2022 Highlights and 2023 Goals

Posted on January 1, 2023 ·

Image by Speedy McVroom from Pixabay

A few days after Christmas I was bundled up in the family room on a quiet, cloudy morning, listening to the rain. I’d been working through some plot issues in my latest murder mystery and there was a scattering of Post-it notes on my lap. After an hour or so of scribbling plot points and sticking them onto a tri-fold poster board in an effort to see the bigger picture, I brushed them aside to work on a blog post. It’s my favorite time of the year to do so, the time I get to look back, and then look ahead. 

2022 was a long period of adjustment for me. I began my career as a classroom teacher and learned new ways to write, in necessarily smaller slices of time. Like every year, I felt I didn’t do enough, until I paged through my journals and wrote down my accomplishments on one single sheet of paper. The bigger picture, once you can see it clearly, always tells a different story. Here are some highlights of my year and a few goals for 2023:

2022 Highlights

I published the book of my heart, fulfilling a promise I’d made in January to release The House on Linden Way in print and ebook by July. Later in the summer I took Linden Way on a virtual tour that included several interviews, articles, and this essay, which I’m quite proud of. 

I had two micro pieces, “Windows” and “Then,” published in Fractured Lit and Five Minute Lit, respectively. “Windows” would go on to earn a nomination for Best Microfiction award, while one of my 2021 publications, “Transient,” was nominated by Reservoir Road for a Best American Essay.

My beloved fall writing workshop, Mothers Who Write, returned in person for the first time since 2019. I wrote six new pieces, all part of a larger project I’ll talk more about soon.

When yet another online lit mag shut down, taking several of my pieces with it, I followed through with a goal to record readings of my orphaned essays and post them to YouTube. 

I celebrated ten consecutive years as a published writer and finally (finally!) updated my website with new author photos.  

I (barely!) completed my Goodreads Reading Challenge and read 52 books. More on that below.

2023 Goals

I don’t often publicly declare writing goals, as I’ve found that keeping my projects to myself helps me to finish drafting them. Other goals for 2023 include: 

Self-publishing my short story collection, What Was Never There. I’m so excited for this! What Was Never There is my second book, which I began in 2015. It includes several previously published stories as well as unpublished stories, and just WAIT until you see the gorgeous cover!

Publishing at least one piece in a literary mag. Traditional book publishing is no longer a goal of mine, but traditionally publishing my short work is still important to me; the online lit mag community remains interesting, supportive, joyful, and creative, and I hope to stay part of it. 

Reading 30 books. For the first time since joining the Goodreads Reading Challenge in 2014, I am adjusting my goal. I’ve always set it at 52, and that was fine for all the years I worked part-time, but now that I’m a teacher I find myself avoiding books longer than 300 pages just to keep up. That’s silly, of course, so for 2023 I’ll shoot for an average of two books per month rather than four. 

Speaking of which, it is now New Year’s Day, and once again I find myself bundled up on a rainy day—perfect for reading. Time to get started on that Goodreads challenge! Happy 2023, everyone.

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The End of the Tour; The Start of Something New

Posted on October 30, 2022 ·

Image by Jill Wellington from Pixabay

Whew! After a busy six weeks of guest posts, interviews, and giveaways, the Linden Way blog tour has come to an end. Here are the posts from the last two weeks, in case you missed them:

In an interview over at Literary Quicksand, I discuss my writing routine, how long it took to write The House on Linden Way, and one thing I’m afraid of that other people probably wouldn’t find very scary…

Author Anthony Avina kindly reviewed The House on Linden Way, writing “the combination of the horror/metaphysical aspect of the haunting story with the heartfelt and compelling character development made this a breathtaking novel.”

Avina also offered me a guest spot on his blog, where I wrote about the art of brevity and writing the novella.

Other reviews include this one by Wildwood Reads, describing Linden Way as a “unique ghost story that took off from the very beginning”; and this one by The Frugalista Mom, who called the plot captivating and wrote “Amber’s struggle between holding on to her childhood memories and living in the real world was very much relatable.”

Thank you again to everyone who helped make the tour a success!

And now it’s time to curl up in a quiet corner and wrap myself in a warm blanket and a new story. If you listen closely you may hear the sound of a pencil slowly whispering across a page, but that’s all you’ll hear from me for a while.

Until then, Happy Halloween, everyone! May your holiday be filled with laughter, love, and lots of treats.

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Linden Way Blog Tour: Reviews, Guest Posts, and My Personal Highlight (So Far!)

Posted on October 16, 2022 ·

Image by DreamPixer from Pixabay

Weeks three and four of the Linden Way blog tour included a review by Jess over at Literary Quicksand that has been the tour highlight for me.

