Research – Adding Reality to a Story

By DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills Writing and research go hand in hand for a credible story. If a manuscript isn’t accurate, the reader will recognize the flaw and toss the book aside. If a writer is spot-on, the extra work rewards them with outstanding reviews and more readers. Sort of a no-brainer for us writers. How do we conduct our research …

DiAnn Teaching @ Women in Publishing Summit

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DiAnn is excited to teach “Creating the Antagonistic Setting” at the virtual Women in Publishing Summit March 2-5, 2022. The biggest virtual event for women in the publishing industry! Over 40 workshops for Nonfiction/General, Fiction, and Children’s book authors! This event is for: authors, editors, publishers, marketers. Culminating on International Women’s Day, we celebrate, empower, encourage, and support women writers and …

Help Me Choose Blog Topics for 2022

By DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills My blog posts are for you, and I want to make sure you see great content each week. To stretch my creativity and put a smile on your face, I first need your help in choosing blog post topics. Over the years, I’ve provided recipes, guest bloggers, contests, humor, wisdom, and an occasional video. I do …

Ready for an Enchanting Christmas Novella?

By DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills It’s never too early to get in the Christmas spirit. DREAMS AND SECRETS is an Enchanting Christmas Novella that will transport you back near Philadelphia in the 1850s. Great early gift for readers who love a historical Christmas-time clean romance. DREAMS AND SECRETS by DiAnn Mills tells of the tender romance between Emma Leigh Carter and …

Creativity Heals the Heart

By DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills Congratulations to Amy from North Carolina in being randomly selected to receive copies of TRACE OF DOUBT for her book club as described in my recent blog post. Physical or Emotional Stress + Creativity = Healing. Creativity allows us to use our imaginations to develop something beautiful. The artistic expression draws on a mysterious side of …

The Point of Purpose & Legacy

DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills A Guest Blog Post from Eva Marie Everson – Eva Marie Everson Recently, my husband and I took a trip to the beach . . . a three-day getaway forty-five minutes from home. We needed time to breathe. To not worry about laundry and cooking and work and life. We wanted to walk the beach as often as …

The Blue Ridge Reader Connections

DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills A Guest Blog Post from Debb Hackett @Debb_Hackett Early into my radio career, the station staff would gather for weekly prayers in the conference room. After my shyness at being the newbie ran out, I mustered the courage to ask my boss what all the books were that decorated the window ledges in haphazard piles. You see, they’d …

12 Things I Wish I’d Known About Writing Fiction

By DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills I started writing seriously in 1996, and over the years I’ve learned the hard way a few truths about creating fiction—and a lot about myself. I wouldn’t change any of the life lessons. But perhaps these 12 discoveries of what I wish I’d known back then will help you understand a writer’s life. Research doesn’t mean …

Never Too Late to Fulfill a Dream

By DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills Guest blogger: Debra DuPree Williams @DDuPreeWilliams Do you ever wonder why you are in a particular place at any given moment in time? If you’re like me, you call these events God-incidences, not coincidences. Nothing happens by chance. My writing journey began a bit over seven years ago when my sister asked if I’d seen the …

High School Student Wins Flash Fiction Competition!

DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills While teaching a creative writing class to a group of high school students, I challenged them to write a flash fiction story. Sam won the competition. Sam is a junior at Colonel Crawford High School in Ohio. After graduation, she plans to study forensics and hopeful for a career in that field. She is active in National …