Christine Nolfi's Blog, page 13
February 5, 2014
One Father
On Sunday Jameson trudged through the door with Q, a bashful 9-year-old boy from a disadvantaged home in North Charleston. Q has four siblings with a 5th on the way, a mother just a few years older than my son and a father in prison.
My son is new to the Big Brother program. In many ways, he’s your typical college-aged kid—idealistic, smart, ditzy. In other ways he’s atypical—a kid transplanted to the U.S. at age 6, curious about his Filipino roots yet still working out the abandonment issues...
January 9, 2014
Available January 22
Look for the third book in the Liberty Series The Impossible Wish on January 22nd.
The post Available January 22 appeared first on Christine Nolfi.
January 2, 2014
Happily Ever After? You Bet
Why dodge the truth? I write uplifting novels because I’m a sucker for happy endings. I know, I know—you’re convinced the modern world is drowning in a deluge of bad news and man’s enmity for man. Perhaps you feel doubly disheartened because the holiday season has passed and your New Year’s resolutions—damn them—are proving more difficult to implement than you expected.
Chin up, Sweet Pea. It gets better from here.
This morning Charleston’s The Post and Courier ran a story about a thief who ent...
December 14, 2013
Dive Deep
To my way of thinking, most people are emotionally land-locked. They seem happy enough, the busy bees and the slackers, the viciously ambitious and the sadly confused. Your employer sits on this continent with her irritating habit of texting her lover while you try to gain her attention. So does the gap-toothed cashier at the drugstore, the neighbor with his fixation on golf, and the acquaintance that drinks too much. The ranks are filled out with politicians, pastry chefs, gang members and c...
December 13, 2013
Tips for Writing Great Stories Faster
How do career novelists produce one page-turner after another? No one earns a living as a novelist (or a journalist, for that matter) without learning a few tricks to keep the words flowing.
I’ve never experienced writer’s block, probably because my career began in PR. I wasn’t paid unless I delivered the press kit or the article—or the cross-your-eyes-and-snooze product descriptions for ABC Widget Co. The rush to meet deadlines taught strategies I use to this day. They’ll work for you too:
Emp...
November 11, 2013
Wish Sneak Peek
I’m having far too much fun completing The Impossible Wish, my January release. A sneak peek of a conversation between two of my favorite characters, Theodora and Ethel Lynn:
Ancient Theodora Hendricks deposited her buckskin satchel on The Second Chance Grill’s counter and commenced to enjoy her favorite pastime—staring down Ethel Lynn Percible until the old fool, darting between tables like a drunken firefly, dropped a platter of dishes.
The crash of china and Ethel Lynn’s high-pitched squeal...
November 7, 2013
November 4, 2013
Jubilee’s Journey Release Day
USA Today bestselling author Bette Lee Crosby, a superb storyteller and a dear friend, has just released her latest novel Jubilee’s Journey:
When tragedy strikes a West Virginia coal mining family, two children start out on a trek that they hope will lead them to a new life. Before a day passes, the children are separated and the boy is caught up in a robbery not of his making. If his sister can find him, she may be able to save him. The problem is she’s only seven years old, and who’s going t...
October 26, 2013
Put Your Heart Into It
Amazing Marlie
Last summer my ex-husband announced he would no longer co-sign our children’s college loans. I wasn’t in a position to come to the rescue. I’m remarried, and Barry and I have six kids between us—we still support a household of four. Luckily my son had moved in with us a few weeks before the distressing announcement, allowing him to commute and finish college on a cash-as-you-go basis.
Marlie was another matter.
Two years ago, as I prepared to move south to Charleston, my second yo...
October 24, 2013
Burn Bright; Don’t Burn Out
Have you ever written a letter to yourself? A few months ago, while participating in a promotion with several other authors, I was asked to write a letter to my twenty-one-year-old self: an interesting proposition since my own children are now twenty-somethings. The letter:
Dear Christine,
You certainly have the world by the tail. Over a weekend in June, you earned $25,000 buying freebie coupons from airline passengers and reselling them to Proctor & Gamble in a gambit that landed your mug on t...
