Written Words: A communicator's blog

Independent novel review: The Jossing Affair

By J.L. Oakley This is an amazingly good book. The Jossing Affair reminds me of Dr. Zhivago: it’s a story that helps us understand a world-changing, vicious conflict through a close focus on a few people caught in it. At its heart, it’s actually a realistic love story. Janet Oakley is an author I admire. […]

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Simultaneously proud and ashamed of my country

Patriotism is a strange thing. It has always seemed to me to be a little artificial to claim some personal credit for things that other people do in the name of the group or country you come from. But at the same time, the shame on behalf of your country feels very real. This weekend, […]

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Why do I like writing?

Why do I like writing? Some people I know say “I don’t like writing; I like having written.“   To an extent, I can understand that. I love the feeling of accomplishment that comes when I complete a piece of writing, whether it’s an article for a magazine, a book, a story or even a […]

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A new writing year beckons

It’s January. A new year spreads before us like a blank page, waiting for anything we want to do . Ready for us to write our own story. And I plan on writing that story—in fact, several stories. For you, my wonderful readers, I am going to publish a whole whack o’ stuff for your […]

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What more do you want for Christmas than lots of great books to read

There’s just something about the season, the cold weather, the snow, the romance—it just makes you want to curl up with a great book. So don’t miss this book giveaway! You could win more than 70 romantic reads for Christmas, including my holiday-themed, Hawaii Crime mystery, Palm Trees & Snowflakes in BookSweeps holiday romance sweepstakes. It’s free, […]

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Toby Neal, Roxanne and me

Who knew that writing a new mystery could be so time-consuming? Looking at my blog, I see that I haven’t been posting a lot for the past couple of months. But it’s not like I haven’t been busy writing. I spent most of my available time in November feverishly working on my National Novel Writing […]

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Independent author successfully juggles A Case of Sour Grapes

Independent book review A Case of Sour Grapes by Gae-Lynn Woods I know that I am SO not the target audience for this book, but I have to say I enjoyed every page, every sentence, every word—even words that I had never encountered before, like “Blahniks.” A Case of Sour Grapes made me laugh while […]

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