The meeting of preparation with opportunity generates the offspring we call luck. ~ Tony Robbins I’ve spent the last three years writing and submitting my butt off trying to get published in romantic suspense. So what’s my first book credit going to be? Scrivener For Dummies. Say what? Here’s how it happened. When I quit [...]
Filed under: Gwen Hernandez | Tagged: luck, opportunity, Scrivener, Scrivener for Dummies | 35 Comments »
My husband and I will celebrate our 17th wedding anniversary this month. Somehow, even though the crazy, frenzied part of our romance has settled, something much deeper, and much stronger, has taken its place. That’s not to say that spark isn’t still there. Just that I don’t pine for him every minute he’s gone—and thank [...]
Filed under: Gwen Hernandez | Tagged: romance | 24 Comments »
Have you ever read a book and thought the author’s tale was so authentic she must have lived through something similar? I know some writers fear that a reader will think a scene or storyline comes from experience. Write about sexual abuse, you must have experienced it. Bad parents? Yours must be monsters. I admit [...]
Filed under: Gwen Hernandez | Tagged: readers and writers, writing life | 18 Comments »
After college I remember thinking I’d never want to read anything but fiction again for the rest of my life. I probably had the same thought after grad school. But then I immediately picked up The Toyota Way because I actually like this stuff and I thought it might apply to my new job. Nowadays, [...]
Filed under: Gwen Hernandez | Tagged: nonfiction, TBR | 11 Comments »
I love office supplies. There’s something about colorful binder clips; eighteen shapes, sizes, and colors of sticky notes; and a bucket full of Sharpies that makes me happy. I like dry-erase boards, cork boards, magnet boards, and keepsake boards with ribbon. Give me notebooks, Bic pens, and file folders. Paper clips—especially those big X-shaped ones—push [...]
Filed under: Gwen Hernandez | Tagged: office supplies | 20 Comments »
Today would have been my maternal grandmother’s 100th birthday. Growing up, she was the hands-off grandma, the intellectual who rarely sat on the floor to play, the subdued one who loved me, but wasn’t “fun”. But something funny happened when I hit high school, especially once I started driving. I spent several mornings a month [...]
Filed under: Gwen Hernandez | 12 Comments »
Man, I hate being late! I usually get my posts done the night before and schedule them for the next morning, but this week hasn’t been my best. It started out great. On Monday I finally gave in and upgraded my tired old MacBook to a glittery new MacBook Pro. High of the week! I [...]
Filed under: Gwen Hernandez | 20 Comments »
I love noticing the things that make a new-to-me region unique. Sometimes it’s as simple as the labels on a map. For example, when I moved to Virginia, there were suddenly street names like Yates Ford Road and Buschwood Mews. Apparently, a ford is a shallow spot in a river that makes for easy crossing. [...]
Filed under: Gwen Hernandez | Tagged: Gwen Hernandez, travel | 21 Comments »
When I introduced myself last month, I talked about my desire to collect experiences. While not all firsts are good—breaking my first bone, first trip to the ER with my son, my first car accident—I’m always looking to try something new. Last week, I added a few more firsts in one fell swoop with a [...]
Filed under: Gwen Hernandez | Tagged: Bahamas, cruise, Key West, Miami, travel | 21 Comments »
I’m in New York for the RWA National Conference this week. Now that I’ve been here twice, I might be brave enough to use NYC for a setting in one of my books, as long as the character is a visitor too. When working with a setting, the visual is fairly easy. Even if you [...]
Filed under: Gwen Hernandez | Tagged: setting, Times Square | 4 Comments »
