Hi Everyone,

Do you ever wonder how authors create their stories? Some authors write simply by sitting down and letting the words spill onto the page. We call them “pantsers.”

A pantser writes “by the seat of her pants.” She doesn’t know what’s going to happen in her story till she gets there on the page.

I’m not a pantser. I’m a plotter. I like to map out my stories ahead of time.

And that’s what I’m doing now, planning book four in the Next Generation Bravos series. I love the plotting process. I make a lot of notes on everything from what made the characters who they are to the basic arc of the story—the beginning, the middle and the end—and I also try to get down way more than I will ever need about what might happen at various points within the story.

After trying to discover as much as I can about the story and the characters on my own, I send my notes to my plotting partner, a dear friend and fellow author, who sends her notes and ideas for her next book to me. Then we meet up for a weekend. We plot her book and we plot my book and we record the sessions for later transcribing.

Back at home in my office, from the transcript of the plotting session, I develop my outline. And that’s when I’m finally ready to begin writing the book you will eventually see in stores and online.

This one I’m working on now should be fun. A divorced older man with two young sons finds himself falling for the much-younger nurse he hired to take care of his elderly father. I’ll keep you posted on this story as we get closer to publication.

Until next time, here’s to sunny spring days and happy reading for all,

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