Don’t Call Me Chicken!

November 6, 2015November 6, 2015 / roughwighting / 67 Comments

This past weekend my guy and I watched the movie Back to the Future in honor of its 30^th anniversary. I haven’t seen that movie since it came out in 1985. The movie, and Marty and the professor, have aged well.

The first time I watched the entire series (Back to the Future, I, II, and III), I didn’t catch the back story of Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) and his “chicken” button. That is, he’s a pretty level-headed kid unless someone calls him chicken, as in wimp, fraidy cat, coward.

Once someone pushes that button, Marty stops seeing sense and instead pushes through his fear and goes after whatever he’s afraid of. (And several times, gets into trouble because of his hot button-pushed head.)

But I can’t relate to that emotion, I hum to myself righteously. I don’t have any hot buttons like Marty does. Continue reading →

So, How’d You Two Meet?

October 2, 2015October 1, 2015 / roughwighting / 100 Comments

ROMANCE IS DEAD, the headlines read.

Just like God, and book reading, and carb-eating.

But we all know they never went away.

So I laugh when people squirm after they learn I write romantic suspense.

“Daring!”

“Scary!”

“Inconsequential!” are the comments I hear (or the sneers I detect).

I am unfazed.

Photo Credit: Francois Duhamel

But still, I’m encouraged when I read articles like a recent Time Q&A piece on Nancy Myers, the writer/director of the new movie The Intern (starring Robert DeNiro and Ann Hathaway), in which Myers addresses the state of romance.* Continue reading →

The Strange Undeniable Truth

September 11, 2015September 10, 2015 / roughwighting / 43 Comments

Most often, stories that seem too amazing, too strange, too, well just too too, are the most real stories in our lives.

I know that’s the case for me.

I write fictional novels, because many would find events in my life just too unbelievable. Yet, when we all look deep into some of our experiences, aren’t they too wild for fiction?

Mark Twain hit the mark (!) when he declared: “Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn’t.”

SO HERE’S THE TRUTH. (From last week’s post True…? or False?) Continue reading →

True…? or False…?

September 4, 2015August 19, 2015 / roughwighting / 65 Comments

Here’s a “game” I dare you to play with me. Read the three small stories, below. Two of them are true. One is false. In the comment section, guess which one is the False story (and the reason you think it never happened). The one with the right answer and the most clever reason of why the story must be false, wins a copy of my romantic thriller, The Right Wrong Man, in paperback. (Thank you, Vanessa-Jane Chapman, for the idea!) Continue reading →