For a long time, I thought giving up on books made me a quitter. But as a busy person (mom of four, full-time employee, part-time novelist), I’ve realized there’s not time for everything. And there’s especially not time for books I don’t love. Choosing not to finish a book might mean I'll miss out on …
The last romantic comedy I read (Shipped by Angie Hockman...super fun, I recommend it!) was set in 2019. The publishing industry runs a couple years behind "real time," so despite its 2021 release, the novel was likely written well before 2019. But it also felt like a very deliberate decision to set the book before the …
I didn’t realize the 20th century had become such a popular setting for historical fiction, until I looked back and saw that six of the last seven I’ve read fit that description, all of which I've read this year. Honestly, this gives me a boost of confidence, considering my finished novel and the one I’m …
Continue reading Saturday Six #23: Twentieth Century Historical Fiction
Dear Dad, I’m sorry. Every time you pulled out your 3-disc set of rock hits from the 1970s, I rolled my eyes. Aside from the fun melody of “Crocodile Rock,” I did not understand your obsession with this music. It was old. It was boring. I wanted The Lion King soundtrack instead. Not my dad's …
I am attending my first-ever writing workshop this weekend. And while I am learning a TON of valuable information, lurking in the back of my mind are the questions: “Why on earth is this my first one? Why haven’t I been doing these for 20 years?” We can’t change the past. But we all have …
Have you heard the term “meet-cute”? If you’re not into reading contemporary romance novels, you probably haven’t. I don’t mean the trade paperback romances, but a larger genre that has developed, consisting of full-length novels about heroes and heroines who often have dark or tragic pasts but find one another and a lasting, fulfilling relationship. …
Isn’t it great when you’re talking with a longtime friend and you suddenly find something new that you have in common? This happened to me a few weeks ago when a friend and I discovered our mutual love for The Lord of the Rings. Many a Facebook chats were then filled with movie lines, book-movie …
Continue reading Saturday Six #11: One Obsession to Rule Them All
I wasn’t sure what last year would mean for me in terms of reading. For the previous seven years, I’d worked at least part of the year at a library, and I’d run one, then two, book groups, so I had the very good fortune to read on work time. For those years, I typically …
When I worked for a county library system in Ohio, one of my responsibilities was to create and facilitate a new adult book group at the central location. There had been a group running for years on Monday evenings, and our director wanted to add a second option during the day. I tried a few …
For this week’s edition of Saturday Six, I have a list of six famous people (living or dead) whom I’d love to have dinner with. I use the term “have dinner with” pretty loosely. It’s my experience, when I do these kinds of things, that I just sit at the same table, basking in the …
