BH4 Block 1: Square Wheel, which I immediately modify.

Blockheads 4 begins! The first block, Square Wheel, caused some controversy in the Facebook group. As I've previously mentioned, samplers aren't my aesthetic in general. This block wasn't many participants' aesthetic in particular. It certainly wasn't mine, but that's part of the challenge. But for anyone in need of suggestions for color layouts, Moda has …

I decided to do Moda Blockheads at the worst time imaginable.

At the end of last year, when I knew I'd have to leave Atlanta and I'm terrible at maintaining long-distance friendships, I convinced some friends to form a virtual quilting group with me. Several were novice or entirely inexperienced with quilts, but that didn't matter. I was going to teach them. I sifted through dozens …

Meet Chloe. But this time, she’s a quilter.

A little bit about myself, if this is our first time meeting or you're just confused about why this post popped up here: I am a semi-retired romance and erotica author. By semi-retired, I don't mean that I've done so well for myself that I can now live the life of leisure and write only …

My Favorite NaNoWriMo Hack Helps Everyone

This November, I'll be participating in my 18th NaNoWriMo. That’s National Novel Writing Month, if you’ve never heard of it. The quick and dirty description of NaNoWriMo? Write 50,000 words in 30 days. It is an intense amount of words for most people to write in a month. If you succeed, you win nothing except bragging rights …

Preventing Your Many, Many Erotic Scenes From Getting “Not So Fresh”

I got to be a panelist at a convention this weekend, my first time in an actual room filled with people. Yay! And one of the favorite questions the other panelists and I were asked was, “When you’re writing sex scenes over and over again, how do you keep the scenes from getting repetitive?” This …

I Just Discovered Epic-Length Alien Erotica, and It Was a Wild Ride

Facebook groups are pretty hit-and-miss. I won’t join writer groups anymore because they’re so toxic, and even my reader groups have their rough moments. But one group that has never failed me is Monsters, Demons, & Knotting, Oh My! This isn’t a group for everybody. It’s not a group for the overwhelming majority of people. This …

You’re Probably Wrong About the Difference Between Romance & Erotica

Recently in one of my paranormal romance groups, this post popped up: Ok Authors, When you’ve written an erotic novel, do you label it as such exclusively or do you label it as romance as well? I get why people like erotica, I do, but it’s just not for me, and a couple of books …

RWA just kicked itself while it was already down, and now I’m reading inspirational romance.

If you have no idea what RWA is or why it was already down, here's a quick recap: For decades, everyone who was anyone in the romance industry was in Romance Writers of America. Their annual convention was legend. They had tons of regional chapters. It was how you networked, improved your craft, learned all …

Vella, and How My Career Mirrors Buffalo Bill’s From Silence Of The Lambs

Kindle Vella went live this week, and I currently have two stories posted there: Kymani, an alien romance set in the same universe as the alien romances I've been working on this past year, and under my new pen name, C.B. Alice, Girlfriend by the Hour. I have a weird relationship with Girlfriend by the …

I decided to read the Bridgerton series instead of watching the show like a normal person, and I have regrets.

This contains spoilers someone should have warned me about. In my mind, there's an order of operations for watching adaptations. First movie, then book, then television series. It's about the level of detail that can be fit into the time given. A movie is about two hours of detail, a book is maybe five hours …