Writing
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Writing Through the Holidays (What that looks like for me)
For many folks, from the end of November to the beginning of January is holiday season. From American Thanksgiving to Hanukkah, Christmas to Kwanzaa, folks around the globe have lots of festivals to celebrate. So how does that impact you as a writer? For some, the holidays do not lend themselves to moments of private
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Gift Ideas for Writers
With the holidays right around the corner, it’s time to pick out gifts for those folks on your shopping list. As the years go by, I often find it trickier to find the perfect present for the friends and family on my gift list. One of the things I like to do is make a
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Reward Yourself for Writing Wins
One thing I learned about myself is that I wasn’t good at recognizing the wins in regard to my writing. Unless it was something big, like getting a piece published in a magazine, getting a request for a full from an agent, or publishing a book. But those wins can take time or maybe not
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What I’m Thankful for in my 2025 Writing Life
Even though I’m Canadian and our Thanksgiving is in October, as a nod to my American writer friends on their Thanksgiving happening today, here’s what I’m thankful for in my writing life: BOOKS As both an avid reader and a writer, my world is populated with an abundance of books. Fiction in multiple genres, writing
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Adjusting to a Winter Writing Routine
I’m lucky to be able to live in a place that offers four distinct seasons. Spring usually doesn’t start until late in April and continues until late in June. True summer weather lasts through July and August, although nights can get chilly near the end of the month. Our fall is often short, but September
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No NaNoWriMo – now what?
Until this year, writers have always associated November with NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), a global writing event where authors joined and attempted to write 50,000 words in 30 days (or 1667 words/day). For many, this meant finishing a rough draft of a novel, or at least a good portion of one. For others, it
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Prompts for Writing a Spooky Story
For many, October is often known as “spooky month”, despite the fact that really, it only has one day associated with all things spooky: October 31st. But Halloween month or not, this list of prompts is for any writers who are looking to pen a spooky story this fall. SPOOKY SETTINGS A figure in the
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Exciting News to Share: I have a book coming out in 2027
For those of you who have been following my weekly blog posts, a while back I mentioned that I started querying my psychological thriller, They’re Watching, and my domestic suspense novel, Amorous Obsession. I’ve sent out approximately fifty queries for each of them, had some requests for partials and fulls, and even got some coveted
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Literary Elements Part 5: Conflict
In this final part of my blog series on literary elements I address when writing a novel, I will focus on conflict. Every story needs conflict or else there really isn’t anything to drive the story. As in our lives, our characters must face both internal and external conflicts. Internal Conflict: a struggle within yourself.
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Literary Elements Part 4: Plot
What is Plot? For many, plot means story. But plot alone is a series of connected events within the story that not only reveals what’s happening, but how one thing leads to another. Your book’s plot will have a beginning, a middle and an ending. There are so many different ways to construct your book’s