By Susan Van Kirk For the past eight years, I’ve written a series called the Endurance Mysteries. Their setting is the small town of Endurance in west central Illinois. The same main characters inhabit each book, so over these years I’ve grown to know these imaginary people quite well. It would be easy to keep […]

By Terry Ambrose  One million words. It’s a big number. Right? Somewhere along the way during my writing journey, I passed that number. In fact, I’m probably closing in on two million now. Originally, I started out writing a psychological thriller. I soon realized I couldn’t do it. My villains were way too wimpy. Unfortunately, […]

By Rosalie Spielman Being a military spouse makes it challenging to have a career. Due to moving often, if you didn’t have a “portable career” like nursing or teaching, it’s very hard to find work when experience is required. I’ve noticed many of my peers have gone into creative endeavors. Myself, I played with the […]

By Saralyn Richard The isolation of the pandemic led to creative solutions, and I was fortunate to have several book club meetings by Zoom or FaceTime. These were exciting get-togethers, given the circumstances, but now being able to get together in person has provided a thrill beyond any gatherings on Zoom. Such was my experience […]

To: You – readers whom I adore From: Me – Debra H. Goldstein When: April 19, May 17, June 21, and July 19, 2022 Time: 7 PM CST/ 8 PM EST (and you can figure out the rest) What: A celebration of each of the Sarah Blair books … let me explain: It appears that […]

I’m writing this from the beach. Ostensibly, I’m on a writing retreat, but while it is a time to hopefully zero in on finishing my newest work in progress, it is far more than that. It is a few days to visit with friends without being bombarded by family and civic responsibilities. And, for me, […]

By Vicki Batman OOH, OOH, Look at This Pretty Thing What draws you to a book–the author, the cover, the back cover copy? Do you read the first page? For me, all of the above, especially for a new-to-me author. Something about the cover is attractive–the colorful picture, the hunky hunk, the author’s name, perhaps, […]

By Kassandra Lamb I bore easily, which isn’t always a good thing. About a third of my closet is full of impulse buys that I liked because they were “something different,” but then only wore a few times. They varied a little too much from my normal style. This tendency to bore easily is part […]

When I think about Valentine’s Day, which today is, I think about it in a commercialized sense. Although the holiday’s origin is related to two saints, I had to look that up on Wikipedia. I’m more familiar with the cards, boxes of heart shaped candy, special dinners, and even boxers with cupids and hearts that […]

By C. Hope Clark The most enticing books for me to read spin setting into character. In other words, the story wouldn’t be nearly as delicious without a well-defined sense of place. Even more so if the story couldn’t exist without that specific locale. If a story is in Los Angeles, then it needs to […]