Blog
As a curious observer of life, I blog on writing, marketing, my prairie - anything that interests me in the moment. I like to have conversations with readers, so don’t hesitate to leave a comment. I'll respond.
Woo Hoo! Thanks everyone for your support during my first 2-day Kindle Select Free Promo. IMHO, it was a success. At the end of two days, GROWING UP COUNTRY-Memories of an Iowa Farm Girl had…
Read MoreI promised to give back to readers in April and here comes your second opportunity. Today and tomorrow, April 14 and April 15, you can download the Kindle version of my memoir Growing Up Country:…
Read MoreMost novels have fewer than 100,000 words. There are notable exceptions to this limit – Stieg Larsson and J.K. Rowling are two. But for most authors, fewer words are better. So it is with trepidation…
Read MoreReaders have been so good to me, this month I’m giving back. Through April, I’m working with Goodreads. Members of this book lovers social networking site can sign up to win one of three signed…
Read MoreWhen I was a teenager, diaries were popular gifts. The ones I received were all the same with a few lines designated for each day of the year. Four or five lines about 1/8th…
Read MoreDid they have a telephone? Was there running water? What kind of buggy did they use? What did they wear? The questions I face every time I sit down to write are never ending. Finding…
Read MoreThis week I’m sharing good words on writing from others. Today’s wisdom comes from George Orwell. In his 1946 essay ‘Politics and the English Language,’ he criticized the bad habits of many writers and promoted…
Read MoreHow do you write? Do you have a system for writing? Someone asks these questions almost every time I speak. As though there might be a magic formula. As though if you do just the…
Read MoreWhere do you find your writing inspiration? When a reader asked that recently, I had to think, and the more I thought, the more multi-faceted the answer became. Here are a few sources I rely…
Read MoreMy experience with fire is limited. Contained blazes in fireplaces and smaller campfires are comforting, welcoming, inviting on cold nights. I’m rather fond of those. Other fires–forest fires or grass fires to clear out…
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