Over the past couple of months, I've become more and more aggravated with my website host. There were numerous small things that, individually, would be unimportant, but together, added up to drive me away. I started looking into other hosts, and while there were several excellent choices, I settled on Weebly. I'm familiar with the website builder, and I'm comfortable with how the site works.

While I'm sure you're all very excited about the change, it does mean that all of my previous blog posts must disappear. For while my domain switches hosts and my address is the same, all of the information on my website has to be re-entered, including my blogs. Needless to say, I've spent days re-inputing the information. I'm quite happy with the result! 

The two blog posts below were the only posts that I could salvage from my previous blog.

As you all might be wondering (per my previous blog post), I haven't been writing. Shortly after I'd posted that blog, I received edits from my editor, and had to delve into those in order to meet deadline. After that, I began my read-through of Book 4 in the Mason Siblings series, Final Battle for Love, handed that in to my editor, and now I'm doing the substantive edits on The Thespian Spy, Book 1 in the Seductive Spies series. 

Once those edits are complete, I intend to plot-out a novella for Camilla (a character that you might be curious about after Love and Deceit), and then I'll get back to writing A Spy Worth Saving, Book 4 in the Seductive Spies series.

Phew! That's quite a lot. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the new site! 

Despite my optimism, and the goals I've set for myself, I...haven't been writing all that much, lately. 

In theory, I should be able to write 500 words per day--a very modest goal--which is what I'd told myself I would do. In practice, however, I'm having a seriously difficult time getting it done. I could blame any number of things: being busy with my other work, household stuff, being the mom of four kids and literally being climbed on all the time, social media, etc. but I think that Iam my biggest speed bump.

I want to write, but I think that I need to focus on making the time to dedicate just to my writing. Two days per week, my 3 year-old twins are at preschool while their older brothers (8 and 6) are in school, so that should be 5 interrupted hours of writing each day. Unfortunately, most of those two days is spent making phone calls (which I can only really make when the kids aren't home, because noise), taking an extra long (and blissfully uninterrupted by screaming) shower, playing with the dog (a tiny Chihuahua who usually hides when the kids are home), sipping tea before it gets cold, and having a snack that I don't have to share. By the time I actually sit down with my laptop on my lap, I usually only have an hour or two before I have to pick up the kids from school.

My goal now--which I'm stating publicly here for accountability--is to actually take those two 5-hour days per week and dedicate them to writing book 8 (Book 4 in the Seductive Spies series--A Spy Worth Saving). I'll post my progress, and I promise I'll be honest. My current word count is: 25,973. 

​Wish me luck!

​I've learned something, lately, about myself when I'm plotting. In my work-in-progress (A Spy Worth Saving: Book 4 in the Seductive Spies series), there's currently a long lull in the action, and for days I've been staring at my plot notes, not knowing where to go from here. I know where my plot must go in the long run, but I've been stuck in a short bout of writer's block. I've thought about it every day, and long into each night, without success; not a single plot point has come to mind.

Then suddenly, it happened. I abruptly became fed up with this immobility, and I started writing plot notes for a fight scene. It was like magic. The words started flowing, my pen going so fast that my notes are barely legible... And then it hit me. Every time I've ever been stuck in my writing or my plot notes, it's been an action scene that's drawn me out. 

Instead of continuing with the inaction, I've maneuvered my hero and heroine into a sticky situation. Now, their personalities get to shine, giving them dialogue and action without my having to force it. The scene merely unfolds, and I no longer have to stare at my plot-less notebook and blank computer screen.

I don't know why, precisely, but I know that for me a good action scene is the cure for writer's block.