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My good friend and fellow author, Katharine Grubb, once offered a blog post about creating interesting characters. What stood out to me as I read it was her advice to give your main characters defining quirks. She also suggested your characters each have a hobby. The better you know your characters, the easier it is to clearly see those quirks each uses in various situations. Hobbies they are likely to enjoy emerge as well. A character in my latest novel restores vintage Schwinn bikes as his hobby. A few days ago, my mother and I were talking about identifying quirks and hobbies of a few well-known television characters. It started over lunch. I made us hotdogs with all the trimmings. We rarely eat such heart clogging food anymore, so having a picnic of sorts on the deck with hotdogs was a treat for both of us. We started talking about Matlock and his proclivity to inhale a hotdog at every turn. Do you remember his hobby? Music. You’ll often see him playing a guitar ...

Research: The Difference Between Still and Sparkling by Norma Gail, Author of Land of My Dreams “Still or sparkling?” “Excuse me?” My husband asked. “Your water, sir. Still or sparkling?” “Still.” As our Scottish waiter walked away, we burst into giggles. “It appears that driving on the wrong side of the road isn’t the only thing we have to get used to.” Writing a believable setting that you have only passing or no personal familiarity with can be a daunting task for any writer. Little did I know that two years following our trip to Scotland it would become the setting for my debut novel, Land of My Dreams. Had I known, I would have looked at things very differently. Once you decide to write, every event, interesting building, unusual accent, even people at the grocery store become potential material for creating setting and characters. The villainess in my current WIP was a woman in the small town grocery store where I shop. Here are some tips that made an...

Hang in to the end and enter to win a free book especially for writers! I am in the process of moving, meaning I have to get my current house ready to sell. That may sound easy to you. In fact, I’ve had people tell me I should “just hire someone.” Just hire someone to: Stain the deck? Replace caulking around the window? Paint the hall? Paint the woodwork in the bathroom? Mulch? Power wash the porch? Well, you get the idea. The list goes on and on. Some of the jobs are big and some are small. All are going to cost money. So the do-it-yourselfer in me kicked in. I figured if my husband could do these things, so could I. I’ll admit I’ve had some family members and friends step in to help, but I’ve also learned how to put down a smooth bead of caulking by watching YouTube. It turns out you can find nearly anything on YouTube. Some of it is good. Some of it is helpful. And yes, there are some videos out there that are neither good nor helpful. The whole do-i...

Note: This post first appeared on Hannah Conway's blog as part of the anniversary celebration for  Breathing on Her Own .  Publishing that first novel is akin to raising your firstborn child. You do your best, make a few mistakes, and learn along the way.   Now that Breathing on Her Own is a three-year-old, I’m prepared to offer other fledgling parents of books my sage advice. I'm including links to three short handbooks you will find helpful in setting your course to birth your own "Bookchild." Lesson 1 Birthing a “Bookchild” Requires Preparation Need a Business Plan? CLICK HERE First time parents want to do this whole baby thing right. Moms exercise and eat healthy. Dads dutifully paint the nursery. The couple reads everything they can about raising children and they spend long hours discussing the child’s name. In the same way, writers seeking to be authors need to exercise their writing muscle in order to draft that sweet manuscript. They must ...