Writing Inspiration: Keep Going

Can anything be sadder than work left unfinished? Yes; work never begun. -– Christina Rossetti Horrified by the racial prejudice, bigotry, threats, violence, threats of violence – displayed during the primaries leading up to the 2008 Presidential election, I was desperate for comfort and hope. I prayed that the behavior displayed by some of my […]

Settings – A Celebration of Memphis

I love my hometown of Memphis TN. I’ve lived in various places around the country but when it was time to settle, I chose home. Memphis figures prominently in both my novel as well as many of the short stories I’ve published over the years. Part of me rebels that the only thing people think […]

Writing Inspiration: A Room Of Your Own

Writing is finally about one thing: going into a room alone and doing it. Putting words on paper that have never been there in quite that way before. -– William Goldman One of the scariest parts about writing fiction? Being in a room alone with nothing more than you and a blank computer screen. But […]

Writing Inspirations: What’s Your Story?

Don’t forget — no one else sees the world the way you do, so no one else can tell the stories that you have to tell.-– Charles de Lint Several years ago, early into my fiction workshop at VONA, our facilitator expressed a similar sentiment. He started the discussion: “Why are you the one who […]

Sensations

A successful life is one that is in balance. My soon-to-be-completed novel, KAOS, features not only a protagonist, as mentioned here last week, but also his nemesis, not to be confused with the antagonist, who I’ll introduce at a later date. By definition: Nemesis, winged balancer of life, dark-faced goddess, daughter of Justice, Other definitions: […]

The E.N.D.

Man, I wish . . . no, I can’t wait until I finally write these tiny but powerful two words at the end of my novel, KAOS. I’ve been working on this story for the past couple years. Several times, I walked away or set it aside for other projects but Micah and Ima would […]

Visions

The protagonist in my soon-to-debut novel, KAOS, is Detective Micah Langston Hughes. He’s a Memphis cop, task force leader and boy, does he have problems with the ladies. In the book, I’ve described Micah as six-feet four, caramel complexion, with hazel eyes. However, in his more dangerous moments, when he is creating havoc and chaos, […]

Work Smart, Not Hard

Enjoyed a very well-done presentation  today on marketing and self-promotion by Heather Miles this morning at the River City Romance Writers monthly meeting. I’ve been slacking . . . or more precisely, I haven’t given social media the time and attention it deserves. She made me realize I’ve got to step up my game. I […]

2016: A New Year . . . New Love

Y’all have heard me say before that I don’t do New Year’s resolutions . . . and I don’t. They never last past MLK day anyway. Instead, I prefer to reflect on last year’s goals and objectives and use my successes and failures to plan for the next twelve months. First and foremost, I want […]