2. Your earliest memory. I was two. At the time, we lived in Illinois, but we were visiting my grandparents in Oregon. I remember standing at the counter next to my grandmother–I must have been standing on a chair–and helping her decorate a cake. I also remember when my grandparents’ friends came over for a …
In a fit of masochism, I’ve decided to try a 30-Day Writing Challenge. Join me! You can comment here with your own responses to the day’s prompt. Five problems with social media. Perfect! It can become overwhelming. It takes a lot of time for me to keep up with my personal and professional social media. …
I recently visited Vegas. Part of the drive back from there mirrors Jimmy’s drive at the beginning of Rattlesnake, so I took a couple of photos. This is near the town of Mojave, which isn’t far from where Jimmy picks up a hitchhiker. And that’s how the story begins. If you’ve read the book, you …
As you may know, I recently spent a week in Vegas for the RT Booklovers convention. See? Here I am, ready to sign books. While I was there, I also took some photos of scenes from Motel. Pool. I thought those of you unfamiliar with Vegas might enjoy seeing these. Above, some photos from the …
I am back from RT in Vegas. It was an amazing experience but I’ve had to jump right back into the day job–and I’m exhausted. I know, I know. Poor me. Let me begin by saying that if you must drive 500 miles each way, you want to do it with Amy Lane. Who’s still totally …
There’s busy, and then there are the kind of weeks when you work until midnight every night, wake up to work again at 6:30, and still don’t get everything done. Guess which kind of week I’ve been having. We had a minor crisis when younger daughter woke up and couldn’t find her glasses. This is …
Today I’m making bread… and analogies. All books begin with the same basic ingredients: words. By themselves, words are only minimally interesting. Have you ever eaten plain, raw flour? Ew. Even plain sugar isn’t all that exciting. And although sometimes we might throw in a word that’s unexpected and intriguing–the fennel seeds in today’s recipe–most …
Cue maniacal laughter. Fridays are supposed to be my quiet days to stay home and get work done. I needed this Friday badly: I have a stack of assignments to grade, galley proofs for one novel, edits for a second novel, final beta edits for a third novel, and a deadline to meet for a …
I had a wonderful several days at the Dreamspinner author workshop. I didn’t take many photos. I didn’t even do any Disney or Universal stuff, even though we were in Orlando. But it was great to hang out with old friends and new. We got lots of useful and inspiring information too. And then I had …
One of the two novels I’m working on right now takes places mostly in San Francisco. Since I was in the city over the weekend, I took a few location shots. This is Market Street. The characters in the book live not far from there, and a small but important scene takes place on this …