Writing is notoriously a solitary work, but this writer could not do her job without her writer friends. The fact I’ve been part of five different novella collections means I’ve worked with other writers my entire career. But two writers in particular have been with me through half these collections and I want to talk about them and our work…
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Turning a True Story into a Fictional Tale
How do you turn a true story into a fictional tale? Carefully. The mythology of stories is there are, really, only seven basic plots an author can write. A quick glance around suggests that can’t possibly be true. How can there be millions of books if there are only seven plots? The creativity of the authors–which involves their ability to “recast”…
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Preparing Your Life for a Fire
We’ve lived in high fire areas ever since my husband retired from the Navy. Lake County’s Valley Fire has been raging 35 miles north of our house for more than a week. The local paper today singled out our community as being a high fire area. We’re only six houses from a steep hill covered in dry grass and trees….
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Books and Other Helps in Writing The Gold Rush Christmas
I sat down one November day, not long after I’d signed the contract for The Gold Rush Christmas, and stared at the computer screen. What was this novella about? I’d just finished another project and had been awarded this contract on the basis of a short description. I knew the location and basic plot, but I didn’t know the characters…
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A Pioneer Christmas: Reprise 2015
Barbour Publishing has just rereleased A Pioneer Christmas Collection, two years after it was first published. Now’s your chance to get and enjoy a copy if you missed it the first time around! As one of the nine authors, I’m pleased to see the book again–full of fine stories that can entertain and give readers a gift of their own as Christmas…
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But I Didn't Want That Past
Some friends and I have been discussing the past today and more than one grew up with an alcoholic parent. In the midst of our discussion, I reminded them of this: “It’s no surprise to God what family we’ve been born into. He knew what he was doing when he put me in the family he did all those years ago….
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