Liz Flaherty's Blog, page 174

Cover Reveal: Pleasing The Pirate

   Cover reveal for Pleasing the Pirate by Sharon Cullen   Release Date: February 25, 2014 (preorders available now)   BLURB:   Two hearts are wrenched between love and duty in Sharon Cullen’s tale of a ruthless pirate and the Scottish lass who fills him with desire for something greater than plunder.   With her clan’s crops burned and their property confiscated, Mairi McFadden is desperate to free her brother from imprisonment so that he can take his rightful pl...

It's 2:26 - do you know where your mind is?

I don't, thank goodness, suffer insomnia often. Sometimes, however, I am worried. Or excited. Or went to bed too early--an autumn tendency, when nights are cool and darkness comes way too quickly. It's now 5:41 AM, not particularly early for me, but I've been awake since 2:26. Yowser.

Wait a minute. Did I really say 5:41 (now :42) and 2:26? I didn't say "on the looking toward side of six" and "nearly 2:30"? Well, no, obviously I didn't. But why not? And is this something I do when I write? Do...

Brain Fried

I sat down in front of my computer today and something not so strange happened. Absolutely nothing. My mind went blank. This is the third week. But I decided not to simply turn off the keyboard and forget about it. I decided to peck the keys and see what happens.

A lot of my brain freeze has to do with what's been going on in my working life lately. I've been traveling to various offices in Atlanta. Quite a few of them are far, far from home. One afternoon, it took two hours for me to get home...

Finding the Heart of your character

I hope you don't start to get bored but I'm beginning to think my blog day is turning into realizations brought on by my new work-in-progress. 

This week I wrote one line that to me captured the very essence of my character. It felt as if I'd found the magic key that unlocked her story.

Kind of like the scene in Harry Potter's Sorcerer's Stone in which the characters enter a room full of winged keys and only one of them unlock the door. Maybe that was J.K. Rowling's subtle writing analogy. ...

Goodbyes and Hellos and Moving Ons

Ziva & Tony say goodbye on NCIS
It's been a week for television. Seriously. A week!

Most of the Twittersphere is alive with the ending of Breaking Bad. I never watched that show; no particular reason, it just never appealed to me. So, the finale of BB didn't really make my radar until my social media stream erupted with Tweets and Status Updates and whatnot the other night.

What did make my radar was the second episode in Season 13 of NCIS, a show I came to late (like, the year Kate died) bu...

Seen Them

I have strong opinions. Learning to rein them in a bit hasn't been the easiest. I'm active on Facebook (some say way too much)!

I can *usually* keep my mouth shut about politics and religion. Why get into it over Facebook? Your opinion isn't going to change mine and vise verse.

The other day I made the mistake of mentioning a grammar pet peeve of mine. Hooboy. Did I make a couple of folks mad.

But, since most of the people who will read this blog are readers/writers, I feel I'm a little bit sa...

Opposites attract? Yay or nay?

"Stable and satisfying marriages usually involve two people who are very much alike.” -  eHarmony.com
Duane and I were so very opposite that some of our best friends were betting on the longevity of the marriage—and most of those bets weren’t of the positive variety, unless you count a lot of people being positive it wouldn’t last. Forty-some years later, we’re still together and are still polar opposites. This has led to many, many noisy dialogues or prolonged angry not-talking-right-nows...

A Different Way To Look At Books

a wordle created from the WATGD synopsisI have a certain way I like to look at my books as I'm writing them. Actually two ways: visually and auditory. 
Visually because I've found that pinboards help me keep the little details - the way a character 'looks' as she laughs or how a man can smile without moving his mouth at all - in tact throughout an entire book. I started using Pinterest for that reason because it kept all the images for books on the same board. I've also been known to prin...

A Western Gothic?

Morning everyone!
Thank goodness I woke up to a nice, sunny day! For a change. It's chilly, though. Fall is around the bend. There is snow on the peaks already. I've been working on a story called Starla for now. I name the ms after the heroine until I come up with a title. It's a Black Mountain novella and almost done! Yay!  I'm anxious to move on to something different for awhile. I've been working on the Black Mountain series for quite some time, and while I love my characters, a...

Nan Reinhardt and the Women of Willow Bay

The interview's a little different this week. For one thing, Nan's a great personal friend. For another, I've already read her books and loved them, which gave me some different questions to ask. I hope you enjoy meeting Nan and reading those answers. The buy links aren't here because the new books aren't out until September 26--Happy Birthday, dear Nan...--but don't forget them! For now, though, read on. Her bio and blurbs will be at the end. It's a longer post than usual, but I couldn'...