Writings, Wanderings

December 2017. I sat at a booth in an Eat 'n' Park and caught up with a friend on our life over the last year. At the time I was still smarting from my two failed attempts to break the four-hour mark in a marathon. Although my friend encouraged me to look at the positive--I did run TWO marathons within five weeks after all--I couldn't shake the funk of having put in months of training and not being successful in my goal. February 2018. My sister informs me that the Marine Corps Marathon--one of the few races at that distance on my wish-list--is changing their registration. Every other year it had been lottery-style, but this year there would be a fifteen-minute window when anyone who registered (and paid the fee) would be an automatic entry. The only catch? That window was in the morning when I was supposed to be interacting with a classroom of Spanish students. Registration day arrived--and with it a school cancellation. I was amazed at this moment working out, but this wa...

Hard to believe but we are halfway through February already! I am unfortunately behind in my children's books reading goal for the year, but I do have a few more selections to share with you. Scuba Bunnies by Christine Loomis was actually a January read that I missed in my previous wrap-up...This adorable book followed several bunnies as they traveled from bath time into the ocean waters, all in engaging yet simple poetry. It would be fun to discuss their different animal encounters and find out what animal your child would most like to meet (I just hope they won't be disappointed that there aren't any sea creatures in their bathtub!) Bats at the Ballgame by Brian Lies is a beautiful addition to this series. With well-done drawings and an engaging rhyme pattern, I definitely recommend reading this one out loud together. Plus, there are a lot of cute parallels between the bats' baseball game and human ones. The storyline of Where to, Little Wombat b...

I am currently in the editing stage of the third book in the European Tour Trilogy. My process involves printing out a copy and reading through it for major issues and hopefully catching some typos and grammar errors although that is not the main goal yet. As I was playing around with one segment of a scene, I thought it would be fun to show you the original and then compare it to the revised one (which might still not be the final one!) Original                 “Not as gorgeous as you,” Vivian smiled, reached up to take his hand as Marcus stepped into their seat. Lucy felt his lips tighten but managed not to grimace. At least she thought her expression stayed neutral.                 “You missed the train for a guy?” Aubrye called back up, the disapproval staying out of her voice but clear on her face. However, both Vivian and Corinne were facing the front of the bus...

I am excited to share the cover of my upcoming release Decision in Paris !  Isn't it beautiful? The cover artist and I spent several hours over two meetings brainstorming and discussing ideas. She also read the story to get a better idea of a direction to design. She was awesome.

Where am I with my writing this month? 1. The first novella of my Suitcases & Love trilogy is back from its editor. I have to go through and make decisions about which changes to keep, modify, or ignore. I am meeting with the cover designer next week. I am also receiving feedback from my beta readers so that will play into the editing process of the final draft over the next few weeks. I am still aiming for a late February release of the Kindle version (Feb 28 actually!). 2. The second novella has made it to its second draft. Next step will be to get it to the editing eyes of someone besides myself. 3. I have written a short story of almost 14K words that serves as a prequel companion story to the trilogy. I am not sure yet of the path I will follow for its release but it will be available sometime this year as well. 4. I am working on two other short stories of 2K-5K words. I really don't know the publishing plan for these two, but I am enjoying the writing. One of the...

As the year draws a close ("Auld Lang Syne" is playing on my TV as I write this), I find myself reflecting on the big moments. Three stand out to me, not just because they were big but because they also forced me to face my fears. 1. Cuba.     I spent two weeks in Cuba as part of a summer program for teachers through the Stone Institute at Tulane University. The travel wasn't the scary part--it was being with a group of people I had never met. However, I was blessed with a roommate that got me and developed other friendships. By not letting my nervousness about meeting lots of new people get in my way, I got to experience Cuban culture from a different perspective than most tourists. I listened to lectures from a former diplomat, current teachers, women involved in the literacy program from the beginning of the Revolution, and a rap duo. I toured old Havana, a top art museum, a farm run by Hershey's company, Che's burial site, and the UNESCO city of...

Over a decade ago I discovered NaNoWriMo which stands for National Novel Writing Month. This is a challenge to write 50,000 words of fiction in one month, enough for a novel. The first year I tried it with a personal goal of just hitting 20K. With my success at that number, the following year I went for the full 50K and have "won" eleven times now. My 2013 NaNo project eventually became Through Hammers and Verse: Revealing Love . This year I took a different approach to NaNoWriMo. Instead of writing a brand new idea, I used the time to make significant progress on my romance trilogy of novellas tentatively titled Suitcases & Love . I had finished the first draft with one round of revision of book one before September but with school kicking into gear, the second book about Aubrye and Greg had languished. NaNo proved to be the jumpstart I needed. Although the first few days I fell behind the optimal word count (1667 words per day), I caught up after the first weeken...

Through Hammers and Verse: Revealing Love has a special milestone this month! My debut novel is now available through Barnes and Noble on their Nook device. I love knowing that this special story can reach even more people through this new platform. Click here to go check it out. Do you own a Nook?