Jess teaches middle school language arts, and she included an anecdote about a reluctant reader that nearly moved me to tears. Any time in the future I’m feeling low about writing and wondering if it’s all worth it, I’m just going to pull up this one review and remember I made a difference to this one teen.

Here are some other reviews from the last few weeks:

Sue Bradford Edwards at One Writer’s Journey reviewed Linden Way, calling it an unnerving story that “has that old school horror vibe.”

Nicole Pyles at World of My Imagination offers her own thoughts on Linden Way, describing Amber as a rich and complex character: “I loved the pushes and pulls of memories that feel so achingly real to her but impossible to change.”

Chris at GirlZombieAuthors had mixed feelings about Linden Way, but enjoyed the family relationships, which she posted about in an honest review: “The best relationship here is Amber’s interactions and remembrances with her brother.”

And Judy at Knotty Needle Creative admits to being spooked by Linden Way, but ended up enjoying this “rollercoaster of a read.”

Thank you to everyone who read and reviewed The House on Linden Way!

Posts penned by me include 5 Tips for Getting Unstuck When Writing Your Novel, and a little essay that captures the heart of Linden Way called The Lingering Ghosts of Our Childhood Homes.

Finally, enjoy this fun interview with Linda at Boots, Shoes, and Fashion, where I answer questions like what inspired me to write, which character in Linden Way was the hardest to write, and most importantly: boots or shoes?

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The Lingering Ghosts of Our Childhood Homes

Posted on October 3, 2022 ·

Image by alberto15886 from Pixabay

(This piece was meant to be a guest post for the Linden Way blog tour, but due to some technical issues with the host’s site, I’m posting it here instead.)

My childhood home wasn’t mine for long. If a house has memories, I am the ghost of one—there and gone, like smoke. But my own memories are like ghosts themselves, the kind that linger, the kind that follow you in and out of dreams. 

We lived in that one-story red-brick home from the time I was nine until I was thirteen. That’s it—five years, and yet they seem to encompass my whole childhood. Bookending those years were stretches of poverty—subsidized housing, postage stamp apartments—as my mother, a Panamanian emigrant, struggled to support her children on a waitress’s income. It was her brief second marriage that lifted us temporarily into the middle class, where we were able to afford our own home, on a street called Linden Way.

That home, with its basement bedrooms and red shag carpet, is clearer to me than any of the places I lived in during my teens or twenties. If I close my eyes and really try, I can remember them, but they mean nothing—they were simply places, walls and carpet, kitchens and bedrooms, a balcony or maybe a porch. Until I purchased the house where I would raise my children, decades later, the house on Linden Way was the only place I’d ever considered a home.

I remember slumber parties in the basement, digging for worms in the backyard, lying on my bed and listening to records for entire afternoons. I remember my stepdad splitting wood for the fireplace, my brother playing his guitar in the room next to mine, my best friend tapping on my window and slipping through in the middle of the night. 

But I have no memory of leaving. 

My last memory is of my stepdad sitting at the kitchen table explaining to me that he was moving out. The next thing I remember is living with my mother in a two-bedroom second-floor apartment a few streets over. It was fine, I was fine. I could still walk to my best friend’s house in eight minutes flat, I could still hang out at the elementary school in the evenings, swinging or playing on the bars. 

I could also walk by my old house. The one that no longer belonged to me. And when I turned sixteen, after my mom and I moved to a rental on the other side of town, I could drive back to the house on Linden Way. Park across the street and just sit awhile. 

Eventually I moved away from my hometown, and in the thirty years since I’ve returned only once, when my daughter was three. I stopped by the house. I asked the owner to take a picture of my daughter and I standing in front of it. 

Many years later this moment would become the opening scene of a book, one where childhood homes have unworldly power and memories are living things. In the pages of this book I wrote tributes to the house on Linden Way, a place that I would go back to if I could, but only for a little while. I wrote tributes to the basement bedrooms and red shag carpet, to the marvel and myth of memory, to the lingering ghosts of our childhood homes. 

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On the Benefits of Self-Publishing and the Thrill of a Good October Story

Posted on October 2, 2022 ·

Image by Benjamin Balazs from Pixabay

I’d originally envisioned my blog tour for The House on Linden Way to take place in July. That was the month I’d promised to release the book in print, and it made sense to promote it right after publication and throughout the summer.

That didn’t quite work out. By the time I was ready to book the tour, the earliest dates Women on Writing had available were in September and October. It took about five minutes after hearing this news to reconcile my vision: of course autumn was the perfect time to promote a haunted house story! It was clearly meant to be.

