Ladies and Jellybeans! We have today an interview with guest author Omon Hart, author of fantasy novel The PureLights of Ohm Totem (Book I of The PureLights Fantasy Series). “Two children from a forgotten land, ancestors of the Island of Ohm Totem, one being of the night walkers and the other of the sacred heart, will purify the energies, bring back the old ways, and unite the PureLights once again, putting an end to the coming Shiver.” ~ Windstorm Prophecy Let’s just jump right into this… Omon, when and why did you begin writing?I began writing when I was a kid. […]

I am so pleased to share with you a new release from my writing partner, Kristie Kiessling. I am such a fan of her work! This one, as you can see from the cover, is a book of poetry: Love trips the heart to wild beating. Breathless ecstasy threatens to stop it. Tremendous suffering tears the body or rends the soul. Emotions both glorious and horrendous produce sweat, tears and blood. They engage all sides, joy and pain, light and dark. They encompass the very essence of what it is to be human. All this wide array, this life experience, […]

As the Crow Flies is coming in paperback! I couldn’t be more excited. To celebrate the upcoming release I am setting up a virtual book tour for the week of June 3-9. What’s on the itinerary? A giveaway Interviews Guest posts Excerpts Reviews* Spotlights Book Description “One more job” means that Crow, a notorious thief, can retire with Tarsha, the woman of his dreams, but “one more job” may just mean his life. When Crow sets out to steal that last brilliant treasure and seek a life of ease and pleasure with the jewel of his heart, he seriously underestimates his mark, the […]

Blast! Drat! and FOOEY!I have come to the realization, after exercising my patience nearly into oblivion, that the name of Comcast’s “Blast! Internet Service” has nothing at all to do with speed and everything to do with the reaction of customers when their connection regularly slows to a standstill, whether hard-wired in or not. Fearing my browser was the culprit, I’ve tried two others. It doesn’t help. Neither, you should know, does jumping up and down and hollering “Blast! Blast! BLAST!”, though it did contribute to my cardio workout. As luck would have it, being productive today depended upon having […]

I love a good info-graphic, and this one is a good follow-up to my last post, in which I lamented the shortcomings of using the passive voice. Sometimes that “be” verb is necessary, but often—usually—it can be replaced with action verbs that draw a reader happily to the conclusion of a book. Hopefully, he’ll have a smile on his face and look slightly disheveled after the thrilling experience… Courtesy of grammar.net The subject is continued if you want to further investigate Filter Words, which “unnecessarily filter the reader’s experience through a character’s point of view.” (Dark Angel, author of the now […]

Today I am lucky to have guest Jon Thomason as part of the blog tour hosted by I Am a Reader, Not a Writer. Jon is the author of Max Xylander and the Island of Zumuruud, “a fast-paced fantasy adventure for all ages. Fans of magic, swordplay, secret agents, and conspiracies set in a modern everyday world will not be able to put the book down. Jon Thomason paints a vivid world of magic right under our noses and delivers rapid-fire action that keeps the pages turning.” I’ve asked Jon why he chose to write fantasy, and what were his feelings […]

I am so pleased to have Patrick W. Carr, author of the fantasy novel “A Cast of Stones,” as my guest today as part of the blog tour hosted by I Am a Reader, Not a Writer. Patrick not only writes, but he also teaches high school math in Nashville, Tennessee. Hooray for teachers! Hooray for authors! I enjoyed reading his insights, and I can already see one point I am going to take away from this… World Building 101 When I set out to write “A cast of Stones” the first thing I did was set my time period. […]

We have cookies! We have decorations! We have gifts! I feel like a WHO! It looks and smells wonderfully Christmassy at our house, and things are finally—in spite of moments of panic—coming together. I have been a busy little elf, baking and wrapping, making cards, putting up the last few decorations… Traditionally, our family puts up the tree and does the decorating on the first weekend in December, but now that half the kids are married and have their own grown-up responsibilities, that didn’t quite work out. So we figured we’d do it on the second weekend, and, well, that […]

As the release date for As the Crow Flies gets closer and closer (only nine more days, but who’s counting?), my excitement level increases. I am occasionally overtaken by butterflies and attacks of “what if…?” Things are falling into place, though. My family and friends—and new acquaintances!—are super supportive. My hubby walked in the door tonight with the typical “When’s dinner?” question. “Not for half an hour,” I said, “will you please find a page divider for my website that meets this and this and this qualification, and just so happens to be exactly what I want?” And he did! And […]

I just got off the phone with my sister. As usual, we talked for a loooong time and, as usual, I came away feeling happy, encouraged in what I’m doing, and delighted at the things we laugh over (like crazy ‘men’ things and cement trucks masquerading as giant unicorns on wheels…). I’m pretty convinced that if everyone had a sister like her, the world would be a better place. One of the interesting things about indie publishing is that I get to choose my own release date. It is at once liberating and frightening! So, after some encouragement from my […]