Greetings my beautiful readers!

I’m happy (and proud) to announce that my new novel is hitting the shelves on February 5th.

Published by 5 Prince Books, Permanent Spring Showers is a work of literary fiction, filled with scandals, surprises, art, humor, romance (i.e., sex), and manipulation. Here is the back cover description of the work:

Professor Rebecca Stanley-Wilson is having a very bad season. Her husband has just admitted to having an affair. And it was with one of her students.

Blame it on a desire for revenge (or way too much alcohol), she then has had one of her own. Unfortunately for her, her affair was with one of the great upcoming painters of his generation. The ramifications of that one torrid evening will not only be felt across her life but over the entire art world.

Sexy, funny, and very surprising, Permanent Spring Showers is the tale of…

Who are your characters really? You might know. But should THEY?

Today I want to talk about an interesting facet of being human, one that can very much influence character development in our fiction and help make our characters–whether protagonists, antagonists, or supporting cast–feel more “real.”

The idea for this post came to me reflecting on one of my favorite prayers. I try to say it every morning (or at least most mornings.) It rings very true to me. I like this prayer because I know myself well enough to know that my greatest weakness are probably not what I think they are, nor do I really understand my strengths.

(That’s going to be the main point of this post, by the way: how well do we really know ourselves? How well do our characters? So bear with me.)

The prayer comes from Thomas Merton. The part of it that…