She stands 5’10”, weighs 165 pounds, and is 25 years old.  Her hobbies are cycling, tennis, reading and watching Law and Order.  Her heroine is Olympic gold medal skier Picabo Street, and one of her best friends is her fiercest rival, German skier Julia Mancuso. She’s sustained serious wrist, back, tongue and shin injuries that [...]

It’s safe to say that the alleged infidelity of Tiger Woods has sparked controversy, debate, and discussion. So what does this have to do with writers? What can writers learn from a media storm like Tiger’s?
A recurring media trend takes place when it comes to big stories. First comes the inciting incident that makes the [...]

Some people annoy me today with their piety about going green. Going green and protecting the environment is nothing new. It’s just getting back to basics. We wouldn’t need constant reminding of how we can reduce our carbon footprints if the last two generations hadn’t become so wasteful and bought in to [...]

Sometimes our lives become so complicated and so full of all the things we “have” to get done or obtain, the things that top of our so-called priority list, that we miss the things that really matter.  It’s not hard in this day and age to get caught up in the hectic pace of life.  [...]

I am a car buff.  I’ll admit it.  Most women aren’t, I suppose, but blame my dad.  Or my hubby.  Or the fact that I was a tomboy.  If you’ve read my books, you know that my vehicles are dead-on accurate.  I don’t have the wrong engine in the wrong model or anything like that [...]

Have you ever purchased a DVD of a popular movie and seen “Director’s Cut” on the menu screen?  Usually, this is an opportunity to watch the movie as the director intended, not as the marketing gurus who test the film on audiences have it edited for theatrical release (read:  Shortened.  Audiences as a whole seem [...]

A couple of weeks ago, I was in the Micanopy area and dropped by the home of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. I’ve been a fan of MKR since 7th grade when I first read The Yearling. But did you know she also authored a cookbook? Right there in her kitchen is a first [...]

Born in 1760 to a family of three brothers and three sisters, and descended from one of the original Massachusetts colonists, Priscilla Alden, Deborah Sampson was destined to lead a life unlike any of her contemporary counterparts would ever dream of entering into. Far from idyllic, Deborah’s childhood, peppered by poverty, a father who abandoned [...]

Well, yesterday was one of those birthdays.  You know, the kind that end in a zero.  The kind that signal the end of another decade of living.  THE KIND THAT MAKE YOU FEEL OLD!
Celebrating a birthday beats the alternative, though, so I won’t let it depress me.  At least I’m not pushing up daisies yet, [...]