For the Criminally Inane

Clean and Wholesome was a category designated on Amazon. The term clean came from them and those of us who write “no-spice” romance wanted a way to better communicate what was in our books and better meet readers’ expectations. “Clean” can mean a whole lot of things, but let’s start with this. Clean romance is not the opposite of dirty --or imply that intimacy is dirty or smuty. I see the definition as more of “free from” like I had a clean performance, free from mistakes. I went to a conference once where a very popular author said that talking about sex on page through metaphor was considered clean. I want to say this, no one in the clean author community that I’ve talked to agreed with that statement. Most clean authors will say no sex on page--not even in metaphor. But even if we say clean doesn’t have sex on page, there is still a large variation from a chaste kiss to implied sex through closed-door. So what can you expect from a clean author? First, let’s define a few words: Clos...

 Many people poo-poo reading as a waste of time, or even worse, bad for you for introducing bad ideas into your head. Hello, Gaston! Here are five reasons why reading is good for you! #1-- Reading makes you smarter. Whether you're reading non-fiction or fiction, you are learning new things--vocabulary or even how things work. My husband learned so much about the West while reading Louis L'amour books when he was a kid. #2-- Reading makes you empathic and compassionate. When you read, you are walking a mile in someone else's shoes for a while. You learn that every one has reasons for their actions. You can experience another person's life, all from the safety of your own room. #3-- Reading helps you to understand the world better. I read to see the world in a different light. I gain perspective and knowledge. It gives me context for certain behaviors. It introduces me to other cultures. #4-- Reading gives you good hormones . The endorphins you get when you accomplish a...

 If your goals for 2025 included reading more books or reading more often, then I'm here to help you out with five tips to get more reading in. #5-- Audiobooks are a no-brainer! You can put them on your phone, put in headphones and make chores less boring. I have listened to many hours of audio while exercising, folding laundry and running errands in the car. If you're a commuter and spend extra time in the car, there is no reason for that time to go to waste. Enjoy it instead with audio. If you like Audible, you can sign up here. OR.... BONUS #1: Many authors are now offering audiobooks for free on their YouTube Channel. Subscribe to my YouTube for free audiobooks.   (Coming soon!) I'll create another post with all my sweet/clean friends who have FREE audiobooks up on their channels. #4-- Find a designated time. I read just a few minutes before bed. I've discovered that even if I read a few pages before bedtime, I'm more relaxed and have cooler dreams than if I ...

 Hello friends! What's coming down the pike for 2025? Are you excited? What books are you most anticipating? Seasons of Sugar Creek Book 4 Three Spring Wedding s (outlined, not started.) Helping of Hope book 3 The Cookie Platter  (15k words so far) Chains Of Deceit by A. E. Zeigler (40k words so far) Books/series in planning stages: (Hopefully happening beginning in 2026) Gauche Girl book 2: Wing Girl (plotting stages)--Reverse Cyrano de Bergerac. She writes song lyrics and but gets a job as a social media manager for a famous singer and starts communicating for her boss via social media with a hot DJ (LiveR@ from book 1) . Everything is fine until she falls in love with him. Mark of the Beast : Baker's Dozen book 3 (plotting/planning stages) These take me a long time to write because of all the research! I have a few ideas of where it's going, I just need to dig into the details. Serving of Self Series: firefighter's series set in the same world as the Helping of Hope ...

Young Adult fantasy is my favorite genre. If you look at my shelves, they are filled with YA fantasy books. I love YA because it's clean, it's adventurous, it's all about growth, making mistakes, and taking responsibility. It was about putting off more mature decisions like intimacy until you're older and focused on the emotional relationship in the romance. YA lit is written for CHILDREN ages 12-18. However... Recently that's changed. I'm not sure when or why. I opened a book a while ago and was SHOCKED to find a scene in YA fantasy where they legit had S3X! It was euphemized. But it was totally obvious what they were talking about and they were clearly in bed. Another book talked about how they were gloriously naked after a tactful description of the act. GLORIOUSLY NAKED? WHAT THE HECK????  I know that some people are like, I let my kids read whatever they want and they're turning out okay. Fine. I get it. You can let your kid read Game of Thrones or wh...

 Waaaaaaay back in 2010 when we were still in grad school, my husband met a Japanese man at church who had come me to St. Louis on business. Since my husband lived in Japan as a missionary for two years and is fluent in Japanese, we invited him over for dinner after the services. I made homemade pizza which was fast and easy for me to make and fed a lot.  Then my husband offered to take him to the train station so he could catch his flight. (He offered to take him all the way to the airport, but the man insisted on taking the train--public transportation is much more common in Japan and it wasn't much of a hassle to take the train to the airport and our family had taken it many times.) During dinner, the man casually asked my husband what he missed as food from Japan. My husband listed off a few things including Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki. The Osaka-style was more of a pancake where it's prepared omelet-style of throwing everything into a bowl and then cooking it. Hiroshima-s...