My Creative Process

    My Creative Process

    I am a “pantser,” not a plotter. This means I write “by the seat of my pants” and do not use an outline. Back in school, when we were supposed to write an outline for an essay, I’d write the essay first, then the outline. I’ve always hated them! For me, structure strangles creativity instead…

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    Alternate Opening / Deleted Scene

    Alternate Opening / Deleted Scene

    It took me nearly three decades to write the four-book Lazare Family Saga. Over these years, I wrote at least a dozen opening scenes, set in different places and times in the point-of-view of different characters. Where does this story begin? I kept asking myself and exploring different answers. Here’s an alternate opening scene that…

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    Flashback: The Year It All Began

    Flashback: The Year It All Began

    Over the next few months, I’ll be reviving some of my most substantial, evergreen newsletters as blog posts so that anyone can read them. And so it begins! The year was 1994. Schindler’s List won the Best Picture Oscar. Jeff Bezos founded Amazon. (Remember the days when it sold only books and you got a free bookmark…

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    On Second Thought…

    On Second Thought…

    “Ring out the old, ring in the new…” — Alfred, Lord Tennyson, In Memoriam (1850) In November-December 2021, I completed a new edit of the entire Lazare Family Saga. I am a perfectionist; I could honestly go through these long books every year and find things to change. But I shall endeavor to be satisfied…

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    What I’m Working On Now

    What I’m Working On Now

    Now that I’ve published all four books in my Lazare Family Saga, I’ve had interviewers and readers asking about my next project. My answer will disappoint many. It disappoints me too. I wish I had the luxury to write full-time, to dive into something new. The reality is, I do not. My time and energy…

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    The Sweetest Medicine

    The Sweetest Medicine

    The title of the fourth and final book in my series, Sweet Medicine, used to be the title for the whole story, back when I thought that story was a single novel. I like the phrase because it’s a seeming oxymoron—a pattern I ended up using for all my titles. How can medicine be sweet?…

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    What’s in a (Character) Name?

    What’s in a (Character) Name?

    In Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare famously wrote: What’s in a name? that which we call a roseBy any other name would smell as sweet;So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call’d,Retain that dear perfection which he owesWithout that title. But he gave those words to a lovestruck teenager. I suspect Shakespeare himself felt differently,…

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    When the Research Rabbit Hole Leads You Back Home

    When the Research Rabbit Hole Leads You Back Home

    It’s funny how I’ll puzzle over a story problem for months only to realize that the answer has been all but staring me in the face. Although most of my historical series, the Lazare Family Saga, is set in South Carolina and (what is now) Wyoming, I live in Northern Virginia near Washington, D.C. That…

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    Why Go Indie?

    Why Go Indie?

    The short answer is: I had no choice. The slightly longer answer: If I hadn’t, you wouldn’t know my novels exist. But let’s back up a moment. You may be asking yourself not why but “what is indie?” It’s a term that’s also used in music and film. “Indie” means “this artwork is independently produced;…

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