Now in its second week, the blog tour has been a total blast, and I’ve enjoyed putting together the guest posts (and having extra time to write them).

Here are the links for my recent tour stops:

On Tuesday, I stopped by Mindy McGinnis’s blog to talk about the differences between traditional publishing and self-publishing (and which path I prefer).

On Friday, I was over at The Faerie Review discussing the chilling comfort of October stories and offering up a few of my personal favorites.

And today I was treated to a surprise review by my incredibly dedicated and hard-working tour manager, Crystal. Thanks, Crystal! You’re the sweetest. 🙂

Next week I’ll share a few more reviews, an interview, and a guest post called “The Lingering Ghosts of Our Childhood Homes.” See you then!

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Fall into Reading and the Linden Way Blog Tour

Posted on September 24, 2022 ·


Happy autumn, everyone! I am so excited for this season. After three years I can finally take my fall workshop again (it just wouldn’t have been the same on Zoom); my blog tour for The House on Linden Way kicked off this week and continues throughout October; and I’m part of a new Women on Writing giveaway called Fall into Reading, because what better way to celebrate any occasion than with FREE books?!

Click here for more information on the Fall into Reading giveaway, which includes 16 books (one of which should look familiar!), various other prizes, and a $150 Amazon gift card.

On to Linden Way! All of the dates for the blog tour are listed below; there are 22 stops over six weeks featuring reviews, spotlights, articles, and interviews. I’ll post a weekly roundup here so that you don’t miss a thing.

In Monday’s interview on Women on Writing, I talked about the journey of writing Linden Way, the truth in my fiction, and the differences between traditional publishing and self-publishing.

On Thursday I was over at Deborah Adam’s blog with a piece called “Exploring Our Deepest Fears Through Speculative Fiction.” 

And on Friday The House on Linden Way was in the spotlight on The Faerie Review.

That’s it for this week! See you soon, and thank you all for your continued support.

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Nine Years of Blogging

Posted on August 27, 2022 ·

 

When I first started blogging in 2013, I remember feeling far behind. It was as if everyone had a blog already, and I watched in those early years as they celebrated their five or six or seven year anniversaries, thinking, I wish I’d started earlier.

Time passed quickly, and now here I am, celebrating my ninth year as a blogger. I’m not a very prolific one but I’ve managed to stay consistent, and I enjoy reflecting on my journey as a writer and all the moments of motherhood threaded through these posts. 

In honor of the occasion, I wanted to share with you my top four blog posts in terms of readership, my four personal favorites, and a bonus to make it nine. 

My Four Most Read Blog Posts

Image from Flickr by Leo Reynolds

Book Sales and Royalty Statements

Little wonder this would be the post that interested most readers! Money talks, and many of you were curious how much I was making back in 2014 after my debut novel, The Fourth Wall, was published. Spoiler alert: not much! But I had fun putting this post together, and perhaps it was illuminating. 

Are Blog Tours Worth It?

This is my second most read post, and I hope it brought some authors around to the idea of blog tours, because they are absolutely worth it! In fact, my tour for The House on Linden Way, hosted by the same company who hosted The Fourth Wall, begins next month. Stay tuned, and enjoy this post on the benefits of blog tours. 

One Author’s Experience With Kindle Vella

For a blog post that’s only a year old, this one has really generated some interest, making it my third most popular post ever. Not bad! Authors are understandably curious about Amazon’s new serialized fiction platform, and sharing my early experience with the self-publishing site has continued to intrigue other writers. 

Oh, What a Night

My fourth most read post since this site launched in August 2013 is the celebration of my book launch at Changing Hands Bookstore in the summer of 2014. It’s still fun for me to look back on too! Family, friends, cupcakes, a beautiful book display, a dream come true. Oh, what a night indeed.

My Four Favorite Blog Posts (and One Extra)

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

The Story Behind You

It should come as no surprise that my favorite blog posts inevitably center around moments with my children. This one features a very special Mother’s Day gift and an eloquent truth all writers should remember.

New Beginnings

One of my sweetest memories was when my son’s second grade teacher invited me to talk to her class about being an author. I recounted the memorable experience in this post from 2015.

On First Publications

My daughter’s own success as a creative writer inspired me to write on the relevance of first publications. I was and am so proud of Abigail’s perseverance and bravery, commemorated in this post from 2018.

How to Fall in Love With Writing All Over Again

It is always my hope that others will find inspiration in my blog posts. How-to posts are some of the most difficult for me to write but also the most fulfilling. Here I share tips for learning how to recapture the love and joy of writing. 

