Welcome to Pairings

A reviewer calls Unspoken "Both heart-wrenching and hopeful, shining with the grit of those who dare to redefine what 'home' truly means."

To ignore a creative funk is to imperil your creative stamina. Here's how to take a time out to tend to your creative soul.

Like superheroes with super powers, we creatives must use our gift with care — nourish it, tend to it, and practice it.

Distractions are what I'm facing hourly, as I prepare to launch my first published novel. So I wrote this advice to self to distract me from distractions.

In the Lone Star State, we celebrate Texas Writers Month in May. For the final part of this series in Pairings, featuring Texas authors all month, we finish with those who are just beginning — and a few who led the way.

What Did It Take to Become America’s First Female Cabinet Member? The only woman in the room, and the only individual to serve in FDR’s cabinet for his entire term, arrived for her job interview on February 22, 1933 with a very ambitious list.

These authors found inspiration in the hidden histories of accomplished women, whose achievements went untold.

When the fire broke out in a trash can on March 25, 1911, only one garment worker noticed. But soon the flames and smoke were inescapable.

In the 1930s, these women captured Texas on film—the good, the bad, and the truly ugly.

Just like everyone else, we face choices. But the choices authors face aren't exactly like the ones you're imagining.

How does inspiration strike? For these authors, it's the random events in everyday life that sparked ideas for their novels.

Here’s why Scrivener can easily become your go-to tool for organizing your research and writing and pictures.

It’s ironic many extra words writers have to cut once they hit the magic length historical novels are: 100,000 - 120,000. Cue the angst.

Whether you’re a Scrivener power user or a beginner, here are a few things Scrivener can do that you probably can’t do without.

Henry Miller's own Eleven Commandments of Writing helped him maintain his focus on work in progress. Can they help with yours, too?

Do rainy days always get you down, or are they the best days for creativity?

Knowing when to stop writing is a lot easier than starting to write in the first place. But it's simple: You just have to show up.

Don’t fight it. Creativity is a choice. Once you make it, the ups, and the downs, are the fun part.

"The work never never matches the dream of perfection the artist has to start with" — William Faulkner

When you let go, you create space for something else to move in to your life, as Holiday Mathis told me in my horoscope.