Why Grammar Matters in Your Book
I’ve been called a Grammar Nazi, a grammar geek, a grammar freak, a grammar nut, the grammar police, and a stickler. What they say behind my back, I don’t know. I’m not that bad. I don’t critique tweets, personal emails,…
Reading Habits
Suspense author and fabulous blogger Stacy Green tagged me in a “Get to Know You” game. That makes me think of The King and I, and now my brain is off on a tangent of hearing Deborah Kerr sing “Getting…
What Buffy the Vampire Slayer Taught Me
Welcome to Deep-Fried Friday. Today, our deep-fried food is served with a blood cocktail, to honor the vampires and other paranormal creatures of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Some of my friends know that I’ve been watching through the entire Buffy…
What Would You Put in Your Fiction Museum?
I have probably mentioned before – maybe a dozen times by now – that Raiders of the Lost Ark is one of my favorite films. (Ignore all sequels; by comparison, they suck.) In Raiders, an object takes center stage as…
15 Famous Fiction Sidekicks
One of my duties at church camp a couple of weeks ago was to assist the secretary with various administrative tasks. We wear nametags all week for identification and security, so I added “M’s Sidekick” to the job description on…
Friday Fiction: The Power of Three
Among the mainstays in the world of fiction is the TRILOGY. As I cracked upon Mockingjay, the third book in the Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins, I wondered why a set of three is so common. It made me…
Bonus Post: Flash Fiction
Flash Fiction is a style of writing for extreme brevity. I found a great Flash Fiction challenge posted by fellow author Haley Whitehall. Here are the rules of the challenge, with a May 1 deadline: You must start your story…
Friday Fiction: How Many Pages to the Tootsie Roll Center?
I was one of those honor roll high school students who read every book assigned in English class. Recommend a good book to me, and I’m all over it! I fondly recall reading classics like To Kill a Mockingbird…
Friday Fiction: Firecracker Duds
So what’s that one book that everyone raved about, that you spent $20 on the hardcover to purchase or twelve weeks on the library waiting list to receive, that you opened with excited anticipation… only to finish and wonder what…