For the love of herding dogs
All three of my novels include pets as part of the story. There’s Sunny in Proving Her Claim and Maddie in Lone Tree Claim. I had intended to switch it up in the third book and put a cat into the story. And I did.
Perfect or imperfect characters?
Character flaws are part of an engaging arc, and they come in a variety of flavors.
Sequel or Series?
I didn’t t write a Sequel: a “what happened next” book with the same characters. Instead, I wrote a story with new characters: Katie and Jake. So, I’m writing a Series.
Top Ten Books for 2023
It’s the time of year when Top Ten Lists start popping up, so I decided to look through my GoodReads list for 2023 and see which books I rated the highest. Interestingly, my list contained a good mix of fiction and non-fiction books
Acronyms for authors
Every industry has jargon and acronyms. The writing and publishing industry is no different. Even after publishing two books, I still find myself Googling some of these codewords.
What I learned that helped me write book #2
This time around, I had a better idea of how to structure the plot, how to develop the characters, and how to manage that pesky Point of View issue.
Literature connects us
The Outlander series describes a period of time that is foreign to most of us. It’s the literature that connects us to the events of that time.
Naming characters
A reader asked me, “How do you name your characters?” That’s a great question.
Writing (and Riding) the Dakotas
At this year’s Western Writers of America convention I was asked to participate and provide a South Dakotan’s take on Writing Dakota