Today my hubby and I checked out the venue for my launch party on Sunday, mainly to see what type of coffee machine they’d be letting us use (because good hot coffee, and tea, are critical!). Mosquitoes are out and I’ve posted warnings for guests who want to stroll the forest afterward to bring insect …
The wrestling match with my “About the Author” blurb and with KDP’s (Kindle Direct Publishing) Kindle Create software to get my e-book formatted correctly are over, and the book will be available for pre-order soon, I’m very happy to finally say! Next will be the printable version; wish me luck. By Book 2 I should …
After a few chilly, rainy weeks, it’s undeniably spring in southern Ontario! The ornamental cherries, just tight little buds last week, have opened up into magnificent blossoms after a little warmer weather. The lilacs at the Centennial Lilac Garden in Niagara Falls have also burst into blossom, drenching visitors in their wonderful scent. Along with …
Cherry blossoms, lilacs and a new Facebook page! Read More »
Where did criminals, blackmailers, jilted or illicit lovers post their coded messages in Victorian England? Why, in the Agony Column, aka Personal Ads, of the venerable The Times newspaper. Without any censorship or disclosure of the identity of the ad-placer, and widely read by everyone, including the Queen, the column was ripe for intrigue from …
A quick post to share a terrific opportunity for anyone interested in writing a book. Reedsy is an online organization that offers editing, designing and other services for authors, but they also have a fabulous blog with an enormous amount of information for writers at any stage of their journey, as well as excellent free …
On a beautiful spring day, gardens are usually the best places to be, and plenty of people were proving that this past weekend at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Hamilton, Ontario. We were notified that, because of the unseasonable warm stretch we enjoyed for the better part of a week, the ornamental cherry trees and …
I’m doing this week’s post a day early because I’m sharing a time-sensitive deal for anyone who might want to try their hand at writing a Romance novel: a bundle of tools, resources and training by The Romance Writer’s Super Stack that expires 11:59pm PST tomorrow, April 11th. The package is one heck of …
Have you ever battled a dragon? Or a demon? Or performed a ritual to place a hex on someone? (If you say ‘yes’ to the last one, I don’t want to know.) One of the oft-spouted maxims of writing novels is ‘Write what you know’. For science fiction and fantasy writers, that’s often impossible, because …
Are you a fan of magenta, aka fuchsia? It’s a striking purplish/reddish pink, a strong colour that I suspect invokes strong feelings in many of us. But this year, Pantone® Color Systems has named it their Color of the Year. If you’re not a graphic designer, fashion designer or other kind of artist, you may …
You may find this paradoxical, but I’ve never been a good letter-writer. I just didn’t like the medium, which was in vogue when I was a child and teenager; once I sat down with pen and paper, my mind invariably went blank. In those days, there didn’t seem to be much in my life that …