And just to make it nine, and because there’s nothing like your first, here is the post that launched my blog nearly a decade ago. After all this time, it still feels as special as it did back then. 

Surprise!
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Available Now! Read The House on Linden Way

Posted on July 22, 2022 ·

Today I am thrilled to announce the release of my novel The House on Linden Way! I’ve been talking about this book for so long I almost can’t believe it’s finally time to share it with you. 

Unless you’re brand new to this blog, you already know the history—Linden Way started five years ago as a short story, grew into a much longer one, but was never quite long enough for traditional publishing. I tried stretching it to reach the industry standard length for adult fiction (60k words minimum), but it always felt wrong, like I was trying to force the story to be something it was not. 

I pushed it to 50k words and started querying anyway, and I actually had a pretty good response. Of the 58 agents I sent it to, five requested the full manuscript, and three of them kept Linden Way under consideration for over a year. Several others sent personalized rejections with encouraging notes. Yet this all happened over the span of two and half years, and at some point I had to re-evaluate my goals for this particular project. 

Did I want to keep pursuing a publishing path that had so few options for novellas? Because after all that time, I still knew one thing for sure—I did not want to turn Linden Way into something that it wasn’t. 

I also started re-evaluating my overall goals as a writer. What were my reasons for seeking a traditional book deal in the first place? Did I care about advances, bookstore placement, and status? I realized I did not, that mostly I just wanted to write the best story I could, put it out in the world, and move on to the next one. 

Once I knew what I wanted and felt certain Linden Way did not have a place in traditional publishing, I pulled the manuscript from consideration, stripped it back down to its original 46k-word length (man, that felt good), and took the leap into self-publishing. As of today you can purchase it in ebook or print or read it on Kindle Unlimited. 

To help celebrate the release, I’ve teamed up with the fabulous Women on Writing, who hosted my blog tour for The Fourth Wall in 2014. The tour for my new otherworldly ghost story launches in September—just in time for spooky season. I am so excited! I’ll be offering tips on how to get unstuck when writing a novel, talking more about my process writing The House on Linden Way, sharing my experiences with both traditional and indie publishing, and much more! 

And speaking of Women on Writing, I’m over there today with a little writing advice about how to keep things simple so you don’t get lost in the details. 

Enjoy, and as always, thanks for your support!

The House on Linden Way is available in print and ebook here. 

You can add it to Goodreads here. 

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Linden Way Cover Reveal

Posted on June 10, 2022 ·

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Summer has a way of blurring days until time loses all meaning. In June especially I am happy to let the days slip by unaccounted for and unmarked on the calendar. That’s why, when I sat down this morning to blog and noted the date on the post, I did a double take. And then I broke into a smile.

June 10 was the day, eight years ago, when The Fourth Wall was officially published. Since then I’ve had the honor of appearing in other books as an essayist and short story-teller, and those books have kept my debut company on my bookshelf, but until now The Fourth Wall has been the lone novel.

That changes next month with the release of The House on Linden Way. It’s been a very different journey: Linden Way is self-published while The Fourth Wall was published traditionally, although since the latter was released through a small press I guess you could say I’ve been indie all along.

In a future post I’ll go into the differences, but for now I want to tell you what’s the same: the tremendous sense of accomplishment in seeing your creative vision through. Kudos to all of you out there doing this very thing.

Here’s the cover for Linden Way, designed by Kitten at Deranged Doctor Design. When I post again in July, it will be with a link to order. That is, if I don’t get lost in the hazy days of June.

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New Story in Fractured Lit and Other Writerly News

Posted on April 30, 2022 ·

Image by Ulrike Leone from Pixabay

Summer Break is weeks away, and although I’m going to miss my students, I can’t wait to have more time for writer-me. Until then I am in full teacher mode, but I wanted to pop in and share a few writerly links from March and April in case you missed them!

In March, one of my dream publications, Fractured Lit, published a little vignette called “Windows.” This piece was originally published in Hunger Mountain (print only) in 2017. I was so happy it found a new home online.

In April, a newish magazine called Five Minute Lit accepted a micro I’d written last summer. The piece will appear in August, but you should check out the site now! Everything they publish is exactly one hundred words.

In May, my short story “Gravity” will appear in an anthology celebrating twenty years of Mothers Who Write, a fabulous workshop I’ve participated in several times. The launch takes place at Changing Hands Bookstore in Phoenix on Saturday, May 7, from 11-1.

Finally, this story reviewer on Instagram took me by surprise last month by tagging me in a review of “Windows.” It made me smile on a day when I really needed it and reminded me why it’s important to share the work we love.

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