When Nara Flynn was inducted into a magical sisterhood, she imagined herself a bulwark against evil, defender of the vulnerable. Escorting an Imperial tax collector did not live up to those expectations. But Nara discovers she can tell her own story, no matter where she is. Nara is my favorite of my many characters. She is …
It was beautiful Milwaukee fall day. I was sitting in one of my coffee shop writing offices (Fiddleheads Coffee on Oakland Ave. in Shorewood, WI), fidgeting because I didn’t feel like writing. Checking my email for the (mumble) time, I saw it. An email from Black Rose Writing. “Oh, no.” Yes, I said it out …
I have to say, although I’ve received a number of rejections from publishers for Spirit Sight, it hasn’t been as dispiriting (see what I did, there?) as I expected it would be. One reviewer said he read it and showed it to his senior editor, but they ultimately decided it wasn’t right for them. The …
“You’re writing about little girls,” she said with a speculative tone, but then with a shrug, she added, “but you do it really well.” That was my writing coach, Kathie Giorgio. We were discussing a scene from Spirit Sight. And it’s true. On both accounts, in my opinion. The story revolves around Minna (13) and …
When I started writing, I wasn’t really thinking about a novel. I wasn’t even thinking about short stories. I had no plan, only vague ideas about a fantastical world and a few interesting characters. I wrote random scenes with only loose, thematic connections. Whatever I woke up with each morning, I put down on paper …
A natural place to start the blog is the curious question of why I started writing in the first place. What possessed me (and I use that word advisedly) to start writing as I enter the third act of my life? It turns out, I’m not unusual in that regard. A lot of people start …
I’ve been told one of the requirements for being a successful author is to have platform. Apparently, that involves a website, social media presence and a blog, among other, more mysterious, things. Some publishers actually want to see the number of connections you have on social media or the number of people on your mailing …
Abria’s Gift is sort of the origin story for the world of Spirit Song. I’m especially fond of it because it was one of the first stories I wrote and went through many iterations as my learned.
My first published short story tells the story of a boy who becomes a hero
