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Things I Love

Not Quite Astronomy 101

For my latest young adult novel, I needed to give my heroine a hobby with some backstory. I’ve always had an affinity of all things celestial, and thought it would be fun to research, so I gave her, drumroll please… astronomy. My first in-depth glimpse at the stars was in elementary school when we took a trip to the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center. I still remember the exhilarating rush I felt as the stars illuminated the night sky above us and the narrator described all the

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Things I Love

Author Interview: B. L. Bates

I’m pleased to welcome author B. L. Bates to TL’s DreamWorld. Growing up reading speculative fiction, B. L. Bates received a BS in electrical engineering and worked for several years in the computer industry. When a head injury left her totally blind, she turned to writing speculative fiction to stay sane. With her youngest child in college, she lives with her husband in Massachusetts and plots ways to spend more time with her grandchildren. She's had short stories published online, and some

Things I Love

The Story of a Flaming Heart

Writing has a lot to do with the flames of passion. There’s the passion for the craft and path to publication. Why else would one embark on an uphill journey with tons of boulders rolling down the mountain toward you? Just when you out maneuver one, here comes another that tries to knock you down. But you keep going because you know one day, you will stand at the summit and scream at the top of your lungs, “I made it!” Those same flames of passion translate into art. If an author has done his or

Things I Love

A Book to Get Lost in: Wilde’s Fire by Krystal Wade

I have a confession… this book is the very first YA digital book I’ve ever purchased. Sure I’ve downloaded many a free book on the craft of writing and a few free romances that I have yet to ever open, but this is the first I’ve actually paid cold hard cash, errr charged to my credit card via my Amazon Prime account. I love books. I want to hold the book in my hand and feel the pages between my fingers. But I’m learning to embrace eBooks as well and now I have two young adult books on my Kindle

Writing Teen Romance

Coming Down with a Terrible Case of Irritable Writer’s Syndrome

I know this has happened to you writers out there. You’re writing a scene that’s highly emotional or approaching the climax of the story. Your characters are almost to their low point, their black moment, all hope is lost. You are crushed for your characters. You have to keep writing…get them out of their quandary and into their happy ever after or happy for now. You have to Finish That Book! This condition does have a diagnosis. It’s called IWS, or Irritable Writer’s Syndrome. And not to be

Things I Love

A Book I Just Can’t Stop Thinking About

My current WIP is a contemporary YA. That said, I’m reading a lot of contemporary stuff of late. I went to the library to pick up a couple books and stumbled across this amazingly brilliant book… Stay With Me by Paul Griffin. The cover probably caught my eye or perhaps it was the title. I flipped it over to read the book blurb and loved the tag line… “Their lives weren’t easy. Neither was their love.” And yes – that about sums up the story. It’s a heart aching, bittersweet story of first love

Running

Look What I Got for Christmas…

The watchband on my Timex broke at the end of October. Unfortunately, it’s one of those watchbands that require you to send it back to the manufacturer for repair. I had to do that with my Nike watch and they got it back to me super fast, but it’s an inconvenience nonetheless. So my husband asked what I wanted for Christmas and I said, a new running watch. I thought I’d find another Timex in my stocking. But nooooooo….. I got this… This image was downloaded from Amazon.com. Please see

Writing Teen Romance

Distractions

Do you ever find yourself trying to write, but distractions abound, keeping you from the task at hand? Here are some of mine… <—My Kindle My Phone—> <—Reading Blogs Games—> <---Oddly addictive reality television shows... Research—> <--A never ending TBR pile Not to mention the other stuff – like taking down Christmas decorations and housework and running the kiddos around and writing this blog post, and… Arrgghh….