Historical and Contemporary Romance Author

The First of These Is Love


Many of you may recognize the title of this post as a direct quote from the New Testament. Specifically, it’s from 1st Corinthians, Chapter 13. The verse is often read at Christian weddings because it includes statements such as “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast” and “Love never ends.” Of course, I don’t think Paul…

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What I’m Writing Now…


So, the book I’m working on right now because it’s something I know Julian wanted me to write and because, to a certain extent, the book’s hero is based on him and his inventive mind, is a YA novel called SuperNormal. I started this years ago but set it aside because the plotting and world-building seemed daunting. Now, however, nothing…

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My Eulogy for My Son


Our minister read this for me at the Celebration of Life. I wanted to share it here as a further tribute to my beloved son. When Julian was a baby, he was a terrible sleeper. I always read in the parenting books that newborns slept 12 hours a day, but if Julian slept that much, he did most of it…

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It’s Hard to Take You Seriously When…


For the record, I totally agree with folks who’ve said that the much-discussed, ballyhooed, and denigrated Author Earnings report way overreaches the conclusions that can be drawn from the current data set. Both Dear Author and Courtney Milan have done excellent posts on the subject, so I won’t belabor the point. But the defenders of the traditional publishing model who…

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The Pros and Cons of the Unearned Advance


Because I’m apparently incapable of staying out of trouble lately, I got into a discussion on Mike Shatzkin’s blog the other day about advances and earn-out. In discussing Hugh Howey’s comparison of earnings for authors in traditional publishing versus self-publishing, Mike (who’s an industry consultant) pointed out that it’s hard to pinpoint a traditionally published author’s income based on royalty…

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