Because simply put, I want to see what part of you, your words, your voice, even the way you run your hand through your hair might be the spark that becomes a new character. I think we all have an inner character. The one we want to think is the real us but rarely is. …

I wrote this short story in my late twenties before I learned not to touch the silence that settles between people in real life, as well as characters on the page. As a society, we’re so anxious to snatch every second of conversational pause that it’s become second nature. We’re desperate to use it, unconsciously …

I was reading one of my older posts tonight, which I rarely do, and it had an excerpt from my first book that I wrote about four years ago. It was a sex scene, the first time two main characters were together, and I wrote from my own experience a bit. Not wholly, but to …

In three weeks, I’m moving back to my hometown, population 2300. Eureka Springs, AR. The next town over is twelve miles away, and you have to go there to get to Wal-Mart, which is where everyone gets everything. If you have any sense you have to wonder why I’m doing this to myself, but women …

You know how some writers write about places and people so perfect it makes you a little jealous? I’m not one of them. Sometimes I wish I was. I was in the dollar store checking out picture frames a few years ago in a tiny, scorching Arkansas town. At the end of the row, a …

I have a unique, intimate relationship with every reader. You and I have created something that no one else has, and because of you, every character is a bit different, richer, more layered than I wrote her to be. When you read one of my books, you and I work together to bring these characters …

Yes, the photo is me, sans glasses, which trust me, instantly make me look like the queer geek that I am. You’re not missing anything. I’ve tried. Over the years I’ve started outline after outline, tossed one plot summary into the trash only to have another follow it, usually an even more dismal attempt than …

I think, like most women, I’ve spent most of my life taking care of other people. I remember that niggling voice in the back of my mind whispering I was just as deserving of love, care and attention as everyone around me, but it was like a compulsion. I gave what I wanted to receive, …

  It’s pretty predictable. It takes me about three months to complete novel, and I usually take a few weeks between to let my mind unfold before I start the next. When a book is about 80% finished, I start having flashes of the next characters, little sparks and shreds of them, and I try …

  I get this question all the time, and to be honest, I’m still a bit baffled by it. When I’m reading great fiction with well-developed characters I’m genuinely invested in; I’m thrilled when I get to the sex scenes. Like real life, nothing reveals the truth of a character like sexuality. From the moment the …