As a non-parent, I’ve always been struck by how often parents believe that their small child’s tendencies or slight delays indicate what kind of adult they will be. I’ve seen enough difficult two-year-olds to grow into easygoing nine-year-olds, for instance, to ascribe temper tantrums to a child’s age rather than her personality. It’s clear to me that a child who
Tag: writing
My day job is Master Writer at Hallmark Cards, and I don’t blog about it too much, but this summer has been so fun and exciting that I can’t resist. Hallmark introduced four studio collections, each one featuring the work of someone on their creative staff, and one of those collections is mine! (Bryn is a pen name, but I prefer
This isn’t my clever idea — it is author Kelley Lenhart’s, and I borrowed it with her kind permission because I thought it was so much fun! The idea here is that you come up with an alternate title for your book as though it were a clickbait headline for an article on the internet instead. You know those headlines. I think Upworthy may
First off, “Cancer” is the worst name in astrology. Can we re-name it, please? Anyway, the Crab is a great personality type that can help you build a devoted, emotional character! [AdSense-B] Some people think of Cancer as “wimpy,” which is totally incorrect. Being emotionally open and honest is its own kind of courage, and as a couple of the
First of all: what is a beta reader? It’s a reader who gives your unpublished book or other work a close read and gives you feedback to help you improve the story. A beta reader isn’t as thorough as a developmental editor, and some authors use beta readers after the first draft of their story. Beta readers are wonderful…except when
Welcome to the third installment in my astrology series for writers! Of all the zodiac signs, Geminis may introduce the most possibilities for fun. They have a love and a gift for change, and wherever you put them, they’re going to shake things up. Here are some positive traits of a Gemini: clever entertaining social adaptable intellectual curious And here
Last month I asked people to share a bit of their work in progress–and they did! It was so much fun and so inspiring, so I’m doing it on the first Wednesday of every month. I’ve been working really hard on a nonfiction book, so I’m going to share a paragraph from my completed paranormal romance, The Phoenix Codex, which is the