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Leveling Up at Midlife: Learning to Write a Romance Novel
After nearly two decades of writing crime fiction, I thought I understood difficulty. Murder plots. Historical research. Layered mysteries. Turns out, none of that prepared me for writing about two divorced people learning how to trust again. This year, I’m writing a slow-burn romance. And it’s humbling me in ways I didn’t expect.
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What a Hockey Rom-Com Taught Me About Love, Fear, and Visibility
It started with a recommendation. A good friend at the office suggested I watch the TV show “Heated Rivalry.” I didn’t know anything about it but looked it up. Based on the second book in the Game Changers series by Rachel Reid, Heated Rivalry focuses on two rival hockey players—Shane Hollander (Hudson Willams) and Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storie)—who fall in love over the span of multiple years. When I asked my friend why she thought I’d enjoy the series, she commented on my love of rom-coms, good stories, and great characters. Plus she knows how much I adore stories that elicit an emotional reaction. All true, especially that last one.…
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Jack, Janet, and June: A Love Letter to Sitcom Roots
Can a font and a dedication really sell a book? Yes it can. Last month, I hopped on Audible to purchase the latest Batman ‘89 novel from John Jackson Miller. (Last year, he published Batman: Resurrection, a direct sequel to the 1989 film that takes place in that universe. It was one of my favorite books of 2024 so the next book, Batman: Revolution, was a no-brainer.) But when I got to the site, a book cover caught my eye. Being a Gen-Xer, what struck me first was the font. It’s not just that the word “Different” is in the book’s title, but that went a long way. I instantly…
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Lights, Loss, and Love
Matthew Norman’s Holiday Novel Shines with Real Emotion As a reader, one of my favorite things is discovering a new-to-me author. But almost as soon as the discovery is finished, a question follows: will I read another book by the author? Back in 2023, I discovered Matthew Norman based on his then-new novel, Charm City Rocks. I devoured that book in only four days, one of my fastest reads in a long time. For the past two years, when someone asks me to name one of my favorite books, Charm City Rocks made the list. You also must know that I don’t re-read books. I just don’t. There are too…
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Lessons from a Surprising Summer of Writing
How’d your writing summer go? Long-time readers might remember my penchant for writing “seasons,” distinct pockets of time, with definite beginnings and endings, and there’s no better writing season than summer. Ninety-ish days, bookended by two holidays. So how’d you do? For me, it was the summer of surprises, and lessons learned. The Thing I Knew on Memorial Day As the summer started, I was writing my novel, Mid-Lives. It was in the final phase and I had given myself a deadline of 1 July (after I failed to meet my original 1 April deadline). I beat that July deadline by a week. Turns out having a box set of…
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When a Book Hangover Spills Over Into Your Writing
If you recall last week’s post, I wrote about book hangovers. Those are the books you read that you love so much that you find it challenging to start the next book because you just want to bask in the halo of the book you just finished. This happened to me recently when I re-listened to Charm City Rocks by Mattew Norman. Turns out the halo/hangover from that book not only caused me to listen to anything other than a new novel but also manifested itself in my writing. The Genesis of the New Project A few weeks ago at church, a friend of mine who is an actor started…
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A Rom-Com That’s Dialed Up to Eleven: Charm City Rocks by Matthew Norman
How long has it been since you read a book in four days? For me, it’s been forever. But I’ve also not read a book quite like Charm City Rocks by Matthew Norman. I follow the Writer Unboxed website and a recent Q&A landed this book on my radar. Being a huge fan of KISS, I instantly assumed the reference was a shout out to KISS’s “Detroit Rock City.” Whether or not that was how the author came up with the title of his novel, I don’t know, but that’s what got me in the door. Oh, and the cool premise. A single dad, Billy, is watching a rock and…