True confession: When the concept of social distancing first reared its head, I was happy. I have a book due at the end of the month, and I’m behind. Being forced to stay home for 14 days means I might actually make progress on this story. But for those of you who aren’t on deadline, […]
Read More →This morning, I was working at the café, when I picked up on the conversation taking place between two younger women a few away. Turns out they were aspiring writers. At first, I was excited, much like the way a bird watcher who spots a pileated woodpecker on her back deck. Fellow writers! In the […]
Read More →The words hit me like a slap in the face. My son looked me square in the eye and said, “Please stop sending suggestions. We want to do this ourselves.” He was talking about his and his fiancee’s upcoming move to Vermont, and he was right. When Tattoo first announced he was moving, my husband and […]
Read More →When I was young, I wasn’t what you’d call particularly ambitious. I was raised by a very traditional family. If my mom wanted more than to be a good wife and mother, she didn’t say so out loud. She considered work outside the home as something a woman did to help make ends meet. As […]
Read More →It’s been 22 days since I started my social media sabbatical. With only two exceptions (Tattoo’s engagement and Intrigue author Paula Grave’s death) I have not been on Facebook or Twitter. I’ll confess I did stay on Snapchat until January 4, but that was to follow my son and his fiancé’s vacation photos. I logged […]
Read More →One upon a time there was a place called Barb Town. I created it in our spare bedroom around seven or eight years ago when I decided I needed a place to work, and it was a pretty awesome place. It had a desk, a lap top and a pretty brown chaise lounge that I […]
Read More →Last month in San Antonio, I got the chance to listen to Hugh Howey speak. You know Hugh Howey – he’s one of the big selfpublishing success stories of 2013. He and his agent were talking about what it means to be an outlier. During his remarks, Hugh mentioned that he worked 80-100 hours a […]
Read More →I just finished reading The Ashford Affair by Lauren Willig. It was wonderful. In my opinion, there are two kinds of books, those that you read and those that make time fly. The Ashford Affair was a Time Flies book. I couldn’t put it down, I was that compelled to find out what happened to Addie, […]
Read More →When New York Times bestseller Selena Blake tagged me to be part of the “Writing Process” blog tour, I had to say yes. After all, Selena was one of the authors who helped me with my RWR Article “Seven Habits of Effective Writers”. (You can read her amazingly helpful interview on productivity here) She asked me to […]
Read More →Drop a pebble in the water: just a splash, and it is gone; But there’s half-a-hundred ripples Circling on and on and on…. (James W. Foley 1874-1939) I’m a big believer in the ripple effect – that like a stone tossed in a pond, one person’s action can build upon itself to have enormous ramifications. […]
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