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My Next Grand Adventure: Moving from Orlando to Newark (and Reinventing My Writing Career)
I decided to leave Writer’s Atelier at the end of June 2024, blissfully unaware that it would be the least ground-shaking change of my summer. It’s not that I wasn’t happy as WA’s “admin.” (“Admin” because, as the founder will tell you, I happily wore many other hats. I invented a good number of them for the fun of it.) I loved the work and believed in the company. That job helped inform who I was as a writer and the role I played in the Orlando writing community, and I was deeply proud of the work I put in. Recently, however, I felt the pull towards story coaching become…
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My New Way of Looking at the Writing Process
My mother affectionately calls me a magpie. Everywhere I went as a child, I stopped to pick up shiny things and noticed little details others missed, a trend that’s continued all the way through adulthood. One of the many ways this trait shows up in my life is a fascination with gemstones, crystals, and pearls. I have many smooth shells picked up from family trips to the beach and pretty rocks I saw glittering in rivers on the hikes we’ve taken in Cuba, the Carolinas, and California, just to name a few. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that, when I had this latest epiphany about my writing workflow,…
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I Created a Road Trip-themed Word Crawl Game on Dorian to Help You Write a Novel
I feel so lucky for so many reasons. One of them is that I was born during autumn, my favorite time of year. Even better, I was born in November, which is National Novel Writing Month. And this year, I want to give my fellow writers a gift: a unique path to winning NaNoWriMo! First, What is NaNoWriMo? NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month, is a challenge to write 50,000 words of a brand-new novel during the 30 days of November. The idea is to help creatives stop procrastinating and start writing while cheering each other on through the massive online community that’s grown up around it. There’s just one…
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A Yearly Writing Schedule I Just Might Follow
In November of 2022, something magical happened. I “won” National Novel Writing Month by writing 50,010 words during November’s thirty days. And I’ve been chasing that high ever since. Apparently, I love the feeling of getting something done on a tight deadline. With 4thewords giving me daily deadlines in my writing life, I knew I could be unstoppable if I could pick a direction and stick with it. It turns out I also love numbers. (I know! I’m just as surprised as you are!) 4thewords gave me lots of delicious data to devour, so now I know how many words per month I’m likely to write when I’m not pushing…
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Why I Write Romance
There is almost always a thread of romance running through anything I write. Now, in honor of my inclusion in The Romance Writer Super Stack, I’m letting you have a peek inside my brain as to why I write romance—and why I always will. My first-ever favorite book was a romance. I bought Reincarnation by Suzanne Weyn at a Scholastic Book Fair in elementary school. The cover drew me, as did the premise when I turned over the back of the book to read the blurb. Two souls continually find each other through the ages—first as cavepeople, then again and again until they’re reunited in the modern day. I reread…
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Why Everything Looks Different Now
Our story begins with a single color. I can tell you exactly how that color came into my life, too: with this very website’s first color scheme, which was based off of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade. I thought a mirabelle yellow would pop against the dark, classy red and muted gray-blue I’d also pulled from the painting. Plus, my birthstone is citrine, and if there’s one thing I love to do, it’s adding layers of meaning to make something more beautiful, the same way an oyster adds coat after coat to create a pearl. Now, I’m not one to half-ass anything. I commit, and I committed to my Scheherazade color palette, particularly…
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Read the First Chapter of IN ST. LOUIS WITH YOU
Do you remember In Charleston With You, from all the way back in April of 2021? In Chapter Six of that book, the heroine, Genevieve, mentions her childhood friend who moved to St. Louis before the book takes place. That friend’s name was Katherine, and I’m pleased to tell you her story is next. And boy, is it a story. Since the events of In Charleston With You, Katherine has been widowed. Her husband’s dying wish was for her to marry Lawrence Knightley, their best friend, for financial security, et cetera. Where it gets complicated? Lawrence is in love with her. It’s that aching, haunting kind of love you have for someone…
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Read the First Chapter of IN CHARLESTON WITH YOU
I’m pleased to announce I’ve successfully done what I secretly wanted to do for my past two books and never got around to doing—include the Victorian language of flowers! Yes, In Charleston With You—which will take place in part at the South Carolina Inter-State and West Indian Exposition of 1901–1902—stars a British man with a ne’er-do-well brother, both of whom inherited a love of floriography from their late parents. Across the pond, a beautiful, spit-fire pen pal will challenge everything the brothers have planned for themselves. And now, without further ado, you can read the first chapter for yourself… Chapter One Jacob Jacob blew air into his gloved hands as…
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Come Along on My Pandemic-Safe “Writing Retreat” to Get Ready for NaNoWriMo
National Novel Writing Month—a challenge to write fifty thousand words within November’s thirty days—will be here in just over two weeks. I’ve participated “seriously” thrice in the past, and so I recall with perfect clarity how it completely flips my life upside down. And you know I do so love the chaos. One thing I’ve learned during my attempts is that I must be prepared if I’m going to succeed. I know this because I haven’t been as prepared as I could’ve been in previous years, and I’ve never won. That’s why I’ve taken at least one out of my two free days every week to organize a little writing…
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Read the First Chapter of IN BUFFALO WITH YOU
Happy Book Birthday to my novelette, In Buffalo With You, which is available now! This book gave me headaches and butterflies, anxiety and elation, but I’m so happy with how it turned out. I hope you will be, too! This book was more rich with history than the last—the Newsboy Strike of 1899, real-life soprano Nina Morgana, and a particularly memorable event from the Pan-American Exposition that shocked the nation. I learned so much! And, of course, the romance is sweet and meant-to-be. Just as I did with In Barcelona With You, I’m sharing my first chapter with you right here on my blog. Enjoy! Chapter One Tommy In Tommy’s…
