By Kimberly Jayne As a novelist, I know how important it is to write regularly—daily, in fact. One reason is that you have to keep the creative chops from getting rusty; the more you write, the easier it is. But the bigger arguments are that the more you write, the richer your writing becomes and […]
This week is an exciting week for me as I will be awarded the MWA Raven Award on Thursday. I have to give a speech. Too frightening for me, but I’m going to do it. I wrote it. I read it out loud. Made changes and I hope I don’t ramble when I get up […]
By Sparkle Abbey We have the best job! We’re storytellers. Not only that, we’ve been blessed recently with readers who have taken the time to email or tell us in person about their experiences in reading our books. One lovely reader shared that she got through an illness abroad ship with our first three books […]
One of the first writers to reach out to welcome me was the mystery writer, Linda Rodriquez. We met many years ago, at AWP in Denver, Colorado and she kept in touch via social media. She invited me to join the Stiletto Gang last year and I began blogging about being a writer. My excitement after […]
By Kimberly Jayne When I was eight, I was a third-grade student at Desert View Elementary. My teacher was a tiny elderly woman in her eighties. Mrs. Hawkins was sweet and welcoming and, because of her, I looked forward to going to school. I adored her. It was 1963, a year that changed America, and […]
by Sparkle Abbey Each January our agent asks us for a business and marketing plan for that year. We don’t exactly look forward to it, but we are goal setting, planning kind of women, so we don’t mind. Part of our business plan includes an author mission statement. That’s not unusual. Every business should have […]
Louise, Emma, Rose 1998 March Madness or March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb. March reminds me that spring is about to spring on us in big and little ways. This photo of my Mom and two of my aunts reminds me of the strength of the bond between women, sisterhood. […]
It’s my turn today and I had nothing, so I asked Kay for suggestions and she mentioned writing about “things you do that help you find joy in everyday life when you live in a great but stressful city.“ I found a scale that identifies stress in your life and my score was very low. […]
By Kimberly Jayne The last three months, I’ve felt like I’ve been stuck on Survivor. I don’t know about you, but from my perspective, with the election won by the most disagreeable guy on the island (who should have been easily voted off)—and a death in my family—I’ve been grieving. And it’s affected my writing. […]
by Sparkle Abbey We’ve had a crazy week. We know, it’s only Thursday, but it feels like we’ve crammed in seven days since Monday. It’s times like this when we like to laugh and remind ourselves we have pretty amazing lives. So we thought this was the perfect time to share some fun facts about […]