It’s NaNovember so this will be short…

It’s NaNoWriMo–National Novel Writing Month–for many of us in the writing world, that crazy time of year when we are glued to our laptops for an entire month, even more antisocial than usual, vomiting at least 1667 words per day for a total of 50,000 by November 30. I’ve spent the latter part of this Read More

Conquering Fear

Yesterday I spent the day with writer friends from the Northeast Ohio chapter of RWA, participating in a workshop presented by Bob Mayer. He spoke about many things in his six-hour talk, including turning ideas into stories, recognizing and developing conflict (my biggest problem, perhaps), outlining and plotting, characters’ needs and flaws, and story arcs. But for some Read More

The Grammar Grump: Dialogue Tags

A few years ago, when the kid was smaller and far less lippy, he was obsessed with a series of children’s books. Wonderful books, with interesting story lines and well drawn characters, and there were at least fifty of them at the time. One Christmas, we got a few of them on tape and listened as we Read More

Ah, Valentine’s Day…

‘Tis the season of love, and once again the snow is piled high and the skies are dreary and gray. In light of the ancient holiday of St. Valentine, I thought I would continue the practice I started last year (hey, now it’s a tradition, hurray!) of posting selections from Victorian Valentine’s Day verse books. Read More

Musings on an Anniversary

This weekend marks a year since my first book was published. I actually almost missed it–I was sitting in a hockey rink (as usual) watching the kid practice, when I got that Facebook “you’ve got memories” reminder, and there it was. A year ago, I was giddy with excitement, celebrating with many friends, drinking champagne, Read More

The Middle Muddle

Every writer has his or her way of doing things.  Some writers write only one book at a time, beginning at the beginning and writing in an orderly fashion until the end. Other writers write one book at a time, but in pieces, writing a scene here and scene there and then weaving them all Read More

Zombies and Vampires, Victorian Style

So I came across this picture on Pinterest the other day: The caption is, as with so many other things one can find on the Internet, utter bullshit, but it did make me curious. The picture itself is apparently real. In the first third of the 19th century, some graves were enclosed with an iron cage, called a Read More

Historical Book Blast Friday: Jana Richards

It’s Book Blast Friday! My guest today is fellow Wild Rose author Jana Richards. Her newest novella, Home Fires, is set during World War II. Welcome, Jana! Home Fires by Jana Richards Anne Wakefield travels halfway around the world for love. But when she arrives in Canada from England at the end of World War Read More

Grammar Grump: Preposition Me, Baby!

So I expected to write a happy post today about my brilliant success at NaNoWriMo, but as with so many things in life, my expectations far outstripped my capabilities. This November, I’ve had a blog tour for a book release (hurray!), a new job (hurray!), and a nasty bacterial infection that has sapped my strength, made Read More

Author Interview: Katie O’Sullivan

Welcome to a special Wednesday edition of the blog, as I am joined by fellow Wild Rose Press author Katie O’Sullivan to the blog. Katie has one recent release and another coming out November 11. Welcome, Katie!  Hi, Marin, and thanks for inviting me to visit! Tell us a bit about you. Where do you live, and Read More