Authors, Kai Strand & LA Dragoni

I dream every night. As I wake I’m aware of my dream, though the specifics aren’t always clear. This morning was like that. Since my mind is always active at night, I don’t give the elusive dreams any additional thought. But today when I walked into the kitchen, past a picture of my mom, one specific moment of last night’s dream slammed back into me. I lost my mom a couple years ago. Those of you who have experienced loss, know you never, ever stop missing your loved ones. My grief has progressed to the point where I smile whenever I think of her, and only rarely get hit with those aching moments of emptiness. Last night in my dream, I was sitting cross-legged on the ground. I don’t remember why. I have no clue what I was doing beforehand or what I intended to do afterward. Someone plopped down next to me and I glanced casually to see who it was. It was my mother. I gasped, “Mom!” I was confused how she could be there. I knew she was supposed to be dead, but I didn...

You’re sitting in a group of friends or family, smiling politely whenever you notice similar reactions from others. Drumming your fingers you think, If I have to sit through another re-enactment of the Christmas of 2002, I’ll scream. All the while your main character is whispering to his leading lady in your head. Crud! He’s saying some really awesome stuff!!! “Excuse me,” you say. “I need to use the restroom.” You grab your phone/notebook/tape recorder and sneak away. There are times within the creative process that it is best to decline social invitations. But there are also times when it is really important for you to gag that m.c. and engage in the real world. Dance recitals. School performances. Graduation. Just to name a few. I’m thinking of this because evening approaches and though I would love to continue to write and create, I also want to live my life and soon the family will be home allowing me the prime opportunity to live my awesome life and gather more wri...

Today I am happy to feature The Unfinished Song (Book 1) Initiate, by Tara Maya. I asked Tara to explain the inspiration behind her warrior dancers:  The warrior dancers are inspired by several shamanistic practices around the world-- primarily on Hopi and Zuni Kachina dancers, who are usually warriors as well, but also on African secret societies. The members of these secret societies are dancers, sorcerers/shamans and also warriors. I lived in West Africa for about a year, and met several real shamans who belonged to such societies, and was once invited to watch a secret society. I wanted the civilization in Faearth to be closer to this shamanistic understanding of how power works than the usual "high magic" of medieval times, with spell books and formal orders. Fascinating, right? Thanks for explaining that for us, Tara. Now, more about the book:  DEADLY INITIATION A DETERMINED GIRL... Dindi can't do anything right, maybe because she spends more ti...

Word Count            Submissions              Rejections        Acceptances        14188                           2                               2                          1 I've decided to move my monthly reporting to the middle-ish of the month, so this reporting period is only three weeks long. Even so, I'm pleased with the progress. Good word count (most of it last week!) An acceptance is always a nice thing. Like SUPER nice! If you missed that announcement, hop on over to read about it here . As I've mentioned before, I'm a mother of four. My husband and I like to take the kids out exploring. For a drive to a new destination, on a hike, geocaching, canoeing on a new...

I'm excited to announce that I have signed the contract for my seventh published book! (Faints dead away) THE LUMPY DUCKLING: Another Weaver Tale will be published by Guardian Angel Publishing (date undetermined). If you couldn't tell by the name, THE LUMPY DUCKLING was inspired by The Ugly Duckling. It is a story about best friends. Since I have the best best friend in the entire world, I know how to tell a best friend story. Though the story itself is nothing like our friendship, I did make sure to incorporate letter writing into this story, because my bestie and I live 1100 miles apart and write a lot of letters to each other. Our friendship has grown deeper because of it and I wanted kids to see that there are all sorts of ways to develop a true lasting friendship. LUMPY will be the third book in my Weaver Tales series. Each book is a stand alone. They are set in the same fictional village of The Tales. The residents of The Tales speak in story and are known as Word...

Pantser – noun/verb hybrid.              Author who does not plan, plot or outline before sitting down to a blank page. One who writes by the seat of his/her pants. By definition a pantser might be thought of as a whimsical creature. I imagine she frolics through fields of daisies communing with rabbits and all the while arranging copious amounts of very fine words that make up lovely, lyrical stories. A plotter (one who mulls, plans and outlines) probably imagines a pantser as one who scratches her bum through her saggy, raggedy sweatpants. Sits at the computer, with a cigarette hanging from her mouth, a long ash dangling wretchedly close to the keyboard and has the gall to yawn and sniff before beginning her project. Reality is actually a bit of both. Without the dangling ash. At least in my case. I’ve always been a pantser, but I’ve also been a muller. And both of those have worked against me in the past. As a pantser I can wri...