Wow...you guys. I've returned safely from Los Angeles with a full head and swelling heart. My time was chock-full of learning, making connections, learning the craft and business of writing, and (the best part!) making friends. My week got off to an awesome start when I discovered I'd been assigned the talented and wonderful Carrie Callahan (fellow writer winner) as my roommate. My exclamation of "YES"…
I have been biting my tongue for about five months (it's amazing I still have any tongue left...) but now I can finally say it! My story that will be published in Writers of the Future is titled Untrained Luck. Due to anonymity with the Writers of the Future grand prize judging, I was not supposed to link my name to the title of my piece…
It was late April 2018. James and I were hiking Little Si, a small mountain near North Bend, WA. We navigated wet dripping branches and slick tree roots as we tried to rouse our minds and spirits from a season of mental fog that had engulfed us while my husband studied fervently for his Structural Engineer licensing exam. He'd taken the test a few weeks before…
As I lay down my pen at the end of a new short story draft, I again have to acknowledge my strong affinity for mother-son themes. This makes me think of my own son, my eldest, who seems to hunger near-constantly for time one-on-one with me. He lost a great quantity of mommy-and-me time after his sister was born. Now they both fight for me. It's…
Today I have good news to share! A glimpse at the day-to-day first: I'm at the tail-end of a very challenging season in which I've had to hold down the proverbial fort with home and children for three months while my husband studies for a big engineering test. (The test is April 13th! Wish him luck!) I have been faced repeatedly with depression, exhaustion, and feelings…
Hey there. Sorry I haven't kept in touch. My excuse is seven weeks old and, in this mama's star-struck eyes, she's absolutely perfect. She arrived on a November morning a few weeks before Thanksgiving. I can't stop feeling thankful for her. She's all I wanted for Christmas this year. A friend mailed me a little box with a bracelet in it for me and a pair…
A beautiful Japanese maple preens its Autumn plumage in my parents' front garden. A larger version of this tree, but with bright green leaves, had filled the broad multi-paned window of the Shoreline house where my parents first brought me home as a baby. And, to continue tradition, in the small triangle of soil that borders the edge of my townhome's communal courtyard grows a little Japanese maple…
Booktrope, the publisher who signed me for my first novel, Moonlight and Oranges, the publisher that turned me from "writer" to "author" announced on April 29, 2016 that it would be closing its doors. This was the publisher that helped teach me what it's like to professionally edit and revise a manuscript, to collaborate with others in a book's cover design, how to write the words that on…
It's a calm contentment, this feeling inside. (That isn't exactly the vibe my picture is giving you. I was striking a confident pose at the time) The calm contentment comes later, now that the emotional confetti has settled from the air. The third novel waits alongside its brothers in my home's Harry Potter closet (we have a fantastic cupboard under the stairs!) nestled in its box,…
Fireworks and trumpets! The day has arrived when I get to share this new book with you! By way of introduction, I thought want to share the mosaic of my life experiences that helped compose this story. My main character, Liam Finley, is a boy looking for his courage, trying to do what's right, and growing to understand what it means to be a man. Events in my…