People seem to like this image, which had nearly a thousand likes on my TikTok, so I thought I'd share it with you. Buwan, or "Bu" as he's known to his friends, is the somewhat goofy guy in Beautiful & Terrible Things who nonetheless spouts nuggets of wisdom on important issues like coping with depression, … Continue reading Are There Only 2 Kinds of People in the World? / AI Reality Check
A heartfelt thank you to those who downloaded Beautiful & Terrible Things during the 2-day sale to celebrate the book's one-year anniversary! Would you believe that together we vaulted the novel into the #1 slot on Amazon's Romance Literary Fiction list for the day? Traditional romance novels follow a very specific formula that my book … Continue reading New Trailer, and What’s in a Name?
When does a protest become a riot? More important, why does a protect become a riot? I dug deep into that topic before writing my extended protest scene for Beautiful and Terrible Things, to ensure its authenticity. (I have, thankfully, never been at a protest that turned violent.) As I suspected, a number of forces … Continue reading Book Excerpt: Why Does a Protest Become a Riot?
I'm pretty excited to tell you that Beautiful and Terrible Things has won another book award! And this time, it's a first-place win, as opposed to the finalist and honorable mentions received to date. My contemporary novel was named "2024's Best Literary Book of the Year" in the Indies Today Awards. And, hot off the … Continue reading Best Literary Fiction Book of the Year, and Musing on Genre
Here's a little chicken-related food for thought...or should I say "chicken feed".... 🙂 (Thanks to Friendly Farm in Dublin, NH, which displays this sign in their chicken coop.)
I don't usually talk about non-book products here, but this is too good not to share. You know those people who love books so much they would bathe in them if they could? Or maybe they just read in the bathtub? (Guilty.) I recently came across the perfect gift for those people -- actual bars … Continue reading Book Lovers Soaps
Time to get back into Fun Friday Photos! Life is too short not to celebrate and share funny bits. My regular followers know animals are a common theme for me. So today's Fun Friday Photo is animal-themed. I call it the "Animal Gang". I'm guessing that in this animal gang, the llama and the Scotch … Continue reading Fun Friday Photo: Animal Gang
"Losing people" is a fun topic? In this case of this fun Friday photo, yep! Loss is disconcerting at best, tragic at worst. Rarely welcomed. So as a fan of black humor to help us through difficult times, I really enjoyed this meme. Hope you do, too. It comes courtesy of Nature Blows My Mind … Continue reading Fun Friday Photo: Losing People
Allow me to lay out a story of two English languages, which will—I promise—culminate with a funny story about the phrase, “May I pinch your seat?” My editor at TouchPoint Press for my last novel Horseshoes and Hand Grenades was the talented and delightful Kimberly Carlisle Coghlan. She recently re-shared this funny post on “Being … Continue reading May I Pinch Your Seat? Differences Between American & British English
Today's laugh comes from Reader's Digest and is something authors, social media users and pretty much anyone who writes can relate to! 🙂 If you didn't love commas before, you might after thinking about this. Of course, for professional writers, commas are a necessary evil, a wondrous organizer of thought, a typo waiting to happen, … Continue reading Fun Friday Photo: Comma Love