I am fortunate to have excellent editors helping me refine my books. The first editors offer informal feedback, the second editors are people I pay to work out the kinks. Both serve an important purpose. Let me introduce you to my critique groups first. My informal editors are my two critique groups. The members of the groups are fellow writers who are willing to share their writings, their time and their advice on my writings. We meet at least once a month to critique each other’s work. If truth be told, my first days attending the groups were wrought with...
There is a certain thud in my stomach as I finish book two, When the Music Stops: A Second Chance to Dance. It’s a mixture of pride, fear and excitement. I did it! Will anyone read it? Will anyone like the way the characters made their decisions? Will people stick around for book three? But I get ahead of myself. I’m finished, but my wonderful editor has yet to ‘take a crack’ at the story. She asks amazing questions, shares her ideas and we go back and forth until we reach agreement on the best way to make the story...
People ask that question often. My answers are usually the same: I like my characters and they have more to share than will fit in one book. Also I enjoy following characters in books I read beyond more than one experience. For example, Howard Fast wrote a sage about a family across several generations. If you like l-o-n-g series there are others that stretch on and on, but Marta’s characters are not letting that happen. They will give me one more book after When the Music Stops which is Letters to Follow, and then I need to butt out of...
It’s fun to record words that impact me from books I read. Here are a few for you to ponder. Enjoy! It was getting late. Knife-sharp shadows fell across the lane, dividing everything into light and darkness. Tiger Tail Soup by Nicki Chen She changed the gravity in the room. Paris Wife by Paula McLain Jake always said we were like undercurrents the way we lived our lives under the surface of society. Whiskey Cove by Denise Frisini The line between her old life and her new one had been marked in six feet of soil. Lighthouse Bay by Kimberley...
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