Welcome to Pairings

How blogging has inadvertently taken me towards a more positive approach of acceptance, with a focus on what’s good.

Plaudits for Vacancy from Literary Titan: A 5-Star Review. A struggling single mother and a suspicious widow both have a habit of hiding from hard truths, until a brutal tragedy in an unforgiving Texas town forces them to face what they’re hiding, and fill the vacancy in their own hearts. New fiction in The Dust Series. Based on a true story.

Vacancy, Unveiled: A struggling single mother and a suspicious widow both have a habit of hiding from hard truths, until a brutal tragedy in an unforgiving Texas town forces them to face what they’re hiding, and fill the vacancy in their own hearts. New fiction in The Dust Series. Based on a true story.

My characters will always be with me, even after Vacancy is published, progressing through joy, pain, and growth, just like I do. So I wrote a letter to my characters.

There’s a saying in real estate, that it’s all about location. Location. Location. Location. It’s just as true in writing historical novels.

Every May, We Honor Texas Writers. Here Are Nine Compulsively Readable Books from Texas Authors, Including Thrillers, Historical Fiction, Memoir, Women's Fiction, and Historical Romance.

The Historical Novel Society Highlights Unspoken as an Editors' Choice selection: A book that “will stick around in your mind, because legacy isn’t just what’s passed down. It’s what you refuse to let slip away.”

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.

See 1945 through the eyes of someone who lived it, 80 years ago, when the headlines called it: PEACE on V/J Day. Victory Over Japan was declared and in Unspoken, Ruby Lee Becker recounts the day.

With new research showing the world's fresh water supply is quickly disappearing, it's not a leap for an author to plot a dystopian waterless future — and another novel in The Dust Series

How did Ruby Lee Becker, the main character in Unspoken: A Dust Novel, become a heroine on the classic hero’s journey?

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.

How I wrote a historically accurate, wickedly fictional novel by gathering a dozen years of Texas research—on wheels, by click, and by page

I'm playing favorites with books while I count down the days to the Unspoken Book Club Launch July3. Catch three+ of my favorites.

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.

Diving deep into the creative evolution of a seasoned art director turned full-time author on the Hill Country Authors Podcast.

Today in Texas Writers Month, we turn to the women. When you're reading Texas authors who write about Texas, and watching films set in Texas, having a woman's point of view is in itself a whole new genre. Here are nine Texas women writers to get to know.

With so many Texas authors to applaud and read in May during Texas Writers Month, are you wondering where to start?