Easy to Spot

Who is this Fiorella Plum, you ask? She's the one who smiles and nods at everyone she sees. Who does physical therapy exercises while waiting at a red light or in the post office line. Who sits in her car in the parking lot and jots down notes for a novel on the back of her supermarket register slips. Who pulls wagons of rocks up from the creek to line the driveway. Who always has a project in the works. WHO CANNOT KEEP STILL AND NEVER WILL

And that's her New Year's resolution.

Revelation

I thought that I would never stop crying
That I would never heal
But fire has burned away the dross
And now, I am steel

What Has Fiorella Learned?

Fiorella has learned a lot about herself while writing WHERE THE HEART LEADS.

Craft-wise, she realized that she's been writing as a poet--agonizing over each sentence and every word as she goes along--which has seriously slowed her down.  As a novelist, she must write quickly to get the basic story down, then go back and add the curlicues.

Voice-wise, she realized that she is funny, sardonic, and quite dark.  She can't resist word plays, likes turning characters inside-out, and puts her heroine through hell before giving her a well-deserved happy ending.

Personally, she  learned that  if she stays up half the night finishing off a book, she's gonna pay for it the next night with a major attack of fire in the gut. But the good thing is that her take-no-prisoners approach has reaffirmed her belief in herself.  Fiorella is made of steel.  She can do anything she puts her mind to.

Locked in the Tower Room

Today is Fiorella's last chance with this book, and she's determined to make good.  The story's been stripped down to its core plot, peripheral characters have been dropped, and the ending's been rewritten. Now for the sanding, paint, and polish.  This sucker's going in tonight.

Writing Professionally

Let's make the matter clear.  Friend Jeanell is not a hobbyist.  She's in this writing business for the long haul.  She wants to make money, and she wants to make her mark. She wants her romances to sell big, and she wants to get her message out there, that women's endurance is the strength of the world.

We must move forward because there's no way we can back up.

Bravado

If you put Fio in a box
And wrap it round with iron chain,
She'll find a way to break the locks--
And all your work will be in vain--
For Fio runs feral, never tame