the flu, the Mayo Clinic has a list of remedies that have been proven or disproven to help. Conveniently, there were thirteen items on the list. Now, I’m not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV…
So, I began this writer’s journey in earnest a little over seven months ago. I’m not counting any previous false starts (they never lasted long before) or tangential experiences (we’re talking stringing sentences together, but more interactive and emergent stuff or related non-fiction). What I mean is a serious focus on craft and honest attempts…
13 of My Bad Writing Habits 1. “I’ve got” — yes, I talk like this, but gah, no one should write that way. 2. She verbed. / He verbed. — this is probably my favorite sentence structure. I know why, but breaking a decade+ of habit is hard. 3. Initial -ing phrasing. —…
I’m stuffing the rewrite of Revealed back into a “drawer” again. I want to wait until a couple people have read it and commented more thoroughly on it before tearing it apart again and just sitting here second-guessing myself. I still don’t have a lot of ideas on how I’m going to fix the hero’s…
13 Questions for Hugh Leighton I decided to take Dana’s advice and put the reticent viscount on the spot. Now, I didn’t force him to wear pink or call him “Bo Peep”, he knows if he doesn’t cooperate, he might just be attending the masquerade dressed as such. I think the Duke and…
I find myself rather annoyed with Hugh Daniel Leighton, Viscount Barrington. Last fall, he whispered sweet seductions in my ear like the practiced rake he was, urging me to tell his story. So I abandoned the ms where he’d been a secondary character and found him a nice girl with a few quirks of her…
I’ve been going through my WIP and zapping all the extra words that don’t add anything. Lots of “thats” and the like. On one hand it’s depressing to see the word count dropping, but it is reassuring to know that the writing it tighter and flows better overall because of it. The hero is still…