INSPY Contemporary Romance Shortlist Giveaway Bundle!

It's been such an honor to be shortlisted alongside such a wonderful group of women for the 2018 INSPY Award! To celebrate, we decided to giveaway a bundle a books to a lucky reader. You can get to know all of the authors a bit below, and then enter to win the bundle below!

Writers Corner: Good to the Last Page - A Crash Course in Finishing your Novel or Narrative Nonfiction

On April 25th, I was honored by the opportunity to share about constructing a book in general, and finishing it in particular, at my very favorite place in Memphis - the Dixon Gallery & Gardens. Between the art (lovely!) the grounds (peaceful!) and the programming (fascinating!) it has brought so much joy to my life, so it was lovely to get to participate in one of their weekly lunchtime lectures ("Munch and Learn," every Wednesday at noon).

Anywho, I got to pare down quite a lot of fiction theory into an afternoon chat and was asked (rightfully so) to post the slides on my website. Theoretically, the video should be available at some point? I will follow up on that. In the meantime, let me walk you through what we covered...

It's Been a Minute

Hey all.

I'm just gonna say it.

I'm terrible at written multi-tasking. Either I'm writing a book or I'm writing blogs, or maybe I'm not even writing at all at which point I'm just bad at the doing of writing, and this has turned into a long sentence.

You may notice that, in fact, the last blog posted was very nearly six months ago. And...I never meant it to be that long. But the thing with blogging is that the longer you're away the harder it is to go back.

Also, things were busy. We experienced our first holiday season in the south, and we spent time with friends and I got sick (again) and I made all of our Christmas gifts and we spent more time with friends. Everyone asks why we moved here, what we were thinking, and you know what? The Mid-south is America's best kept secret. We've moved around a lot over the years, and I feel more settled and at home here than I ever did in the Portland area. Also, I can find parking places. It's a win-win.

After the holidays, life was a blur of visiting family, another round of viruses, and becoming members of our church. Things were settling out a little bit, and I was looking forward to catching up on the writing and blogging and newslettering.

And then Danny's father passed away unexpectedly, and that threw everything, all of us, for a loop. We traveled back to Oregon and spent two weeks there, and since our return Danny's had work trips to Alabama, I got to see Darlingside with my dear friend Ginny in Nashville, and then Danny and I drove to North Carolina and back to attend a sweet cousin's wedding reception.

That was...weekend before last? To complete that whirlwind, I got to speak at the Dixon Gallery & Gardens, which was great but also kinda prepared at the last minute (see previous paragraph). The notes for that will be in the following post, if you're interested.

Also, there will be a newsletter forthcoming I KNOW, BUT I MEAN IT THIS TIME. So if you'd like that in your inbox and haven't subscribed, make sure to do that!

What else? I am still working on a new book. Yes, it is going very slowly. Yes, I hope to pick up the pace. Yes, I like it very much and if you liked Jane of Austin, I think you'll like it too.

I've been reading A Lady in the Smoke and have been enjoying that very much. I also reread The Peach Keeper (which I have to say I enjoyed better as a reread) and have The Music Shop in my TBR pile with Robin Gunn's Woodlands as well for peak nostalgia.

What's kept you busy? What's in your book pile? Share in the comments below!