by Ane Mulligan Who started this fashion trend? I can remember dressing the cat when I was a little girl. I still have the scars to show for it. But a dog dressed not for play but for real? I was watching House Hunters on HGTV the other night and this woman had her dog dressed in a different outfit …
Research Can Be Fun
by Lena Nelson Dooley Does researching a subject sound boring to you? I used to feel that way, too. Now research is a mainstay of my writing, whether I’m writing a contemporary or a historical novel. When I started writing Maggie’s Journey, book one of my McKenna’s Daughters series, I had a hard time picturing Seattle in 1885. That hindered …
Formatting a Manuscript
by Jill Williamson When I started writing, I didn’t know anything about how to properly format a manuscript. I gathered this information over the years from books and lectures and online and eventually figured it all out. But I’m a visual learner, and I had always wished that someone could have simply shown me how to do these things. A …
Working (And Laughing) With a Critique Partner
By Victoria Bylin This past year, I decided to stretch my wings. In addition to writing the proverbial “book of my heart” aka BOMH, I started working with a critique partner. I’ve written fourteen books for Harlequin Historical and Love Inspired Historical, but I’ve always worked alone. I thought I was an experienced writer. I thought I knew how to …
Writer Interrupted
By Deborah K. Anderson Have you ever felt as though someone, or something, tries to stop you from writing? You know, an evil force on a perverse mission hinders you from finishing an article, a short story, or perhaps even that next novel? It may sound crazy, but I’ve encountered this more times than I can count. Several years ago, …
A Thousand Words a Day?
by Donna L. Rich “But, let’s just stop and ask for directions,” I plead. “I don’t need directions.” “Honey, come on, I feel like Moses’ wife, here. We’ve been wandering for an hour now, and I want to get out in that sun. There’s a gas station on the corner. Let’s stop, please.” “I don’t need directions. I feel like …
Revising My View of Rewriting
by Beth K. Vogt It’s often said that writing is rewriting. And I’ve often said how much I love rewriting. But if you’d seen me a few weeks ago as I rewrote the fast draft of my second novel, you would have doubted not only my love of rewriting-but my emotional stability as well. Over the course of three days, …
Where Do You Get Your Ideas?
by Richard Mabry When I began writing, I had an idea-just one-and wondered if I could turn it into a novel. My idea involved a young man who wanted more than anything to play professional baseball. He never made it past the minors, so he decided to make his father happy by going to medical school. Then he had one …
A Writer’s Passion
by DiAnn Mills How can a writer expect readers to be excited about a novel unless the writer feels the same passion? Does enthusiasm for story mean having passion for every word? Absolutely! Every grueling step of the process must be met with a committed spirit. Passion for The Chase kept me spellbound, as though the world around me had …
Going Mobile – Why Not?
by Michael Joshua Whether we are published or not, we love our blogs. There’s just something exciting about putting our thoughts out there for the world to read. Many of us choose from the available free services – blogger, wordpress.com and companies who promise free hosting, to name a few. But the fact is that if we intend to reach …