Cathy Perkins's Blog, page 148

Lets Have a Heart to Heart

It’s release day! I’m very excited to relate my new Young Adult Novel, Heart Murmurs is out today.

I’m often asked how I come up with plots. Well, it’s no secret I am a tad…odd. I have always been fascinated by the unusual. So now that I am in medicine, often my craving for the unusual takes a side trip into unexplained medicine.

I first heard about cellular memory on NPR. It is the premise that memories may be stored in our DNA, so when a person receives an organ transplant–some of the perso...

Lisa Verge Higgins is visiting today!

Lisa Verge Higgins is the RITA-nominated author of fifteen novels that have been published worldwide and translated into as many languages—quite a switch for this former PhD candidate in chemistry. Currently this opera loving, novice archer and mother of three is finding inspiration in women’s lives and women’s friendships. The Proper Care and Maintenance of Friendship, her first foray into mainstream women’s fiction, won the 2011 Golden Leaf Award for Best Single Title and was anointed a top...

Characters

What do you remember most from the stories you read?

I can usually spout off plot points, where it was set– but what makes me remember a book are the characters. The quirks, the reactions, the dialogue all wrap themselves up to make the person you are reading real. I have finished stories wishing I knew the heroine or I’d have a chance to glimpse the hero. Now there are some characters I don’t want to meet, but I love to read about.

Here are some books I’ve read reacently with characters that s...

How I Spent My Winter Vacation

Two weeks ago, I took off at the last minute for a trip home I’d originally planned for Christmas. With my seasonal snowball business opening this month I had a short window to fit it in so I threw everything in a suitcase, packed my computer, maps and thermos and hit the road. I could call this post ten things I learned about going home.

Expect the unexpected.Leaving Atlanta and driving toward S.C. the sky was blue, clouds puffy white when my cousin called and said, “Is it raining there?” Thi...

From Nat King Cole to Monster Mash

I’m glad I’m not the only one reluctant to let go of Christmas. Several homes in my condo complex still have their Christmas wreaths on their doors. A neighbor down the street still has his lighted Christmas tree in his front yard.

I did finally take my house tree down two weeks ago and took my Christmas cds out of my car at about the same time. Down in the family room, my Nutcrackers still stand guard, the fireplace mantel remains decorated and the Christmas soaps are still in their decorativ...

Springing Forward and Other Miseries

When the alarm clock began itsbleating this morning I knew it had to be some kind of cruel joke. There was no way it could possibly be 6:30. The sky was dark as pitch withnot a hint of sun on the horizon. Even the birds were tucked in their nests, for heaven’s sake! The clock having gone silent in mid-bleat from a judicious slap on the doze button, I rolled over eager to recapturemy dream.

It’d been adoozie involving Brad Pitt, a bottle of Newman’s Own Lite Honey Mustard Dressing and moi. Yess...

Back From The Dead

Life is busy. We have day jobs, sometimes two of them. We have children and husbands and pets and houses that require our attention. We have bills to pay, groceries to buy, errands to run. Then there’s the writing gig which is more than just daily word counts, but promo and social media, and blogs, and answering mail, and copy edits, etc…

The flu doesn’t care about any of that!

For the past week, I laid flat on my back and sick as a dog. I couldn’t work. I couldn’t write. I couldn’t read. Even...

Love Scenes You Love to Reread

So. A couple weeks ago we talked about what love ISNow I want to concentrate on romantic love. How it’s portrayed. And especially, the luvvvv scenes.

You and I both know it doesn’t take an erotic plot, er, not-plot, to get the gist of a couple’s relationship, their attraction.

Not that it doesn’t work, but hey, sometimes the more sex there is the less I get their attraction and their true feelings for each other.

It feels gimmicky. Forced. No, not that… it feels like the writer’s internal (or ex...

The Do Over

I’ve been shanghaied onto a panel of romance authors who are to hold forth at an upcoming national conference on the top of, “The Do Over—What We Wish We’d Known.” The focus is on what we wish we’d known prior to being published that we know now.

I’m left with the question: What do I know now that I didn’t know three years ago (besides how to go down the Oxford English Dictionary online rabbit hole)?

As I pondered this inquiry, I became aware of how much lecturing the topic invites:

Don’t pitch...

My Big Fat TV Habit

This is not a how-to, not a poignant story, not even an inspirational tale. This is a coming out and an admission, pure and simple. I’ve never taken part in a 12-Step Program, but from what I’ve heard the first step goes something like: Hi, my name is Liz and I’m a ________. Well, my blank is filled in with “TV-a-holic.”

I admit it. I love to veg in front of the boob tube. I find it to be effective, quality relaxation time. You rarely, if ever, have to have to use your brain to watch TV. I lik...