Skip to content
TLWrites

Navigation

Editorial collection

My DrEaMwOrLd

Things I Love

Music I Love: London Grammar

Oh I am in LOVE, LOVE, LOVE with the indie UK trio, London Grammar!! Lead vocalist Hannah Reid has a voice that will totally remind you of Florence Welch and every single track I’ve heard is amazing. Their new album If You Wait is available today!! Lucky for some of you, they’re kicking off a US Tour at the end of September with stops in major cities like Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago and Philadelphia. Check out their official website and full tour schedule here. What do you think of their

Read article

Things I Love

First Date Friday: Chocolate in the Garden

I’m going to let you in on a secret. Well, it’s actually not really a secret because if you check my bio (and practically any author of the female persuasion it would seem) you’ll see that I love all things made of chocolaty goodness. Let’s face it – most females like chocolate. Right girls?! Chocolate is like a food group for authors. Have any of you heard about how rough being a writer actually is? We N-E-E-D chocolate. Almost like we need air. You would too if you spent countless hours

Things I Love

I Want Crazy

Hunter Hayes’ video for I Want Crazy is what I try to capture in the young adult novels that I write. That whirlwind kind of love that consumes you so the other person is all you can think about. It also makes you do crazy things, like sneak into the public pool, or sneak up on a rooftop or catch a plane on a moments notice to be with the one you love because you can’t stand being apart. Yeah – that’s what I write about. That got me to thinking about the craziest thing I did as a teen. I’ll

Things I Love

Teen Book Review–Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor

I’m going to make two confessions. First, I have a thing for audiobooks. I can listen while I’m driving, which is a good and bad thing. Bad only that I still have to pay attention to the driving and sometimes books are very engrossing. Second, my TBL (To Be Listened) stash is ridiculous, so it takes me awhile to get to some of the books. Hence the reason I just finished the young adult novel, Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor and read by Khristine Hvam. Sadly two years after the book was

Writing Teen Romance

What I Learned at RWA – The PRO Retreat

Pardon the delay in this post…my favorite saying of late is: Life Happens. I won’t bore you with the details other than to say, I’m deep in edits for one of my young adult manuscripts. My day job is insanely busy – so much so that I’m working well over 10 hour days, which leaves me very little time to spend with my family, let alone write a witty blog post. So I’m sorry. But let me try to make it up to you by giving you the scoop on the PRO Retreat at RWA.. For all you non RWA members out there,

Things I Love

What I learned this year at RWA–Day One

Every summer, RWA - Romance Writer’s of America - has a huge conference. This year, the conference was held here in Atlanta and that’s where I spent a good portion of last week. It was tons of fun getting to meet up with writer friends from my chapters like the Young Adult Romance Writers (YARWA) or Celtic Hearts; and very nice to make tons of new acquaintances. Aside from making friends, I also learned a lot. Such as: If you want to workout while you’re away – it’s best to pack your running

Things I Love

Calling Teen Writers – Atlas Shrugged Essay Contest

I just love contests. Who doesn’t like to win stuff? Especially M-O-N-E-Y. When I was a teen growing up in Fairport, NY the local radio station had the Song-of-the-Day contests. I’d listen all day, waiting for that one song to play. Then when it came on, I’d feverishly dial the phone number trying to get through. To this day, I can still recall the pounding of my heart when instead of that annoying busy signal, I heard the phone ring on the other end. And I hoped I’d be the correct caller. On

Things I Love

Asheville was Calling, so I had to Answer

I can’t believe it’s been over a month since I blogged. I’ve been spending some long overdue quality time with the family, getting my young adult novel ready for the freelance editor I’ve hired, taking a family vacation, managing a crazy work schedule and dealing with some upheaval in my daughter’s gymnastics life. You see, the coaches she’s had for a little over three years have moved a few hours away to be closer to their family. Under these coaches, my daughter has grown tremendously as a

Things I Love

A Bloomin’ Tree

Don’t you just love spring? We’ve had an unseasonably cool spring down here in Atlanta. However, I won’t complain because before I know it, I’ll be cursing a summer heat wave. Aside from my writing, I love to take photographs. I’m always snapping a photo of anything and everything. I can’t tell you how many photos I have that are “book” related. From settings and people, to inspiration and theme. It’s a fun hobby and helps fuel more of my creative spirit for writing my novels. This afternoon I