Barbara V Evers

This post is short because it's been a rough few days culminating in the news that I have Covid. I'm a joiner, so I guess my body decided to join the club.  Hope all of you are well and not getting Covid. I will still be appearing in the Southern Author Expo with the Greenville County Library in Greenville, SC. It's virtual, so no issues there with exposure. Thank goodness. Since I'm not at 100%, it would do my soul wonders to see some fans there! Here's the info for registering: Southern Author Expo The expo is from 2-3:45pm this Saturday, Jan. 22. Come and talk with me and get to know some great authors from the South! So, except for participating in the expo, I'll be laying around catching up on my reading and binging a few shows. Which means I need suggestions. So hit me with a list of good books to read that won't drag me down right now. Or great shows to binge. Laughter is key right now, please. Post your suggestions in the comments and don't forg...

I saw a meme yesterday that struck a nerve with me. It related reading to empathy development. Research does exist to support the idea that reading offers many health benefits. Empathy and relationship-building happen to be some of them. Not only does reading help develop empathy, but writers need empathy in order to write relatable stories.  What is empathy? I spend a lot of time in my training workshops talking about empathy. Why? Because it's a crucial skill in effective communication. It, also, plays a huge part in exercising emotional intelligence (EI). Now don't scurry away at those terms, I'm going to talk about books, authors, and readers, not effective communication or emotional intelligence (although, they are important skills). Most people define empathy as walking in another person's shoes or feeling the person's pain. Although these definitions are correct, they don't explore the full extent of empathy. Empathy is recognizing what another person is ...

I can't believe it's been twenty-one days since my last post! I guess I should start looking into getting more posts lined up in advance, but I prefer to write the post on the day it's due or the day before, so it's relevant to what's happening in my world. That means if something goes awry, the posts aren't happening. And, yes, something did go awry over the last three weeks. I'm not going to get into the details, but I'm thankful for those who knew of the circumstances and offered up prayers and kind words and assistance. We often hear that we live in a world full of people bent on self-centeredness. I can vouch that those who care and help in times of need still exist, and my family benefitted greatly from them. Which got me to thinking Do the characters I write about help when others are in need? If they don't, then they won't be very likeable, will they?  Conflict in the story One of the key elements to creating conflict in a story is to put...