I have always had the need to express myself creatively. I drew and colored and wrote stories, and later tried every art or craft I could. It was more than fun. My very soul demanded creative expression. I even remember making up stories in middle school and passing them off as truth--like how my mother... Continue Reading →
I'm excited to announce that I have finished the first draft of my newest novel, Aloha Spirit! It begins in Honolulu in 1922 and follows the main character to California through 1960. Inspired by the life of my husband's grandmother, Carmen Dolores Medeiros, the novel shows how one woman overcomes difficulties to find her own aloha... Continue Reading →
One of the hardest things in writing historical fiction is to describe the world fully enough for the modern reader to imagine it while at the same time not having the character exclaim over, or even notice, items that are common to them. In our everyday lives, for example, we pass by buildings in our... Continue Reading →
One of the writing genres we teach in sixth grade is personal narrative. A narrative is a story, or fiction, but a personal narrative is based on a real event. The struggle is getting students to write good stories about an event in their lives. Now personal essay, or memoir, is supposedly a different genre.... Continue Reading →
I am a pretty good gardener. I plant and trim and weed the back yard, and people compliment it. There are a few things I can't grow. Fuchsias don't like me. Neither do yellow daisies or orchids. Violets, though, have always despised me. I have never been able to get a violet to survive, much... Continue Reading →
I recently read an article from Fortune online about trends in sales of ebooks. With the release of sales numbers for 2015, many publishers are reporting drops in ebook sales and predicting traditional book sales will pick up. This Fortune article attempts to explain the whole picture. This is a chart they share: Keep in... Continue Reading →
Throughout my life, I have listened avidly to stories of my family. It was no different when I married my husband and heard stories of his family. I turned my own stories into a novel, UNDER THE ALMOND TREES and I'm currently working on ALOHA SPIRIT a story of my husband's grandmother. The picture at left is... Continue Reading →
This week in a writing class, we have a fun assignment. Try it yourself! *It needs to be one paragraph, exactly seven sentences. No dialogue. *It should be the first paragraph or the last paragraph of a Young Adult novel, meaning the main character should be a teenager. *It can be in first person, but... Continue Reading →
Another guest post! Today I'm reblogging a post by one of my fellow horse story writers. So exciting that she mentions my own books in her article! Thanks, Connie! Reading and Writing Devices - Foreshadowing. by Connie Peck A while back I was involved with a fairly tough critique partner who wrote in a vastly... Continue Reading →
