To say I’m a Nicholas Sparks fan girl is an understatement. As most of you know, I up and moved across the country to the setting of his novels to write the first draft of Waiting at Hayden’s. So during my recent book tour, where I traveled through the South and then the East Coast introducing shopfiction™ to bookstores, I knew I had to stop in his hometown. The drive there was filled with excitement. And lots of missed exits and wrong turns (hence why I ended up having my sister’s friend, . . .
Heartbreak: Why It’s Okay (and Important) to Risk it Again
The other week, while traveling on my book tour, I fell for somebody. It was one of those instant, mutual connections—the kind you don’t have to question, or ask your best friend: what do YOU think about him? I love anything in life that doesn’t need to be questioned, because I am naturally someone who questions everything. (The other week I was in an online chat with someone in tech support for GoDaddy, and after three hours going back and forth with the guy about a problem with my website, I . . .
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 . . .
Ghosting—a Dating Trend We Should Make Disappear
In my novel, Waiting at Hayden’s, one of my main characters is “ghosted” the day before her wedding by her fiancé. “Ghosting”, for those who aren’t familiar with the term, refers to a romantic partner disappearing suddenly and without an explanation. Excerpt: “She believed it was called ghosting, what he’d done. She’d heard friends at work use the term when describing what happened when men they’d been happily seeing suddenly disappeared from their lives without explanations. Kendall had . . .
