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It was a pace-scribble-transcribe day. I made good on my goal to write the bandit fight—if you can call three petty crooks getting owned by a superior strategist a fight. It’s a Princess Bride-style scuffle that makes everything look ridiculously easy for her so there’s a baseline of comparison when the difficulty escalates and
I got peace and quiet today! 🥳 I didn’t produce many new words because I spent all day whipping a sample submission into shape, but that is now winging through the ether to its destination, so tomorrow, bandit fight! I don’t ordinarily do a nitpicky revise-as-I-go. My first drafts are usually half the length of
There are four people in this house, all on different sleep schedules. I get up at 3-4 a.m. Generally, the person in the living room at that time turns off the TV and goes to bed soon after, leaving me in peace and quiet until the next person gets up around (fingers crossed) 10 and
Let me begin by saying I love a good fall from grace. I know all too well it’s hard at times to find any virtue in being noble when the ignoble are thriving all around. I understand the narrative allure of a good-hearted character who finally says, “Fuck it, I’m going rogue.” The issue for
Years ago, I read a romance novel in which the main characters had basically resolved all their conflicts by the midpoint. The story could have ended right there and been a satisfying novella, but somebody wanted 300 pages instead of 150, so on page 151, Evil Cousin Alphonse burst onto the scene with not one
Silent Song is a second chance romance. As such, there’s a whole other story about what happened between Gin and Lex years ago. Part of figuring out who they are now and how their relationship works now involved looking at their shared past, so I have a ton of material about The Old Days. The
I recently attended an editing workshop hosted by a trad-pub romance editor who said, “Head hopping is fine! All the greats do it, and it works fine!” I didn’t catch much after that because of the steam whistling out of my ears, but I’m pretty sure we’d disagree on other fundamentals. Then I came home
I woke up earlier this week to find that all of my spoons were gone. I had to declare spoon bankruptcy. I felt for several days like I would never be able to acquire another spoon for the rest of my life. As a result, I crawled into my shell and bolted the doors closed
Synastry is a comparison of two or more astrological charts to evaluate their interaction. I’m not going to debate anyone about the wisdom of relying on such measures in real life, but it can be a cool writing tool if you need character inspiration or affirmation that you’re on the right track.