Tag Archives: writing

NaNoWriMo: November Reimagined

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Since 1999, National Novel Writing Month has inspired aspiring authors to write a novel in a month. I started participating in the event in 2006, and did it every year until 2023. I did not participate in 2024, for reasons I discussed in my blog post of that year. In March 2025, the non-profit that ran the event shut down.

Which meant folks who relied on the seat-of-your-pants, self-motivated challenge were left in the lurch for November 2025. What to do? Well, there are alternatives, some good, some bad. Continue reading →

Censorship is Coming

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The 2024 elections in the United States are devastating to all who believe in freedom of expression and freedom of speech.

Censorship is coming to the United States. Censorship of the books you want to read. Prepare for the censorship apocalypse now.
Continue reading →

Getting to know me: The Smut Report 2023

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This re-post of an interview I did with The Smut Report is the fifth in a series of blog interviews I’ve done over the years. The first post explains my purpose.

The Smut Report Interview

Today’s post is from a 2023 interview I did for The Smut Report with the goal of promoting my Harwell Heirs series. At the time, I had just released Book 4, A Delicate Seduction, and so applied to The Smut Report for a review of Book 1, The Pleasure Device. They said they would review The Pleasure Device later, but in the meantime, I could do this promo interview called “My First Smut”, so I did. By the way, The Smut Report hated The Pleasure Device. It seems my Victorian erotic romance was too smutty for a website with “smut” in the title! Continue reading →

NaNoNoMore: Artificial Intrusion

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I have a story to tell. The first year I participated in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), 2006, I told a computer programmer friend of mine about the event. If you don’t know, NaNoWriMo is a seat-of-your-pants, self-motivated challenge where you write a 50,000-word novel in 30 days. By writing 50,000 words, you become a NaNoWriMo “winner”. My programmer friend said she could write a script in a few minutes that would repeat a word 50,000 times, so would that make her a winner?

Um, no. Continue reading →

Inspiration: Antiquities, Accents, and Together Alone

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This is my Discovering Her Delight inspiration post. Warning! There are spoilers ahead for the book. If you don’t mind spoilers, read on. If you don’t like your romance spoiled, read Discovering Her Delight first!

An Initial Inspiration

I started the notes for Discovering Her Delight way back in 2014 (then known as Discovering Her Desire). I knew it was going to be a story centered on an archaeological expedition, I just wasn’t clear on the specifics. An archaeologist friend of mine had a bizarre idea: what if the hero had to write on the heroine’s back?

So I held on to that thought, and it continued to inspire the story. Why would he need to do this? Under what circumstances? And how would he do it in 1881? Continue reading →

NaNoPrep2023: The Rebellion Begins

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I have participated in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) since 2006. So this November, 2023, will be my 18th NaNoWriMo.

Holy Wow. That’s a lot of novels.

No, really, it is. I have nine (yes, 9) unfinished novels. And they are really good novels. Eight are related to existing series. (The standalone is 2021’s Super Sekrit Steampunk novel.)

So I came to the conclusion that I really, really, REALLY need to finish these novels. And I really, really need to spend my NaNoWriMo November writing time to achieve this goal rather than starting more new novels. Continue reading →

Observe The Absinthe Drinkers

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Preface

I originally wrote this art-historical essay about The Absinthe Drinkers by Jean-François Raffaëlli (1850-1924) for another project entirely separate from my author life. I include it now as context and background material to my Victorian erotic romance stories. Book 6 of my Harwell Heirs series, Their Noble Deceit, will have a mention of absinthe drinking by heroes Norrington and Ravensburgh.

And now for the essay. Continue reading →

Sex and the Seasoned Romance

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In 2018, I was on a Seasoned Romance panel at the Emerald City Writers Conference. My topic was “Sex and the Seasoned Romance”. I was recently reminded of this presentation when another author posted a rather shocking comment in a seasoned romance author discussion group I am no longer a member of:

“I would not write an erotic romance about an older couple…simply because there’s a level of maturity that makes their sexual relationship much deeper and more meaningful, because of all they’ve been through.”

Uh…that’s exactly why an author can write a seasoned erotic romance! Or even just sex scenes featuring seasoned characters.

I’m still trying to get my head around what this author might have meant. Does she think “erotic romance” means lots of vacuous, meaningless sex? Because that’s not what an erotic romance is at all. In fact, the “maturity that makes their sexual relationship much deeper and more meaningful” feeds into what an erotic romance is: a sexual journey leading to a happily-ever-after. Continue reading →

NaNoPrep2022: Steampunk Rebel!

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This year has been a difficult one. My mother died unexpectedly. My father continues to live under hospice care. So I’m taking it easy with my 2022 National Novel Writing Month November effort. Which means I’m going to, yet again, be a NaNo Rebel.

What’s a NaNoWriMo Rebel you might ask? Someone who bucks the NaNoWriMo tradition of writing 50,000 words of a brand new novel during November. The team over at National Novel Writing Month has FAQs in their discussion forum. Continue reading →

NaNoPrep2021: Sooper Sekrit Steampunk Romance

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It’s October and once again time for NaNoPrep. “Preptober” is the time when authors all over the world prepare their National Novel Writing Month novel. This year my novel is called The Sooper Sekrit Steampunk Story. Yes, it will be Steampunk! Yes, there will be romance! But, I only have sort of an idea of what’s going to happen! Continue reading →