In high school, I floated between a few “cliques.” I ran track, so was sort of a jock. I took honors classes, so was sort of a braniac and proudly sat with my artsy friends at lunch. I was definitely confident in my own skin and felt comfortable with who I hang with. I don’t […]
I never had Valentine’s Day until I was nineteen years old. It’s not due to some glamorous notion my parents had that Valentine’s Day was a “Hallmark Holiday” and chose to buck establishment. The reality was that I grew up in a religion – uhmmm cult — in which all holidays are pagan, therefore evil […]
For my latest young adult novel, I needed to give my heroine a hobby with some backstory. I’ve always had an affinity of all things celestial, and thought it would be fun to research, so I gave her, drumroll please… astronomy. My first in-depth glimpse at the stars was in elementary school when we took […]
I’m pleased to welcome author B. L. Bates to TL’s DreamWorld. Growing up reading speculative fiction, B. L. Bates received a BS in electrical engineering and worked for several years in the computer industry. When a head injury left her totally blind, she turned to writing speculative fiction to stay sane. With her youngest child […]
Writing has a lot to do with the flames of passion. There’s the passion for the craft and path to publication. Why else would one embark on an uphill journey with tons of boulders rolling down the mountain toward you? Just when you out maneuver one, here comes another that tries to knock you down. […]
I have a confession… this book is the very first YA digital book I’ve ever purchased. Sure I’ve downloaded many a free book on the craft of writing and a few free romances that I have yet to ever open, but this is the first I’ve actually paid cold hard cash, errr charged to my […]
My current WIP is a contemporary YA. That said, I’m reading a lot of contemporary stuff of late. I went to the library to pick up a couple books and stumbled across this amazingly brilliant book… Stay With Me by Paul Griffin. The cover probably caught my eye or perhaps it was the title. I […]
The watchband on my Timex broke at the end of October. Unfortunately, it’s one of those watchbands that require you to send it back to the manufacturer for repair. I had to do that with my Nike watch and they got it back to me super fast, but it’s an inconvenience nonetheless. So my husband […]
Check out these fortunes I opened after a delicious dinner of Shrimp Fried Rice and Crab Rangoon. This is so much better than making New Year’s Resolutions. […]
Yesterday, I was typing the date and realized that today would be the once-in-a-lifetime kind of date: 12-12-12. I think I like it better typed 12/12/12. Anywhoo, I got to thinking…why wasn’t I as fascinated when we had 11/11/11 or 10/10/10? My slight fascination started when I heard the story of Margie and Paul on […]
