The life of an author is often lonely-we work in private, staring at computer screens, occasionally “socializing” by way of electronic media.

And then there are the field trips. Like the one I took last weekend, to Kent County, Delaware (home to Dover, Delaware.)


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I’ve never participated in NaNoWriMo. (Insert long list of reasons why, starting with my early indignant exclamations that drafting 50K words is not writing a novel, and ending with my later understanding that most people who do NaNo seriously understand that fact, but I still have always kept my own writing schedule…)

But this year, I sorta, kinda ( Read more... )

Last week, I wrote about the challenges I face, being a conflict-averse person, writing novels that turn directly on emotional conflicts between characters. That post seemed to spark a lot of interest, mostly from other conflict-averse writers. Their comments have led me to think more about how conflict works among family and friends-people who are ( Read more... )

Sometimes, all sorts of creative strands come together - and the result can be wholly unexpected. Wholly enjoyable, too, with a healthy dose of learning and making new connections.

Recently, we’ve been watching Ken Burns’s remastered The Civil War. I’ve seen the entire series once, and I’ve watched several segments multiple times (usually, after we ( Read more... )

Saturday marked the 15th National Book Festival.  I remember going to the first one, which was held on the National Mall, in massive tents, with chairs that tilted more than a little on the grassy lawn. The Festival was a brain-child of Laura Bush, and it brought thousands of readers to a common space, where they received brightly colored cloth ( Read more... )

So here’s a situation…  What would you do?

You and a companion spend a long morning traipsing around a national battlefield in near-100-degree heat. Around 1:45, you realize you’re ravenous. At 2:00 p.m., you enter the Tavern, the only restaurant visible on Main Street of the town nearest the battlefield. A sign says, “Seat Yourself,” which you do ( Read more... )

I spent the majority of last week at the Romance Writers of America annual meeting, in New York City. When it came time to register for the conference, I almost chose not to go-I don’t have any ongoing traditional contracts right now, and I parted ways with my agent earlier this year, so there weren’t those all-important dinners, lunches, and other ( Read more... )

Wow, is it Monday already?  I feel like I’ve been living in a warped zone of time, where days mistakenly drop away from my calendar, without explanation or warning.

In other words, I’ve had a cold for the past week.

We spent Presidents Day weekend up at Gifford Pinchot State Park in Pennsylvania, huddling inside a modern cabin as the temperatures ( Read more... )

We added a day to the already three-day weekend last week and headed down to the Outer Banks, in North Carolina.  A relative owns a gigantic “cottage” there, a beach house that’s intended to sleep around 20.  We’ve found that we love, love, love going down there in the heart of winter, when the vast majority of businesses are boarded up and the ( Read more... )

::waving madly::  I’m back!  (Yeah, yeah, with all the holiday craziness, I know you were barely aware I was gone!)

About three years ago, my parents decided that they wanted to take the family on a big extravagant trip to mark their fiftieth anniversary.  My father, who missed a career as a stellar travel agent, did a lot of investigating and a ( Read more... )