Where Did The Time Go?

Time flies when you're having fun - so the saying goes - which means I must have been having lots of fun the last few weeks because I've just realized it is well over a month since I last put up a new post. 

Where did the time go? Mostly on finishing the last few chapters of my latest novel which is tentatively titled Motive for Revenge and is a sequel to Ulterior Motives. 

5 Days of Bliss - Cape May, NJ

It’s a writer’s dream to be able to spend concentrated time with your characters and plots. No thoughts of work, household chores, the kids or what to make for dinner. Given everything else going on in most of our lives, we’re lucky to get a few hours of such time never mind a few days.  

Recently I was fortunate to have that opportunity when I took myself off to Cape May, NJ, for five days with only one aim: to write.  Leaving my husband and daughter behind (having done the laundry and filled the refrigerator beforehand) I installed myself in the Hotel Macomber, my favorite beach-side hotel, for a Monday thru Friday escape.(I figured that as they would both be at work most of the day, there would be less time for them to notice my absence).

Interview With The Hungry Freelancer

The Hungry Freelancer interviewed me this weekend. Check it out here

Many thanks to Beth Jones for being such a pleasure to work with. 

Proof-reading On Screen - The Bane of a Writer's Eyes?

When I was a kid, there was a saying that if you watched too much television you would end up with square eyes. Fortunately, it was something I didn’t have to worry about as I didn’t watch much television – and I still don’t – but the saying came to mind a few days ago after spending much of the last three weeks in front of a computer preparing my next novel for publication. Not that I really think I’m developing square eyes but, at the end of a day of intense focus on a computer screen, they often feel that way.

The Book Description - So Short And Yet So Difficult

One of the joys of self-publishing is that you no longer need to go through the agonies of trying to write a synopsis of your book in order to garner an agent/publisher. I’m sure I’m not the only one who thinks trying to condense a three-to-four hundred page novel into anything from one to twenty pages can be harder than writing the novel in the first place, especially when one agent might request a one page synopsis, the next, five pages, and, of course, the next will want something different again.

Making the Most of the Snow

What better way to celebrate a productive early morning session of writing than to go out and shovel snow?

Okay, there has to be lots of more exciting ways, but after sitting for several hours I’m always ready for some exercise, and this morning offered the perfect opportunity in the form of the approximately twelve inches of snow which had settled over and around my car. I wasn’t planning on going anywhere this weekend, so I could have left it and hoped nature would take care of the problem before I did need to use the car again, but the snow had stopped, the sun was shining and the outdoors beckoned.

The Joy of Writing

Writing can be a frustrating business. You have days when you sit and stare at your page and write maybe a paragraph or two, knowing full well that the next day you will probably delete it all anyway, and then you have days where several hours seem to just slip by, resulting in several pages, some of which, when you read them later, you can hardly remember writing.