That’s right… today is National Coffee Day! Anyone who knows me knows the love affair I have with my coffee! So, in honor of coffee… here’s a list of fun and interesting facts!! Did you know that coffee beans are actually berry pits? Seeds, not beans! Only two states in the US actually grow and […]
Let’s talk about romance novels! Sometimes it seems like romance is the most hotly contested genre out there. There are the naysayers, the ones that dismiss the entire genre. And, in my opinion, that is a travesty. Dismissing any genre, usually based on some preconceived (and often wrong) idea of what the genre is really […]
Today is National Grandparents Day, so I thought I’d share a couple of teasers starring Grandma Fiona of Kissing Frogs, my debut novel. She’s a fiesty witch, literally, whose magical skills sometimes are less than ideal. Grandma Fiona was inspired by a few Silver Goddesses. One was Baddie of Instagram fame, feisty and irreverent as […]
Sometimes in the wonderful world of books, you run across characters and places you would love to visit. For more reading is a form of escape into another world, so why not a fictional bucket list? I want to spend a year at Hogwarts. In Gryffindor, of course. Then I want to spend another year […]
Before I wrote fiction, I was a professional tech writer for Corning Glass. And before that, I wrote scores of military documentation on all kinds of topics. That kind of writing gave me a love of research and facts. So, why not turn that to one of my favorite things? Books! I wasn’t looking […]
My husband says I’m an addict and a hoarder. I tell him I’m simply a collector. The advent of the e-reader was a good day for him because it meant at least part of my “collection” was hidden from his sight. This was good for me, too, for two reasons. One, as it was […]
In my last post, I talked about zombies as romantic heroes. But among the undead, is there any romantic hero more popular than the vampire? From Edward in Twilight to the Black Dagger Brotherhood in J.R. Wards series, the vampire represents danger, allure, mystery, and desire. What is it about vampires that draw us in? For one thing, […]
Zombies have found an unexpected home in contemporary romantic fiction. They are no longer just mindless, soulless, drooling creatures with an insatiable hunger for brains. Instead, they have evolved to become relevant romantic figures, finding love in all the wrong (and right) places. The zombie has come to represent the “other” in society, from people […]
Yes, I’m that old. I was born in 1970 on a warm summer day in northern New York, just across the river from Canada. I thought it would be fun to look at the top books and movies released in that year! How many of these have you read or seen? Or even heard of?! Books […]
Did you know there is actually science behind the effect of music on creativity? A study in the Netherlands showed that listening to “happy” music while working can help to arouse divergent thinking, the kind of thinking that is associated with problem solving and creativity. The study was done using classical music of different moods […]
I’ve read more than a few books by celebrities that I’ve fallen in love with! Some of these I’ve read, some I want to read. Bliss by Shay Mitchell Playground by 50 Cent Modelland by Tyra Banks <– My kid read it and loved it! American Drifter by Chad Michael Murray and Heather Graham <– I […]
That’s probably one of my all-time favorite quotes from a book or movie. And in that moment, I swear we were infinite. Sometimes, you come across a line in a book that just hits you. This quote is one of those for me. In the book, Charlie (the wallflower) has his infinite moment while driving through […]