About B.D.
A lifetime resident of Kansas, B.D. Tharp is the author of Feisty Family Values, published by Five Star Publishing in February 2010.B.D. began a freelance copy writing and editing company in 2004, now called Scribble LLC. She has been published in Sheridan Edwards Review, Women’s Focus magazine, Active Aging Magazine, Wichita Register magazine, and A Waist is a Terrible Thing to Mind: An Anthology.
B.D. just completed Patchwork Family, the sequel to Feisty Family Values. More...
Category Archives: Blog
What consistutes good dialog?
Good dialog sounds “real.” By that I mean, it sounds like what your character would say and not words you’ve put in their mouth that don’t quite fit. How do you know when dialog sounds real? Read it aloud. Read it to a critique partner or writing buddy. Hear what is being said, not what you meant to say. I took a Playwriting class a few years ago and one of our first assignments was, you guessed it – dialog. Face it, theater is mostly spoken, there are no narratives to explain the character or situation. What happens is spoken … Continue reading
Character development
A friend of mine asked me where I came up with the characters in FEISTY FAMILY VALUES. Mostly they are made up, but I did use some real people as models for the characters. By that I mean, I needed to have an image in my mind for them to become three dimensional. One of my college professors was the inspiration for Regina. She was tall, wore broomstick skirts, had long salt and pepper colored hair, and she didn’t walk, she glided across the room. A dear friend of mine battled cancer years ago and won, despite being five foot … Continue reading
Posted in Blog
Tagged characters, family, Feisty Family Values, mannerisms, story telling
2 Comments
Patience, Perseverance and Pluck
The 3P’s are vital to a writer’s success. They actually apply in any pursuit. Patience is to endure and to be steadfast. (This P is the First requirement of any goal, ESPECIALLY writing for publication. Keep trying. There’s a lot of rejection in this business and it is tough to take. But if you want to succeed, keep on writing, submitting and learning. Stay on the path to your goal.) Perseverance is to persist. (I’ve said it before and have to remind myself periodically to not give up. You’ll never succeed if you quit trying. It took ten years for FEISTY … Continue reading
Keyhole Conversations
Check it out! Kansas Author: Keyhole Conversations with B.D. Tharp, The Layers of an Author. Most creative people have tried many ways to express themselves. I started with art and music. Thank you to Bonnie Eaton and Hazel Hart.
Book Review from Watermark Books
This is an excerpt from Beth’s weekly Watermark News & Notes. It is very germane to the struggle many of us go through with cancer and how it touches our lives. “The Fault in Our Stars” by John Green (Dutton; ISBN 9780525478812, $17.99) Review by Beth Golay In March of 2005, I received a call from our Penguin Children’s Book representative inviting me to a dinner in Kansas City to meet author John Green who had a new book for teens titled “Looking for Alaska.” The week prior I had been diagnosed with breast cancer, but hadn’t met with any … Continue reading
NEVER GIVE UP
The theme for today’s blog is “never give up”. I’ve heard stories about writers who wrote their novel during NaNoWriMo (a month) and others took years to write their book. I’m more in the latter category. I lead a very busy life. There’s lots of things I want to do, learn, experience, see and share with my family and friends. I work full-time during the day and I do freelance writing as well as novel writing. Sound a bit like your schedule? Don’t worry, the dust isn’t going anywhere. You will get the bills paid on time (hopefully), and hubby … Continue reading
Grammarisms by Phyllis Spade
March 1996. It’s no lie you laid on me… Rivaling the confusion of “its” and “it’s” is surely the chaotic misuse of “lay” and “laid” – mostly ’cause “lay” does double duty. “Lay” is present tense for the transitive (which must be a named object) but “lay” is also past tense for the objectless intrasitive form. Yesterday I lay down for a nap (no object), yet “Now I lay me down to sleep” (“me” is the object). Now that we’ve laid that law on paper, let’s let it lie where it should have lain. (Thanks, Phyllis. I get it!)
I know I’ve said this before, but…
READERS ROCK! I had one of those Awesome Author moments today that I have to share with you. I’m writing with a friend at Panera and the young woman at the next table comes over and says, “What’s the name of your book? I want to watch for it.” I told her that my current book FEISTY FAMILY VALUES was available, book two is looking for an agent, and I’m just getting started with book 3. That’s when she asked me if FFV is available on Nook. “YES!” I was happy to say. I think her name was Felicia (but … Continue reading
Having the time of our lives…
Phyllis is having a great time with her new web site: http://www.timeofourlives.net/ and I am, too. She’s featured FEISTY FAMILY VALUES under Great Reads. Check it out!! http://www.timeofourlives.net/2012/01/feisty-family-values/
Time to Get Busy
The holidays will be officially over tomorrow, but today is a good day to “get busy” writing. I’m speaking to all the writers out there (including myself), regardless of age or experience. If you want to write, then don’t let anything stop you from taking some time to do it. Here are some of the questions I hear from new writers: Where do you get your ideas? Everywhere! Nature, people, and day-to-day situations fuel the story ideas for me. Family, kids, pets, the news, and let’s not forget the “imagination.” Where do you start? That’s really a hard question. I … Continue reading