I'm a fan of westerns. But it always made me sad that the loner could never break from their archetype and find their own love or a purpose in life. The riding off into the sunset always bothered me. Why couldn't they stay and make a life for themselves? Loners tend to be male so an easy way to refresh this archetype is to try a female character but please oh please don't blend them with a battleaxe character as you get the female warrior who doesn't talk to anyone, all myste

Like many authors I’m an introvert but for my day job I’m forced to stand in front of a lot of people and teach. So I know there are certain places where you can shine without having to worry so much about your insecurities. Podcasts appeal to me as I don’t have to show my beautiful mug to anyone. So if you can stand the sound of your own voice then this is definitely something you can attempt. The next step is to decide what you are going to talk about: a mission statement i

I was talking with an author I'm mentoring and we were discussing characters and of course landed on Archetypes. Unlike stereotypes you don't start with a race or gender you start with a core character trait. Many don't take it much further than that but I'm a fan of taking a archetype and putting them in a situation you wouldn't normally find them and reacting in a different way than is usually portrayed in movies - usually more realistically. So I'm going to be looking at d

I was reading an article today that the local Romance Writer's chapter posted and one of the lines resonated with me. One of the most prevalent criticism of romance is that it causes unrealistic expectations. So is it unrealistic to expect a man to treat a woman with respect? I write clean romance, not because I think romantic books are bad - each to their own - but because I believe we should write the kind of books we want emulated in the world. I am religious and I would c