Last week, Southern Californians experienced significant earthquakes, the strongest in over 20 years. On the morning of July 4, a 6.4, and evening of July 5, a 7.1. The epicenter was near Ridgecrest, a small, desert town of fewer than 30,000 people. In Bakersfield, about 100 miles southwest of Ridgecrest, we felt both quakes, plus…
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Countdown to Book Release
In the 11 days leading up to the release of my book Guardian of the Gifts, I posted about my writing process and fun facts about the novel on social media. In case you missed any or all of those posts, here they are in the order posted: “11” years: Between the research, writing, editing,…
Creating a Complex Character
Photo by Michelle Cassar on Unsplash Many times I’m asked, “How do you come up with your characters?” I explain that I go through several steps – which I will walk through in this post. While most characters pop into my head as either an image or a name, that’s only a small piece of…
Snippets From the Past – April 20
Snippets from my five-year diary. April 20. *1970 (age 12): Got Report Cards – 2 C’s, 3 B-’s, 4 B’s, 3 B+’s; 3/2’s, 1/1-’s, 3/1’s; 1 day absent, 0 tardies. On back, Mrs. Allen said “Good Joan, much improvement here” As I mentioned before, grades were a big deal. I noticed, no “A’s” this time….
Author Spotlight – Annis Cassells
In celebration of National Poetry Month I’m chatting with poet/writer, Annis Cassells about her indie-published poetry collection, You Can’t Have It All. Congratulations, Annis! I’m so excited for you. Q: Please share your background (educational/where you grew up): I grew up mostly in Detroit, Michigan and attended public schools. Not knowing what I might want…