Saturday evening, my daughter’s Brownie scout troop drove to Huntersville (about 45 minutes away) to tour a historic home dating back to 1797. Latta Plantation was having a Christmas celebration, so we were [...]

I’ve had a couple of questions about revisions, so I thought I’d share my revision process for a problem that was really getting on my nerves. (Boring post here! Most of us don’t [...]

There’s an interesting phenomenon that happens at the pool or the playground. One child calls, “Mom!” and about ten women swing around. Not a good thing to have in our books, though. It’s [...]

After I write this (right now it’s Wednesday morning), I’m going to knock out revisions on two separate books, then get back to writing my second book of the Memphis Barbeque series. This [...]

I was Christmas shopping for my family last month when I saw an interesting looking top—for me. Since it was on sale, I went ahead and grabbed it. Nothing like shopping for yourself [...]

My daughter and I went to see the Nutcracker ballet on Sunday afternoon. The ballet was amazing. The Tchaikovsky music was beautiful and the dancers were so graceful. It was easy to get [...]

My daughter’s best friend is Natalie. Natalie’s parents moved here from South America nine years ago. I always enjoy going to their house. I think it’s because I’m so aware how different we [...]

It was a great Thanksgiving. Our family enjoyed a trip to South Carolina to visit my parents. My sister stayed in the Charlotte area to have dinner with her husband’s family there. I’ll [...]

The fantasy: I knock out a ton of writing at the beginning of the day. The reality: I’m frequently distracted by email when I first wake up. It seems vital to me that [...]

I’m still in the point of my life where I’m reading a lot of Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen. Sometimes I even feel like I’m continuing the storytelling tradition by retelling the [...]

Isn’t it funny what sticks in your head sometimes? You’d think that holiday memories would be comprised of some really Martha Stewart moments of hearth and home. A beautiful centerpiece, an exquisite meal. [...]

It’s a rough world out there right now, job-wise. It’s even rough for characters in manuscripts. I’ve found that if one of my characters isn’t doing their job in telling the story, then [...]

Lately I’ve read some interesting articles online on a variety of writing-related topics. There have been some excellent posts by commenters on this blog, too—but I’m thinking many of my readers read your [...]

One popular stock character in books and film is the nosy neighbor. Have you had a nosy neighbor before? They collect a hodgepodge of random and fairly useless information about their neighbors. If [...]

I’m not sure I’ve ever been great at paying attention to the world around me. It has to be pretty spectacular for me to notice it. When I was a college freshman, I [...]

I was putting my daughter to bed the other night and she said, “I want to stay with you forever!” Of course I told her she was sweet, and continued tucking her in. [...]

I’ve gotten a couple of questions lately about using Facebook, so I thought I’d do a post on it. If y’all have any other questions, please feel free to comment or shoot me [...]

My daughter would balance on the slippery edge of the bathtub for what seemed like an eternity before stepping out onto the mat. No holding on to the side for her. “Oh my [...]

Sometimes it’s a challenge to act like you’re a professional person when you write. People don’t really get writing, sometimes. They know we’re at home, but they really don’t know what we’re doing [...]

I’ve always been forgetful, but this month has taken my little problem to a new low. I forgot my parent/teacher conference at my daughter’s school. I took my daughter to a Christmas play [...]

My husband and I started dating when I was a freshman in college. This will be exactly 20 years ago December 7th and means that I’ve known him longer than I haven’t known [...]

The other night I was sleeping and I pulled a muscle in my back. “*&$#@!!!” “What’s wrong?” asks my husband, alarmed at the 3:00 a.m. cursing. “I pulled something!” “How?” “I think I [...]

I’ll admit that I’m not one of those people who does a great job with social cues. In fact, I frequently don’t know what to make of exchanges I have with other people. [...]

It seems that, through the course of the years, my sense of humor has gotten dryer. Or something. I was at the coffee shop for my caffeine fix and saw that the drip [...]

Unfortunately, my son’s technology teacher got very frustrated with his 7th grade class Monday. One of the students hadn’t followed directions and printed out 8 sheets on the computer printer instead of the [...]

My daughter and I were riding down the road in the car and she was chattering about one of her favorite subjects—birthdays and birth places. She’s very impressed with herself that she was [...]

Originally, I despised the whole idea of Twitter. Now, I’ve got to give Twitter a big thumbs-up. Want to find out what I think its advantages are? Please pop over and visit Terry’s [...]

After 38 years of setting the clock back, you’d think I’d expect the changes. But each fall I’m surprised how dark it is in the late afternoon. Every morning I’m surprised how light [...]

I’m not a horror writer ordinarily, but I’m going to type in a sentence now that will strike terror in the hearts of many of my female readers: I went jeans shopping yesterday. [...]

My daughter was worn out last weekend from being out late the night before. She was about to have another late evening, due to a friend’s party. Since she’s eight years old, I [...]