While following my husband around the country for his Air Force career, I’ve worked as a programmer, a business school instructor, and a manufacturing engineer, but I’ve always, always wanted to be a writer. Now I’m spending my days trying to silence my left brain and coax stories of romance and suspense from my creative side, and sharing my love of Scrivener with other writers through my online classes and my book Scrivener For Dummies.
Since I’m all about education (that MS in Industrial Technology is just story fodder now), I joined the Romance Writers of America (RWA) in March 2009, and am a member of Southern Magic, Washington Romance Writers, and Kiss of Death. I attend seminars and monthly meetings to network, learn more about the craft of writing, and surround myself with others who understand the writer’s life. I also regularly read how-to books on writing, and study the works of my favorite authors to figure out how they did it. (A thinly veiled excuse to read…) In 2011, I was a Golden Heart® Finalist for my manuscript BLIND FURY.
While I read many genres of fiction and nonfiction, including many subgenres of romance, my writing is focused mainly on romantic suspense. Want to know why I write romance? Read this.
In my spare time, I like to jog/work out, explore the local area with my family, travel, and indulge my reading addiction. I live in northern Virginia with my husband, two teenage boys, and the world’s laziest golden retriever.
Thanks for stopping by!
Gwen
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Published Books
Scrivener For Dummies (Aug 2012, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, ISBN 9781118312476)
Completed Manuscripts
BLIND FURY – Romantic Suspense – 85K
~ Finalist – 2011 Golden Heart®
~ 1st Place – 2011 The Sandy Contest
~ 2nd Place – 2011 Between the Sheets Contest
SLOW BURN - Romantic Suspense – 60K
COUNTING ON YOU – Contemporary Romance – 55K
~ 1st Place – 2009 Heart-to-Heart Contest
WHEN YOU’RE NOT LOOKING - Contemporary Romance – 55K
December 21, 2009 at 10:45 PM
Gwen, what a great adventure!
Lori Scott
San Antonio, TX 78258
December 21, 2009 at 11:46 PM
Thanks for checking out my site Lori!
February 8, 2010 at 12:13 AM
RE: your response to my post over on the RWA Pro-Org loop
Thanks, Gwen!
Rox
March 18, 2010 at 6:13 AM
Gwen, as a fellow Scrivenite, I am delighted to have found your blog (I am Mollys Mum on the Scriv forums). What a wealth of information. I just dipped my toe into the ocean of blogging last week myself–am still learning the ropes, but decided on WordPress and recognized your beautiful banner right away. My own book is basically a romance–great genre, very true to the heart of life (I haven’t read your “Why I Write Romance” yet, as I just got here a few minutes ago, but am looking forward to it. May I like to your blog once I get my own up and running?
I have every How-To book on writing on the market, culled over a passion that stretches back over 40 years, and if I could recommend one over all the rest it would be Sol Stein’s “Stein on Writing.” (Sorry, can’t figure out how to do italics.” He is to my mind the absolute master of the craft.
The very best of luck with your writing! I’vebookmarked this blog and will stop by again soon.
March 18, 2010 at 8:09 AM
Hey, zoeenglish! Thanks for stopping by. I’m glad you enjoy my site. Good luck with your own blogging. You are absolutely welcome to link to this site when you’re up and running.
I’ll have to check Stein’s book. I’m always looking for valuable insight into the craft. I look forward to seeing you again online!
May 6, 2010 at 5:51 PM
Gwen: Hey! We belong to the “Body Disposal” workshop online and I noticed that you are (1) an Air Force wife (thank you and your husband for yoru service) and (2) moving to the DC area.
I live near PaxRiver NAS and am attorney for the Navy – NAVIR in particular – whihc is about 1.5 hours south of DC. I love how you set up your website – and I think that I need to do it as well. I am almost (55, 400 words of my projected 60K) finished with my first manuscript which is aimed at the Blaze line.
Looking forward to getting to know you and about all your writing progress! And myabe we can hook up when you move here!
Robin Coll
May 6, 2010 at 5:57 PM
Hi, Robin. I would love to meet up with you. My dad’s getting ready to retire from Portsmouth this summer. With him, I was an Army and Navy brat. If he’d only done Marines, I’d have it all.
Good luck finishing up the MS. I’m in revisions on my third, but it’s my first romantic suspense, which is really what I want to write.
I’m glad you like the site. Let me know if you have any questions. It’s really just a WordPress blog set up to look like a webpage. Much simpler than the fitness page I did in Dreamweaver a few years ago!
See you on the loop!
June 13, 2010 at 2:04 PM
Hey Gwen
Thanks for thecomment and for stopping by my blog.
Cheers!
October 23, 2010 at 11:01 AM
You are very hard to track down. You probably should have a way to contact you thru this.
You have won the purple tote of goodies I’m giving away on Attacking the Page.
Could you send your snail mail addy to:
chrisreddingauthor@yahoo.com
cmr