A woman comes home after shopping, puts her toddler down for a nap, and then stretches out on the bed for a short rest. She wakes up to find a strange man in her bedroom, staring at her….

Then my muse gets up and walks out. “Hey!” I call. “Where are you going? Get back here, right now!”

“Nope.” He lifts his chin and looks away. “I’m done here.”

“But we’re at a critical part of the book.�...

For a long time, junk mail annoyed me. It often came with my name and address printed on multiple sheets inside, so I couldn't just throw it away. Not in these days of identity theft. No, I had to handle it somehow. And I didn't like it. I resented that these businesses made me responsible for their paperwork without my consent! I was outraged. I lamented...

We knew pretty much everything about our character, Brook, before we ever set words to a page. She was a lot like us, or people we've known. She was the pretty girl we went to high school with, the nice one that had a smile for everybody. Brook was born and raised not far from where we live. We liked her. She was a Kansas girl. But before the readers even got the chance to know and appreciate her quiet strength, her kind nature, or her particular circumstances, we started being very mean to h...