Liz Flaherty's Blog, page 169

What do characters look like?

I'm surprised at how little thought I give to what the people in my stories look like. I always include hair color, eye color, and basic build, plus maybe a dimple or a scar or a slight limp so the reader make them look however they want. This is the reason I'm happiest when my books don't have people on their covers, or at least, as in the case of
One More Summer, people but no faces.

Realizing this made me wonder how I could know the people so completely without being able to see them comple...

A blast from the past, and how jaded I've become.

Right now, I'm re-reading The Judas Kiss by Victoria Holt. The book was written when I was fourteen, and I think I read it at age fifteen. I found it in the basement of our house. It became one of my favorite books. I don't know what happened to it, but I found a copy on Amazon. The copy I got looked a lot like the one I had at fifteen. Worn pages, a torn and worn out book cover. I loved holding it in my hands. I immediately started reading. I remembered the plot but I didn't remember the sex...

Excederin or Writing?

My house doesn't have heat. Well, it has heat, but it's something called radiant heat that doesn't float down to hobbit level, so we don't turn it on. We bundle up in blankets and gather around our Costco heat dish. And this past week we had snow and ice up in our little NW corner of the woods.

So when I wasn't working, trying to find a ride to work, or worrying about work, I was huddled on the couch under a pile of blankets. 

Then the headache began. Right over my forehead. I thought mayb...

Endless Winter

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This winter has been endless. Long, cold, gray and dreary. So, I’m telling you what you already know, right?

I don’t ski, snowmobile or toboggan. I don’t enjoy the cold. In short, I’m a hot weather, summer loving gal. I love to ride horses, to piddle in my flower garden and to take photos of the mountains around me.

I’ve recently discovered most of my stories are set in the summer months. There are a couple exceptions, but the majority of them take place during the summer. It’s easier to be...

Tribute

Did you all watch “The Beatles: The Night That Changed America — A GRAMMY Salute”? Are you old enough to remember 50 years ago last night? Sometimes it’s sigh-worthy being the oldest person in the room—or in this case in the Wranglers’ round corral. I find myself looking around to see if there’s anyone else there who remembers the things I do. I know D’Ann, Kristi, Shawn, and Margie don’t remember February of 1964, but I do. And the memories are definitely sigh-worthy. In a happy, heart-thump...

Thursday Randomness

 Snow is coming to the Willamette Valley! We could end up with 5-6 inches. Don't laugh, Kristi. That's enough to shut down the Portland Metropolitan area. 

Already they're closing schools early and we have zero accumulation. Zero. Sure, the speck snow is beginning. But, come on.

I always wonder if weather is as big of story everywhere else as it seems to be here. Seriously, if the snow starts piling up, the news will commandeer every station and have "live" coverage, reiterating every...

Put Your Heart in a Book? Of Course!

It's book release week for me, WordWranglers Readers! Which means posting teasers and sharing my new cover (sigh, love it) and general playing around. But it's also a time to think about my characters and books - and a reminder to get started on something new!
You know that old saying, "Put your heart in a book?" Well, for me, that saying is all about setting. Not theme, not plot, not even characters so much as setting. And, I think that is why, more often than not a beach plays an important p...

#AuthorSpotlight: Sharon Cullen

Hey there, WordWrangler Readers! We're very excited to welcome Sharon Cullen to the blog today to shine the spotlight on her historical romance Loving the Earl!


All About Loving the Earl:
Having vowed never to wed again, widowed viscountess Claire Hartford is about to do the unthinkable: travel unaccompanied across the continent in search of a lover. Her adventure begins sooner than expected, when she meets a magnificent cloaked stranger on her ship’s gangplank. He is Lord Blythe, a man wh...

What do you do when there's no happily ever after?

I’m blessed with the friends I have. Old ones, new ones, writing ones, work ones, church ones. I’m blessed with family, too. My other half, our kids and kids-in-law and grands. Siblings and siblings-in-law and my most beloved mother-in-law. And on and on. You have them, too.           Then there are friends—and a few family members, too—that I’m not blessed with anymore. For whatever reason, be it my fault, theirs, or both, the relationships no lon...

Snowpocalypse!

As many of you know, I loathe Atlanta traffic. The events of Tuesday and Wednesday took me to my highest level of pisstivity (and yes, in my world, pisstivity is a word). I left the day job at 2:15p.m. on Tuesday afternoon and got home at 3:30p.m. Wednesday. A twenty-five hour commute!

Here's the deal. At about noon there was heavy snowfall. Unfortunately, the day job decided that we couldn't leave work until 2:00 p.m. None of us knew that the snowpocalypse had begun. It usually takes me ten m...