Sometimes people ask where a story begins. Was it a character? A single line? A plot twist? For me… more often than not it’s a song. The more I think about it, the more that makes perfect sense. Long before I became an author, I was a theater girl. I grew up loving Broadway soundtracks,…
Music has always been part of my writing process. Sometimes a song helps me find a character. Sometimes it helps me understand a scene. And sometimes it’s simply background noise while I stare at a blinking cursor and try to convince my characters to cooperate. Lately my playlists have been a mixture of old favorites…
A Personal Reflection on Growth, Chaos, and Choosing Hope 2025 was… a year. A beautiful one, a difficult one, and one that pushed me in ways I didn’t expect. I wrote through grief, celebrated milestones, launched new books, juggled motherhood and homeschooling, and built deeper connections with this incredible community. Here are a few highlights…
Holiday stories are supposed to be warm and bright… but I’m me, so there’s always a little danger, a little emotional wreckage, and a loyal animal somewhere nearby. Readers have asked how I balance tension with tenderness, especially in stories like When Hope Began or next year’s Waldon Springs Christmas novella. So here’s a peek at my…
☕ The coffee’s ready. The Notion board is glowing. And somewhere between the last playlist shuffle and the click of my keyboard, the countdown hit zero. Tomorrow… well, technically, tonight at 12:01 AM, the Rough Draft Challenge begins.Fifty thousand words. Thirty days. One author armed with too much caffeine and not enough sanity. It’s go…
☕ The final countdown to November has begun, which means it’s time to take my beautifully chaotic plot and turn it into a battle plan. Notion is open, my pens are loaded, and my caffeine supply is looking… promising. During the Rough Draft Challenge, I write whenever the story demands it. Mornings if inspiration hits…
☕ We’ve hit that point in Preptober where the excitement of a new story starts colliding with the reality of, well… real life. The notebooks are cluttered, my plotting playlist is looping the same three songs, and I’ve already had to rewrite the plot of Act Two twice. But that’s how I know I’m…
☕ The plotting board is a mess, my Notion tabs have multiplied overnight, and my playlist has more versions than I’d like to admit. In other words, it’s officially the middle of Preptober. This is the part of the month where I start living in two creative worlds at once. My 2025 Christmas story (the one…