Writing Inspirational Quote #amwriting #writingtips

“If your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough” – Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Africa’s First Female President

Writing a novel was my dream.  Getting started was the hardest part, because with a dream that–at the time, with my schedule and inexperience–would certainly take me years of work (two and a half to finish the first draft, to be exact), then take years to edit, submit, wait, revise, resubmit, wait more (one very long year), and might possibly never even succeed in terms of getting contracted, the list of reasons to NOT begin such an overwhelming task stack up quickly. Because it’s scary.

A printed out first draft -
that's a lot of red pen!

But it was my dream, and I told myself if I didn’t even try, I certainly wouldn’t achieve it.  And then I finally typed up those first pages (which are long gone from the final novel, but apparently still exist, as I discovered when I cleaned out a desk in the basement), then I had started, and when I start something, I rarely stop until I’m finished.  Even if it takes years.

So embrace those scary dreams.  The time will pass anyway, whether you are going after your goals or not.  That first novel of mine, SILVER LAKE, was eventually acquired by a bigger publisher, and recently hit the #1 Bestseller ranking in Ghost Mysteries on Amazon, almost four years after the original publication.  That’s a dream I never even entertained when I began this journey!  So dream big, push the fear down, and go for it!

Ghostly Inspiration #amwriting #ghosts #haunting #paranormal

I’ve always wanted to see a ghost.  If there’s a Haunted Walking Tour to be found wherever I happen to be, I buy tickets.  In fact, going on a Haunted Historical Tour of Barnstable Village, Cape Cod, gave me the inspiration for my upcoming release, HAUNTED SOULS.  The oldest wooden jailhouse in the country was part of that tour, and I had a vision of a young colonial ghost lingering in a cramped cell for centuries, until an invitation from a sensitive little boy leads him to follow the family home.  But that vision was in my mind, so...still no luck actually seeing an image.  I have had some other experiences, though, that convince me that some kind of spiritual energy lives on, even after death.  

My stairs don't look anything
like that, actually!

But then the other night, I thought I heard someone climbing the stairs over and over, up and down, accompanied by the sound of change jingling in a pocket.  Now, my husband runs a few mornings a week, training for triathlons, and sometimes he does the stairs a few times to warm up, but I lay there in the dark thinking, why does he have a pocketful of change when he’s going running?  Then I rolled over and saw that he was still in bed next to me, and both our sons were at sleepovers.

The noise stopped, but I still had to get up and investigate.  I didn’t find anything, but in the darkness of 1:30 a.m., I decided maybe it wouldn’t be all that great to see a ghost.  At least not in my own home!

But I admit I had a lot of fun writing the scenes in SILVER LAKE when our heroine Rain Anderson actually sees the ghost.  As much as she wants to help her old friend’s spirit find peace, encountering her ghost is terrifying.  The man she loved--and discarded--back in high school, Jason Lansing, is at the lake house reunion too—but even he, a fourth degree black belt in Karate, can’t do much to protect anyone from a desperate spirit determined to expose the truth...even if it means putting former friends in danger.

I had to tap into a more sinister place to bring the ghost in GULL HARBOR “to life”.  While I would never define my novels as horror stories, the paranormal parts are designed to elicit a few chills.  And the ghost in Gull Harbor is very angry and aggressive—for a good reason.  Can psychic medium Claire Linden figure out what happened before tragedy strikes again?  And can Max Baron, her former boyfriend, get past Claire’s resentment in enough time to try to help keep her safe?

How about you?  Ever seen a ghost?  I’d love to hear your haunting stories - and it just might help kick my imagination into gear for my next ghost story :)  And stay tuned for more details on a release date for Haunted Souls...for now, I'll leave you with a reveal of the beautiful cover and a link to the Pinterest board with more pictures of the setting and characters.

My dream cover for this book,
courtesy of Debbie Taylor at
The Wild Rose Press

Just Do It! #amwriting Inspiration #writingtips

"The only way to do a thing is to do it" ~ William Painter

This is the quote I used for my contribution to the Friday Writing Inspiration feature over at The Pearls of Writing Wisdom, a blog offering writing tips and inspiration from ten published authors.  I tore this out of my daily paper because it struck a chord with me.  Many people have the dream of writing a novel.  Many people have an idea in their head, complete with nagging characters who want their story told.  "This would make a great novel," you think...and maybe it will, but you have to write it first.  The only way to do a thing is to do it.

And yes, it's scary.  I had the entire plot, beginning to end, of SILVER LAKE in my mind for years.  I already knew the characters intimately...in fact, I would imagine conversations between them each night as I drifted off to sleep.  My husband encouraged me to start writing it down, but I resisted...how could I do that?  It's such a huge endeavor.  And what if it never panned out?  All those hours--years--would be wasted.

Which is what I told a good friend, at a party.  And he shook his head and told me I had to try. "What if it doesn't get published?" I said.

"What if it does?" he countered.  And he met every one of my arguments with a similar rebuke, finally pointing out that at the very least, I will have finished a novel, published or not, and that is no small thing.

I started the next day.  And now my fourth novel is awaiting a release date.

These days, I teach a class on writing fiction to aspiring authors.  And the biggest hurdle is usually convincing them to start.  It's the only way to get it done.  So don't wait for some magic guarantee of success--it won't come.  Just write.