“One must be fond of people and trust them if one is not to make a mess of life.” ~E.M. Forster (1879-1970), English novelist As a novelist, I spend a lot of time with imaginary people. I don’t just hang around with them — I actually expend many hours and much energy getting to know these fictitious characters. I …
August Contest: Where in the World is Daniel?
Tomorrow, August 1, is Allison Denmark and Daniel Rayner’s three-month anniversary. It’ll be three months since my contemporary romance novel Wish You Were Here debuted and readers were introduced to Allison, the woman who kissed her fiancé’s brother five days before her wedding. I loved launching Wish You Were Here with my fellow “Debs,” whose books also debuted in May: Dani …
In Others’ Words: Chaos
“Our real discoveries come from chaos, from going to the place that looks wrong and stupid and foolish.” ~ Chuck Palahniuk (1962-), American novelist & freelance journalist It has been a haphazard summer. “Haphazard” is just a three-syllable word for chaos. And “chaos” is a two-syllable word for “Would somebody please tell me when I’m going to have …
In Others’ Words: Art & Life
“You don’t have to make something that people call art. Living is an artistic activity, there is an art to getting through the day.” ~Viggo Mortensen (1958-), actor Friday is always a look-back-over-my-shoulder kind of day for me. The week has finally run into the weekend — hooray! — and I mentally shift gears from “weekday” life to “weekend” life. …
In Others’ Words: Comfort
“Remember, we all stumble, every one of us. That’s why it’s a comfort to go hand-in-hand.” ~Emily Kimbrough (1899-1989), American author & journalist Sometimes I trip myself up all by myself. I rush through my day and forget an all-important something on my To Do list. Or I say something I shouldn’t. Or don’t say something I should. I doubt …
In Others’ Words: Achieving Success
“No one lives long enough to learn everything they need to learn starting from scratch. To be successful, we absolutely, positively have to find people who have already paid the price to learn the things that we need to learn to achieve our goals.” ~Brian Tracy (1944-), self-help author It’s one thing to have a dream. It’s something all …
In Others’ Words: Celebrate
“Love one another and you will be happy. It’s as simple and as difficult as that.” ~Michael Leunig (1945-), Australian poet & cartoonist It’s wedding week at the Vogt household. This Friday, July 20, my daughter marries a wonderful young man named David Baker. Amy Baker. It may take me a while to get used to that. My husband …
In Others’ Words: Choose
By Max Lucado, best-selling author & preacher “I Choose Love… No occasion justifies hatred; no injustice warrants bitterness. I choose love. Today I will love God and what God loves. I Choose Joy… I will invite my God to be the God of circumstance. I will refuse the temptation to be cynical. I will refuse to see people as anything …
In Others’ Words: Tomorrow
“The long-lived books of tomorrow are concealed somewhere amongst the so-far unpublished [manuscripts] of today.” ~Philip Unwin, author Tucked within today’s quote is both hope — and the promise of hard work. Every writer I know has at least one manuscript waiting to be published … one story waiting to be told. Some writing friends have two finished manuscripts. Or …
In Others’ Words: Rain
“Some people walk in the rain, others just get wet.” ~Roger Miller (1936-1992), American singer & songwriter My husband Rob and I went for a walk last night, which is one of our favorite things to do. Heavy grey clouds hung overhead. And as rain dotted our driveway, Rob ran back inside our house and grabbed our all-weather coats. A …