Liz Flaherty's Blog, page 78

Goodnight, Old Man

by Margie Senechal

Today's my Monday. Usually I try and get my blog written on Wednesday so I can clean it up and post it in the morning. But, yesterday, my father-in-law died after a short battle with cancer. And so, I didn't get a chance.

Last week I read a book called I Liked My Life which dealt with an unexpected death and the aftermath for the family. One of the things I loved in this book was how the victim watched over her family and perhaps influenced some of their decisions. I'd like...

#WriterWednesday: Taking The Time

Here we are in the middle of another week - are you feeling the stress of getting kids to school, meeting deadlines, fixing breakfast-lunch-dinner everyday infinitum, attending unlimited meetings? And then coming home to write and meet deadlines and critique and revise and submit...and then get beaten down by rejections? Yeah, it's a vicious circle and yet we writers do it all the time because...sometimes we get that high of a 'we'd like to see more' or 'we'd like to buy your book'.

I live for...

Selling Books Is Very Cool

I realize the correct response to that post title is most likely, "Well . . . yeah," along with a one of those eye-roll kind of looks. I know, I know. I sell books all the time--there's rarely been a whole week when I haven't sold at least one book. But this past Friday, I had an ad for Once More From the Top for 99 cents on BookBub and man, I am selling books! Liz, I promise I'll stop talking about this soon--honest!

Right off, I have to tell you that it's damn near impossible to get an ad w...

The discovery journey

This picture doesn't have a single thing to do with this week's blog. I took it because I'm trying to lose weight--again, no, still--and I was so impressed because it's the only selfie I ever took that I didn't discard from the phone immediately. Anyway, here is the "before" picture.


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Isn't it amazing how you keep discovering things about yourself no matter how old you are?

I told Nan the other day that I was going to make an attempt to write straight through without going back and changing t...

On Vacation!

When you read this, my husband and I will be on vacation in beautiful Nova Scotia. If I'm lucky enough to have wifi in any of the hotels we're staying at, I'll share some pictures with you next week.


In the meantime, I'm going to update my reading list. Last weekend my husband and I attended his family reunion. It was nice to see cousins and their children (and their children's children). Warren's mother came from a large family so the extended family is now HUGE. Anyway, a good time was had b...

What's the Weather like?

Happy Friday everyone!

Today is a random post, mostly because I'm running late in writing it and because I don't have anything in particular to talk about. First thing: prayers to all those suffering from or still in the path of any of the horrible weather, storms, fires, etc. raging through the country. It's no laughing matter, certainly, especially for those who have lost friends and family members, but Mother Nature certainly has a way of reminding us just how small and mortal we are.

It's h...

The Things We Take For Granted...

by Margie Senechal
 
Fresh air...reasonable weather...
beloved landmarks...common sense...rain...

All things in short supply around here lately as fire scorches our beloved Columbia Gorge.

While it's not unusual to have a late summer wildfire in the Pacific NW--last year it was in the Wenatchee Valley--this is the first time it's hit so close to home. 

Bonneville Dam on the Columbia RiverI have friends who live in some of the places on evacuation notices. I helped set up Walgreens in some...

#NewRelease from @AuthorKristina Knight

A new Slippery Rock book is in the wild, y'all, and I'm so excited about it..so I'm sharing an excerpt with you today! This book was so so so hard to write - the angst was through the roof! - but that is another post for another time. Suffice it to say that after 4 false starts, about 4 rounds of edits, and a way more than 4 weeks to put some distance between Author Me and Reader Me, I'm so happy with how it turned out!

Here's a sneak peek inside the book:

Words failed him. So he tilted his hea...

What Happened to Summer?

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...the club that's made for you and me...

I joined RWA in the early 90s, then took a couple of years off due to (1) thinking publication was never going to happen for me and (2) for a family person who had things like shoes and school lunches to worry about, the dues were hefty. Then I joined again, because I missed the RWR and the sisterhood born from its pages. It was pre-everything-Internet, so that's where the connection was. Then Jenni Licata gathered a bunch of us into a chapter, Northeast Indiana Romance Authors, and...well, t...