With so many magical stories in North America alone, I knew my books had to have some Mexican myths thrown into the mix! While I was weaving the latest danger into Devil’s Den, I stumbled into some really cool Youtube videos where people are speaking Nahuatl (historically known as the Aztec language). In fact, over …
Where did you get the inspiration for the Murmur books? A reader sent in the question above, and I think it’s an especially awesome question for fantasy fiction books. Where do all of these pieces come from? For me, I think the ideas for the Wildheart books draw from a couple of wells of inspiration: …
Hello, bookish friends! I have to confess–winter is a tough time for me to stay motivated. I mean, the freezing cold alone makes me want to curl up in a blanket and hibernate until spring. And when the work stress and sniffling sick co-workers got to be too much this week, I knew I needed …
Hello, bookish friends! Here’s a rough draft excerpt from a Finn/Will story I’m working on..hope you enjoy! ****** Forbidden to shift at home, Finn turns to biker’s son Will Branson for help. Will takes Finn to Jack Corbin’s house. Making friends is hard. ****** It took two seconds for Finn to ruin everything. He hadn’t …
Hello, bookish friends! Boy, I don’t know about you, but 2017 was jam-packed for me. There were some days when it all felt overwhelming: the days when the sad news headlines just kept coming, or when family issues got so tangled up it was clear that we were going to have to Sit Down and …
Hello, bookish friends! A reader asked whether I have certain music that I like to listen to while I write. I actually have a lot of trouble writing and listening to music at the same time (listening and painting at the same time seem to be OK, though). Does anyone else have this problem? At …
We got the first snow of the year here in Maryland. It wasn’t very much, and I’ll definitely have to go to work tomorrow, but it was just enough to make the treetops sparkle when I took Rally for his walk this morning. With the snow coming down outside, I figured it was a perfect …
Hello, bookish friends! It is officially hot drink season. I love drinking tea year round, but I had never had a London Fog until a few years ago when I went to visit my friend in Seattle. A London Fog is essentially an Earl Grey Tea latte–picture a mug of tea that’s fragrant, creamy, and has …
Somehow — SOMEHOW — November is over. Thanksgiving was last week here in the States, and my mental calendar gears have clanked from “almost Thanksgiving” over to “almost Christmas”. This time of year always looks so good on blogs, too. All golden lights and hot drinks—it’s easy to get totally run over by the actual, …
Hello, bookish friends! I’ve gotten a lot of wonderful comments on the Wildheart book covers, and I’m so glad you guys like them! Today’s post is a behind-the-scenes look at my glamorous desk (ha!) and how I put together the cover for the third book, Devil’s Den 🙂 Gathering Inspiration Devil’s Den pulls in a lot …