Blog Stories
Remember, Mental Habits for Believers is on sale until Nov. 9
Just a quick reminder for you, in case you missed the date. Mental Habits for Believers: 28 Days to New Thought Patterns is on sale between November 2 and 9 for 99 cents in eBook format. I hope you'll take advantage of this special sale and this special book, which can improve your outlook for the rest of your life. You are more accustomed to my fiction and to hear (read) me talking to you about characters, settings, or upcoming novels. I guess I'm primarily a fiction writer. But really,...
Seasons and Other Changes
I hope your month of October is as crisp, clear, and exhilarating as mine is. The leaves haven’t started turning yet, though the acorns have begun to fall. (I have 5 oak trees in my backyard!) You can hear the acorns pinging and clacking on the roof, carport, and any other hard surface. It doesn’t last long, then the fall symphony will change from sound to color. Can’t wait! It’s great weather for biking, and this year I decided to get more disciplined. Discipline is less necessary than I...
Keep Dreaming
I’ve always been a gal who had a lot of dreams and lists of goals. Every January, I’d spend part of a day thinking, daydreaming about what I wanted to accomplish that year. Of course, I usually had way too many objectives to accomplish, but having many ideals meant I’d usually accomplish at least a few of them. In our current days, it’s gotten harder to dream. We wonder where we’ll be in our lives a year from now. Will Covid still be an unwelcome fixture on the landscape of our lives? Will we...
A North Carolina Story for You (and news)
Hello, friends! I hope July has you enjoying life, being entertained, or otherwise doing something fun, and taking some resting and family time. I’m trying to take advantage of the fact that in North Carolina, July and August are very hot. (In other words, making the best of it!) I’ll cut back a little on my French teaching this summer to focus on finishing the Sydney book and tweaking my website. I’ll do some brainstorming on the Eden book, the last in the series, as well as start dreaming...
Perspective
The other day I was thinking about perspective. We drift away from it, pushed or sucked into the wrong thinking by the world, distractions, pressures around us. But, like a bird returning to its perch, we remember, and with a sigh of relief, of joy even, we regain perspective. We may think the country is going crazy, irreparably upended. And the whole world, along with it. We may wonder and worry about the future. Perspective says: It’s always been this way. The events change, but there’s...
Already May
It’s the month of May, and I’ll bet your May has started out differently than usual. Often full of graduations, vacation preparations, and other transitions, this May is still virtual on a lot of those things, but slowly opening up. How is it going in your corner of the country? We’re still hearing dire news from many parts of the world, though, in the U.S., the talk is about vaccines. Getting them or not, or when, or what will happen when we do. Some lines are being drawn, a sort of vaccine...
Getting Books (Especially for Book Nerds and Other Story Lovers)
How do you get books? Do you like a variety of methods? How do you like to read? Paper? A Kindle? Audio? What are your reading habits? Do you binge-read a series? Read only on vacation? Do you buy the next book an author publishes? We all have our reading habits and preferences. I know people who love the feel of a paperback book. I like that, too, and if they were priced the same as eBooks and didn’t take up any space at all (and cost no postage), I’d probably just buy paperbacks! Where do...
Fears and Worries
Does this look familiar to you? A thread of irritation needled Bree. How could Lauren not worry even a bit? Bree wished she knew Lauren’s secret for taking life in stride, bumps and all. Sometimes her (business) partner was almost too relaxed. Bree felt enough stress for both of them, but her worry wasn’t going to rescue them from disaster. (from Prodigals in Provence) Indeed. How could Lauren...
A Bit of Backstory
Hello, reading friends. How are things going for you, now that we’re going on a year? How many of you, like me, thought it would all be done by last summer? Back then, people called it the “new normal”, and I bristled. No, it can’t be the new normal. It’ll change, I told myself. Then I realized that “normal” comes in seasons. It doesn’t stay the same. It shifts day by day without our notice, like a large landmass or a glacier. Then one day, we realized we have changed, grown. One way or the...
Balance for the Year Ahead
I hope you are staying warm wherever you are! It’s nippy and gray even here in N.C. Welcome! I want to give a sincere and warm welcome to those of you who recently joined my Kyle Hunter corner following a Blog Tour that featured my book, A Promise in Provence. The book was showcased on several Christian fiction websites. I’m so glad you’re here! I’m guessing you’re a distinguished reader who appreciates a good, inspiring book about imperfect characters with big dreams (and things to learn.)...
What do I mean by Happy New Year?
Happy New Year! We express this formula each year by email, text, and the spoken word. Our wish expressed a desire for a year that is peaceful, happy, healthy—what we’d call a “good” year. We look back on certain periods and say, “That was a good year.” I’m guessing no one will say that about 2020. When you hear the phrase this year, it's often joined by, "It has to be better than this year!" We began 2020 with optimism for the new year ahead of us, armed with the well-wishes of our friends...
Julia Redesigned is Available!
Good morning! I have great news! Just in time for your Christmas reading, Julia Redesigned is available in paperback and eBook. As you may know, Julia Redesigned is the second book in the Second Chance Series. In case this is all new to you, I’ll give you some background on the series. In The Second Chance Series, you’ll meet Marissa, Julia, Sydney, and Eden, four college friends who, twenty-five years later, renew their friendships as they find themselves empty nesters and single again....