My husband and I have experienced an event that was sitcom worthy. Often we sit around and laugh about the mass exodus from Florida that occurred with the near hit of the monster hurricane, Floyd. We left town with three cars, two in-laws, two sons, and five animals...

We all have our little darlings, words, lines, scenes, chapters, that we love. Then a critique partner or an editor comes along and slashes a line right through them. Feedback is provided, such as: episodic, redundant, doesn’t have anything to do with the story, takes...

Editing for word count can be the most freeing experiences an author can endure. Yes, we hate to think that even one word in our carefully crafted prose can be tossed away without a thought. We wonder how in the word tightening a sentence can make it zing, but it...