Here is an excerpt from my work in progress (WIP) Hypnotic Deception: Reluctant Demon Hunter Series #2.   Kassidy Spence continues to struggle with her unwanted gift of demon huntng and her feelings about moving on after the death of her war hero husband. When the black FBI-issue car pulled up in front of the converted Victorian mansion Julie and I called home, I mustered the good manners to thank him for bringing me home. “Do you two rent this whole house?” He speaks. “Oh no, someone converted the old mansion into five apartments.” I pointed to the third floor. “We live in the... Read More

Today while working on They All Died Smiling, on my mad dash to 50,000 words this month for NaNoWriMo,  I needed to deal with an angry phone call without suddenly introducing swear words into an otherwise clean book. At meetings of the Northwest Arkansas Writer’s Workshop, when an author is reading their allowed five pages, sometimes there is a cuss word on the page but the author replaces it with something more for a G-rated audience. We travelers talked about cussing and steamy scenes in writing on the road back home.  None of our group prefers Rated-R type content. I’m pretty... Read More

Welcome back to another Write On Purpose book review. Each week, I review a well-written book, highlighting what makes it good from the reader’s perspective and what writing skills and techniques make it an irresistible read. Thus, each review serves both writers and readers. Here I am more than halfway through National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and still on track with my own novel-in-progress, They All Died Smiling. People who like my upcoming book will LOVE Daughter of the howling Moon, a .gripping paranormal suspense story of an epic battle between good and evil. Before I dive into... Read More

How do you bring your minor characters to life? I’m participating in National Novel Writing Month, NaoWriMo, My book is They All Died Smiling, a paranormal suspense story. Today I was thinking about minor characters and what I do to make the come to life. Honestly, even the minor characters typically simply “come to me.” Occasionally I base one off of someone from my real life, but mostly they present themselves to me. When I need a minor character, I like to know one thing that makes them stand out. It’s not necessary to invent a whole back story for them.When I needed... Read More