Just because you know my name doesn’t mean you know my story. That is a slightly enhanced version of a quote attributed to Jonathan Anthony Burkett. “You know my name, not my story.” Sometimes that’s where I am when writing a new story. Names are important to me as I try to get to know my characters. I have a …
Winter sunlight is a warm old soul, spreading love in the bitter cold. ~Angie Weiland-Crosby Don’t you just love a winter day filled with sunlight? Perhaps you have a favorite chair by a window where the sun streams in to warm you when winter has thrown cold winds our way. Sunlight can make everything more beautiful and cheer our souls. Sunlight …
In America the ice-storm is an event. And it is not an event which one is careless about. When it comes, the news flies from room to room in the house, there are bangings on the doors, and shoutings, “The ice-storm! the ice-storm!” and even the laziest sleepers throw off the covers and join the rush for the windows. ~Mark …
“The footprints you leave behind will influence others. There is no person who at some time, somewhere, somehow, does not lead another.” ~Unknown One of the things I enjoy about walking in snow is seeing track trails. I live on a farm and that means I can see fields untouched by human feet, vehicles or livestock. Cows are confined to one …
Did you know that before radios and television people did a lot more porch sitting and storytelling? On top of that, people actually read aloud to one another as an entertainment. I can imagine sisters or friends sitting together to do needlework or some other task while one had the pleasure of reading aloud to them to make the task …
“Cherish the times you can watch the sunrise, there’s only so many in a lifetime.” ~Unknown I post a little description of my Sunday morning walks with my dogs, Frankie and Marley each week on my Facebook page. They are the dark spots in the picture above. We never take a long morning walk. We go for the longer walk …
In all my recent novels, I have an author’s note at the end thanking the people who helped make my book possible. I have so many people to thank. My editors who help me make my stories the best they can be. My agent who always is ready with encouragement. My publishing team who works to present my books …
A novel needs a good first line. It needs every line to be good but that first line in your story needs to grab a reader’s interest. Those few words need to be a flashing pointer toward the rest of the story. A good first line can also help a writer dive into the story. Most writers, including me, work …
Happiness consists more in conveniences of pleasure that occur everyday than in great pieces of good fortune that happen but seldom. ~~Benjamin Franklin Where do you feel happy? And if you found such a place, how often would you make every effort to go there? This would be a place where you would feel loved and worthy and safe and …
A story has no beginning or end; arbitrarily one chooses that moment of experience from which to look back or from which to look ahead. ~The End of the Affair by Graham Greene (1951) There’s truth in that first sentence of Graham Greene’s novel. A writer does have to pick that moment to let her characters come to life and …