Kathleen Heady's Blog
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Jan.26.2013
When a Book is More than a Story Posted on January 26, 2013 by headywriting19
I just finished reading The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh. I have probably read thousands of books during my lifetime, but I don’t ever remember reacting to a book as I did to this one.
The Language of...
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Jan.08.2013
Jump into life!
I was walking through the hallway of a local high school where I sometimes substitute teacher, and encountered a teaching standing in the hallway holding a small spray bottle in her hand and staring into a trash can.
"I'm trying to kill a cockroach with essential oils," she...
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Dec.27.2012
Essentially, a great book is one that grabs you on the first page and doesn't let go, not even at the end, because you walk around thinking about it for the next couple of days.
A great book also is written with beautiful language. The author knows how to play with words to create sensations...
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Nov.24.2012
I read an interesting article in the New York Times yesterday entitled "What Should Children Read?" I am providing the link so you can read it for yourself.
Whatever the "experts" who have written these national standards might think, reading fiction has a value far more than just time-filling...
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Nov.03.2012
This year, for the first time, I participating in National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo for short. The goal is to write 50,000 words during the month of November. This is a pretty short novel, but a darned good start.
I have been so caught up in the release and promotion of Lydia’s Story that...
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Oct.26.2012
I read mostly mysteries and suspense novels, because that is what I write and because I review books for Suspense Magazine. But occasionally I read something outside of those genres. I find that a different type of book and writing style can spark my own writing and stretch my creativity.
Last...
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Sep.25.2012
My newest novel, Lydia’s Story, is now available all the major book sellers.
If you are a writer, you know what a wonderful rush comes along with writing those words. If you are not a writer, just think of any major project you have embarked on in your life — giving birth to a child, completing...
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Sep.16.2012
My newest novel, Lydia's Story, is a sequel/prequel to my first novel, The Gate House. It is a sequel because the same main characters, Nara Blake and her family, continue their story of life in a small English town, where too much seems to happen. It is a prequel because the book also tells the...
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Sep.10.2012
There is a lot of criticism these days about biased book reviews and writers reviewing each others books in order to post glowing reviews. I write reviews for Suspense Magazine, and I also occasionally read a book by a fellow writer and post the review on Amazon and GoodReads. I never write a...
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Sep.01.2012
Writers are often asked, "Where do you get your ideas?"
I believe most writers would answer the same as I do -- it's not a matter of coming up with ideas, it's a matter of weeding out the ideas and deciding which ones I really want to develop in a short story, a novel, or maybe even a series....
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Aug.14.2012
Just for fun, and to give my creativity a little boost, I decided to create some "dream" headlines. I dislike reading the newspaper or watching TV news because almost every story is bad news or a negative take on an event or some new study.
Here are a few of the headlines I would like to see:...
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Aug.07.2012
My week suddenly became very busy and blogging time cut down to zero. I am posting a review of The Lost Ones by Ace Atkins that I wrote for Suspense Magazine. I am always happy to celebrate another author's writing.
The principal characters in The Lost Ones are soldiers returning from Iraq and...
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Aug.02.2012
One of the parts of being a writer that I like most is conversations with readers about my books, especially when they have questions about the characters, or want to know what is going to happen in the next book!
Their comments motivate me as a writer, because I want to keep my readers...
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Jul.17.2012
Someone said that "life is in the details." I take that to mean that we really only see the big picture of life when we look at the past or the future. In the present moment, we only see the details. I see the computer screen, I feel my fingers typing, I see my orange cat sleeping on the desk....
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Jul.06.2012
I spent a "girls day out" yesterday with my cousin Linda, and we ventured out of Pennsylvania down to Delaware to visit Winterthur, the historic estate that was once the home of the DuPont family.
The house, all 175 rooms of it, is now a museum, primarily devoted to American furniture and...
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About Kathleen
My novel The Gate House was re-released in May, 2012 by Whiskey Creek Press. I am currently working on a sequel to The Gate House, set during World War II as well as the present day. I find much inspiration for my writing when I...