• The Bizniz - The Whole Enchilada

    Back to the Starting Line

    The lights have gone down. The crowd has dispersed. The dust has settled. It’s… January (womp womp). 2025 was a wild ride, culminating in the celebration of my biggest creative accomplishment yet: the release of my debut novel, The Whole Enchilada. I’m thrilled with the reception it’s had, and I’m settling into the grind of marketing this thing and trying to get it into the hands of more readers. It’s not an easy task, especially for an indie author without a team of marketing folks and a big-name press behind me. Still, I’ve never shied away from blazing my own trail. I…

  • The Q Review

    The Q Review: The Line of Tepes (Book 1) by E.A. Williams

    I’ll start this review by saying that I am decidedly not a reader of vampire stories. Prior to this, I’ve read one vampire book, and only out of morbid curiosity. It’s not that I think books about vampires are universally bad – they’re just not my thing. But I know E.A. Williams, have interviewed her for a podcast, and have read a short story of hers (which I loved!) that was included in the Mixed Bag of Tricks anthology. So, I fired up the Kindle and got to reading this first installment of The Line of Tepes trilogy. The story…

  • The Q Review

    The Q Review: Beneath a Sun Deprived Sky by Kara Lenore

    When I was young, science fiction was my favorite genre. When done well, this genre blends the reality of our humanity with places and things that stretch our imagination, making the (currently) impossible seem viscerally real. It’s been years – decades – since I’ve read anything that might qualify as science fiction. But Kara Lenore is an author in a co-op of Texas writers I belong to, and when she announced the launch of her debut novel, I decided now was the right time to get back to it. Beneath a Sun-Deprived Sky (Murasaki Press) takes place on another world…

  • The Bizniz - The Whole Enchilada

    The Launch!

    At the beginning of 2025, my friend Ilene Haddad and I sat down for a heart-to-heart. She and I had been working together for two years, meeting weekly to exchange our writing, providing feedback and moral support, and generally holding each other’s hands through the arduous process of writing our respective books. We decided that since we’d been by each other’s side this whole time, and both books were due out later in the year, it was only fitting that we co-launch. So in April, we picked a date, sat down, and created a Very Large Spreadsheet of all the…

  • Uncategorized

    The Q Review: Disgraced – A Toronto Thriller by Jayne Green

    Disgraced – A Toronto Thriller is a 2025 release by Jayne Green, the pen name of academic-turned-fiction author Laury Silvers. Silvers is best known for her series of immersive historical detective mysteries set in 10th-century Baghdad. While still very much a thriller, Disgraced is set in modern-day Toronto and features topics ranging from cults to techno-terrorism to familial abuse. It is one wild ride. The story opens with a university professor, Martin Monaghan, being dismissed from his post for plagiarizing the work of one of his graduate students, Parisa Soltani, an Iranian immigrant. Soltani is on the run. Turns out…

  • The Whole Enchilada

    Launch Day!

    Today is the Big Launch Event ™. Ilene and I have been looking forward to it all year. We’ll get to hang out with a bunch of people we know and love, celebrate our accomplishments, and consume too much caffeine. Writing this weird little book has changed my life. I’ve learned so much over the past two years, and I’m still learning new things every day. I will be as long as this is my chosen profession. This morning, I’m feeling three big things: 1. Relief. It’s done. I did it. I set out to do something I’ve always wanted…

  • The Whole Enchilada - Writing

    My First Novel Has Dropped

    Like many people who grew up reading fiction at every free moment, it’s always been a dream of mine to write novels. To be a novelist. Someone who makes shit up and puts it on paper and shares it with strangers. That impulse isn’t about fame and fortune. It’s about the love I have for a good story, and a deep desire to be part of that slice of humanity who is lucky enough to consider writing fiction an occupation. When I started writing this book, I had no idea what I was doing. (I still don’t, but at least…

  • Stacks upon stacks of used books
    The Bizniz

    Why I Chose to Publish My Own Book

    When I started writing my first novel I had no idea what I was doing. You know the cliché about pantsing vs. plotting? Well, I’m a pantser in almost every aspect of my life. Meaning, I hadn’t given a single thought about how I wanted to present this thing to the world before I began writing. Very quickly, I realized that worrying about, commenting on, and fretting over publishing takes up a lot of writers’ time and energy. At least, the ones I follow on social media. Many factors go into how and why authors choose their publishing path. So…

  • Uncategorized

    I Wrote a Novel…Here’s the Proof!

    Throughout my lifetime books have been there for me, even when people weren’t. They were my companions when I was a young girl, friendless and moving from town to town. They’ve been an escape when life was hard and I needed reprieve. They’ve given me the foothold I needed to rise above poverty and ignorance. My love affair with the written word began almost from infancy. I thank my mom for that. She was young and uneducated, but she loved reading and always made sure I had books. I remember as a teenager, she once told me, “If you ever…

  • Promotional graphic for the novel, "The Whole Enchilada features the front cover of the book. To the right, the text reads: "The stars may hold secrets, but the past holds the truth." November 1, 2025 "If you've ever wanted to get in the car and drive for 9 hours to figure out your life, this story is for you. Aliens, nostalgia, and Texas references had me the whole time."
    The Whole Enchilada - Writing

    Novel Update – June 2025

    It’s been almost a year since my last update on The Novel and many, many things have happened since then – including me traveling to Japan and breaking my foot (requiring surgery), and my husband’s surprise open-heart surgery. The timeline for publishing my novel was obviously effected, but the good news is… … it’s with a copywriter RIGHT NOW! After five drafts, countless hours, ten beta-readers’ feedback, and several million moments of self-doubt, the manuscript is currently being combed over by a professional copywriter. Once I get it back from her, I’ll do a final spit-polish, add a couple small…