As a writer of feel-good love stories, there’s a LOT I’ve learned that goes into creating a good feeling. I had to rewrite Waiting at Hayden’s ten times, not because there was a problem with the story, but because I hadn’t mastered the art of making my readers feel what I wanted them to feel when reading certain scenes. “Don’t tell me they’re happy,” an editor once told me. “Make me feel it.” How?! This can often feel like an impossible task—both on the written page, and in our . . .
How To Make Transitions—In Our Wardrobes & In Our Lives
When it comes to our wardrobes, most of us love the transition from one season to the next. I’m currently loving this fall top, these high-waisted jeans, and these scalloped flats. But in our personal lives, we tend to fear transitional phases. During a recent flight to Boston I was delayed for seven hours in the airport. With time to kill, I started talking with another passenger from my flight. He was traveling for work, but told me he didn’t really love his job. “Why don’t you find a . . .
Do You Need a Routine Makeover: Is Your Routine Inspiring or Miring You?
When I was in the third grade my teacher gave us an assignment to come up with an invention. Mine was an innovative, practical, BRILLIANT way to quickly wake people up in the morning. I set an alarm to go off and had my sister, Casey, the “test subject”, lie in bed and pull a string when she heard the beep. The string released Tabasco sauce down a PVC pipe and into her mouth. “You asshole!” she said, popping right up and hitting me. (Casey routinely had her mouth washed out with soap when we . . .
Signs, Fate, and Destiny: Are We Living in a Serendipitous World?
One of my all time favorite romantic comedies is Serendipity. If you aren’t familiar with the film it tells the story of two people Jonathan (John Cusack) and Sara (Kate Beckinsale) who fall for each other one night in New York City. The problem is both are dating other people. Jonathan thinks the night was so magical they should leave their significant others and be together, but Sara suggests they leave it up to destiny. She writes her name and number in a book—Love in the Time of Cholera—and . . .
Five Unconventional Tips for Career Success That No One Else Will Tell You
“As most of you know,” I told the crowd at my book pre-launch party in Oregon a few weeks ago, “it took me ten years to publish Waiting at Hayden’s.” “Too long!” My comedian-sister, Casey, heckled me from the audience. While she was obviously kidding (she’s seen how much goes into writing and publishing a book) as I thought about her joke afterward I realized that on some level she was right. Of course it does take a long time to write a novel—or accomplish any big goal—especially since . . .
Love the Space Where You Create: Tips for Styling a Productive Workspace
In the ten years I’ve been writing Waiting at Hayden’s I’ve moved several times, and each time I’ve had to find a new workspace. Sometimes that workspace has been outside the house. When I was living in Charleston, South Carolina I wrote six to eight hours a day at the two-story Starbucks on King Street (that was until the barista informed me that the cookie I ordered every single day was “bad for me.” I then started going to a place called Baked on East Bay Street—not because they had healthier . . .
