Cathy Perkins's Blog, page 161

Meet John Doe

I’m starting to scare myself.

I was watching Meet John Doe (MJD) with Gary Cooper and Barbara Sanwyck recently and realized I was analyzing the movie as a writer. “That’s the inciting incident!” I screamed in my head. “That’s the black moment.” “That’s the resolution!” Okay, I missed the three disasters because I fell asleep shortly after the inciting incident and woke up at the black moment. Can’t say if that’s a reflection on the movie or simply the result of my exhaustion.

The exciting t...

Whispered Thoughts

It started when my friend Denise whispered, “I’m going to write a romance novel.” Story snippets of dashing men and valiant women have always raced through my mind only to fade when the phone rang, the traffic light changed, or the kids got loud. I thought I was a real Walter Mitty. But Denise’s whisper made me stop and think. Could I write a book, I mean really, write a story?

How many times had I enjoyed a story so much that when it was over I would ‘write’ the epilog. I wasn’t willing t...

Welcome MV Freeman

Author Bio: M.V. Freeman is a native of Minnesota, but calls North Alabama her home. She is a member of RWA, and the chapters: Georgia Romance Writers, Southern Magic, and Heart of Dixie. By day her mind is filled with medical jargon at the local health clinic, but at night she finds herself exploring alternate worlds within our own. Heavily influenced by Slavic languages and culture, you will find she weaves these elements into her stories. Her award winning current story INCANDESCENT is...

Wild fire

Wild fire. Forest fire. Call it whatever you want. Something primitive in our brains yells, Run! when smoke registers.

Leave or stay; wait for the evacuation order or wait and watch the flames creep down the ridges, wondering if the fire lines would hold.

Those were just a few of the decision we had to make last week as the forest burned around our mountain cabin. I had decided to stay there with the dogs while my husband traveled on business. The relaxed week I’d envisioned turned into a s...

A Crabby Wednesday or (You want me to eat…what?!)

It’s summer in Maryland. Humidity you can wade through, mosquitoes the size of small birds, and…delicious steamed crabs. Last weekend, my family gathered at a newspaper-covered picnic table in the shade of an oak tree in my backyard.

Roll of paper towels: check.

Crab knives: check.

Bowl of melted butter: check.

Cooler of beer: double check.

Enter the main course: a bushel of steamed blue crabs coated to mouth-watering perfection in Old Bay seasoning and just begging to be eaten.

Aside from the...

Scottish writer Michael J. Malone visits the Muse

For Tuesday at the Bookstore, I’m excited to introduce you to my talented friend, poet, crime writer, and oh, yes, Scotsman, Michael J. Malone, who is enjoying rave reviews for his first novel, BLOOD TEARS, set in Scotland.

I “met” Michael several years ago through his blog, May Contain Nuts ,someone from our Scottish Romance loop mentioned his blog where he does crime fiction reviews, relives discussions with his son, and blogs about just about anything of interest.

BIO: Michael Malone was...

Knight of Runes

Where Do Vampires Come From?

This Friday at the Muse we’re excited to welcome Mardi Ballou to our Friday author spot. By day, Mardi’s a mild-mannered language teacher. But after hours, her wild writer persona erupts and entraps her in bondage…to her computer. Release comes only once she achieves her word count goal, at which point the maniacal chocolate monster will give her one sublime piece. And then she can spend time with her hero husband Lee, who gives great massages at strategic times. So Mardi writes what she...

Changes

I love this time of year.

I live in a college town and mid-August is kind of a rebirth. Sure, the traffic patterns get crazy as parents try to move their students into dorm rooms and apartment complexes all over town. And lines at the local restaurants get longer, earlier than they have been all summer; but there’s a certain energy those 20,000+ students bring to town with them. There’s the excitement of new possibilities. New friends. New knowledge. New adventures. New personalities. New...

You Know You’re Homesick When…. by Grace Burrowes

Be It Hereby Known To All By These Presents, that if I EVER bellyache about spending a summer in Western Maryland, you may all laugh yourselves silly at my expense in the public venue of your collective choice. I’m spending a couple weeks with the Aged Ps in a little widening in the dune trail called La Jolla, CA. May this fate never befall you.

La Jolla is just north of San Diego on the Pacific coast. The town’s tongue in cheek tagline is, “Land of the newly wed, the almost dead, and the...