Liz Flaherty's Blog, page 79

Here She Comes to Save the Day

I don’t have much to talk about, so I thought I’d share a recent showdown I had with a snake in my house! I live more or less in the country. Granted, I’m only a few quick minutes from town and a grocery store, but there’s a corn/soybean field in my back yard. So we get to see a lot of wild life. Unfortunately, not so much the deer and bunnies and hawks and barn cats like we enjoyed at our old house. Our wildlife neighbors now consist mostly of frogs and toads and mice and big bugs banging ag...

Dependence or Obsession?

by Margie Senechal
 
Last week I lost my phone for a day. 

I didn't go into full mode panic, because I was reasonably sure that it was in my mom's car despite the fact that she had already searched for it. No offense to my mom, but I knew I could be more thorough because I was invested in finding my phone.
 
During the 24+ hours that I was phoneless, I realized how reliant I was on my little rectangular life line.

When it was time to get ready for bed, I didn't have an alarm clock t...

Helping Hands ~@AuthorKristina Knight

I've been watching the coverage of Hurricane Harvey off and on since the weekend, and as it always does, the coverage breaks my heart. According to Brock Long, a FEMA administrator, nearly 500,000 people will likely qualify for federal flood victim status, and shelters have already helped more than 30,000 people in the short-term with a safe place to stay...but even though Harvey is moving away, the need through Texas and the Gulf Coast won't recede as quickly as the flood waters do. 

Mos...

Where Is Willow Bay?

I get that question a lot. My first novel, Rule Number One , took place in Indianapolis, and although I fictionalized parts of downtown to suit my story, it was still a real place. I even had one reader contact me after she visited Indy and tried to find Gilligan's Pub down in the Lockerbie district. I hated to tell her Gilligan's existed only in my imagination because she so wanted a pint a Guinness there. Sorry!

Willow Bay, alas, is also a fictional town on the shore of Lake Michigan, but it'...

An empty room or an empty heart?

Sorry--I'm dragging more things out of the past. I'm on vacation, although I'm checking in periodically. This is an old one--from 2006. It's been on Senior Women Web and likely somewhere else, too, but it's still the same for me. I still love alone time, and still--whether I like admitting it or not--fear loneliness. Being alone is an empty room--being lonely is an empty heart. Have a great week. 
Have you ever thought about the difference between being alone and being lonely? &...

Blurb Hell - Part One

A yellow canoe plays a big part in my romance series.Reading Ava’s post last week about writing blurbs made me realize I couldn’t put off writing the blurbs for my three-book series any longer. Can you tell how enthusiastic I am about blurbs? Not.
After going back and forth with my editor and friend Janet, I’ve renamed the series. I was calling it the Love in the North Woods series, but I’ve decided to rename it Love at Solace Lake, after the lake where the stories take place. I’ve read that t...

My Agita over Angst

At an author signing event last weekend, I had an unusual (for me) experience. Tablemate Aly Grady and I made a habit of encouraging conversation with readers by asking them what they normally read. We’re so smart… this puts the reader talking about themselves (and who doesn’t love to do that?) and gives us a chance to find how our books might fit into those preferences. Often, we get the vague “oh, I’ll read just about anything.” Bingo! Let me tell you how my books fit that need! But this ti...

Following the Muse

by Margie Senechal

About a year ago I had a writing plan I titled the Chaos plan in which I would write on a different project every day. Each of four projects had an assigned day and I had a Wednesday Wonder day for the project of my heart--other writers have called that their Sunday book, but since I work on Sundays, I decided to dedicate my Wednesdays to that project.

That plan lasted about the time it took me to record the schedule on my white board. Okay, maybe a week or so longer. 

I'...

Bye-bye, Summer ~ @AuthorKristina Knight

Summer is drawing to an end, and I'm not ready for it. I know, I know, the calendar doesn't officially flip over to fall until September 22, but that doesn't matter. School starts tomorrow for bebe and that means the summer is over. O.V.E.R.

And I'm not quite sure where it went.

It seems as if today should be June 23rd, that we should just have celebrated bebe's birthday, rather than August 23rd...like we should be stocking up on firecrackers and readying the backyard for a weenie roast instead...

Revision Hell

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