I’m a very visual person. This can make it somewhat difficult to write a setting without something tangible to anchor me. When I can see the story in a real place, such as a house or restaurant, it relieves the stress of creating it out of thin air. In my novel Surrendered I pictured the O’Shay’s generational home as the …
A Star is Born
When people find out I’m a writer, the first question they usually ask is, “How do you come up with ideas?” You may have heard the saying Write What You Know, and there is some truth to that. However, if people only wrote what they knew, we wouldn’t have a Lord of the Rings series or Harry Potter or sci-fi …
Review of I Love to Tell the Story
About the Book Book: I Love to Tell the Story Author: Susan Barnett Braun Genre: Memoir Is it possible to emerge unscathed from an evangelical upbringing? Yes, as surely as David slew Goliath! I Love to Tell the Story is Susan Barnett Braun’s account of growing up Baptist in a small midwestern town, touching on many cultural icons common to …
The Times They Are A Changin’
Since the setting of my soon-to-be-released novel, Surrendered, takes place in a small town, I thought I’d continue where I left off last week. I asked a friend of mine, Scott Crawford, to share what Jackson, California was like when he was growing up. Until last summer, I lived just outside of Jackson for many years, and although it’s still …
Review of The Great Lakes Lighthouse Brides Collection
About the Book Title: The Great Lakes Lighthouse Brides Author: Kathy Rouser Genre: Christian Historical Romance Release date: November 1, 2018 Publisher: Barbour Lighthouses have long been the symbol of salvation, warning sailors away from dangerous rocks and shallow waters. Along the Great Lakes, America’s inland seas, lighthouses played a vital role in the growth of the nation. They shepherded …
What’s So Great About Small Towns?
It’s easy for me to find the benefits of small town (or even small city) living, as I’ve never lived anywhere else. Growing up in the Bay Area (California) we even lived in the small town of Alameda—or at least considered small town to its residents who number around 79,000 today. Compare that to Oakland (over 400,000 residents), just across …
Great Reads for You
I write contemporary women’s fiction, and for the most part, that’s what I’ve read in the past. But, over the last several months, I’ve had the privilege of reviewing new books as well as interviewing some authors in all genres and it’s expanded my reading world. I’d like to highlight some of these (both books and authors) for those of …
How to Win at Love
Do you remember the first Valentine’s gift your spouse gave you? I do. I had all these expectations built up, even though we agreed to get each other an inexpensive symbol of our love. Or at least that was my idea. I don’t think Chris got the memo—at least not the “symbol of our love” part. He latched onto “inexpensive.” …
Review of The Seamstress
About the Book Title: The Seamstress Author: Allison Pittman Genre: Historical Fiction Release date: February 5, 2019 Publisher: Tyndale A beautifully crafted story breathes life into the cameo character from the classic novel A Tale of Two Cities. France, 1788 It is the best of times . . . On a tranquil farm nestled in the French countryside, two orphaned …
Book Release Coming Soon!
I’m excited to announce that my first novel, Surrendered, is being released by Celebrate Lit Publishing on April 30th. For those of you who are my loyal followers, this won’t be a big revelation. To be honest, even though I signed the contract back in June, I haven’t quite grasped the reality of it. To become a published novelist has …
