News & FAQs

When circumstances made it hard for Jami to write happy stories, she turned her focus to non-fiction. But don't worry — she'll be writing more fiction soon!

In the meantime, explore the new mythology inspiration section for each book that she added to the site as part of her big site rebuild. Learn how our real-world myths inspired the stories of the Mythos Legacy.

Have fun exploring Jami's new-and-improved site, as many of the changes focus on Jami's much-expanded, resource-filled For Writers section!

Keep an eye on that For Writers section in the months to come, as she'll be adding many more resources. To start, she now has several resource guides and ultimate guides (from Branding 101 to having Jami as a "virtual mentor") available for free to members of her site.

Also, while Jami isn't writing two posts a week as she did for the first 10 years of her blog, she is still adding new posts. Here are her latest posts:

(This section is also known as "Why hasn't Jami finished xyz yet?"  😉 )

Jami often calls herself a "problem child" because she's experienced more than her fair share of odd setbacks and obstacles, like how she's had a near-untreatable bone-disintegrating infection in her jaw, an antibiotic destroyed her ability to walk for several months, and after 2 failed surgeries, she had to get an implant with an experimental super-rare metal. In her latest misfortune that delayed this website redesign, Jami has also been trying to recover from a major 3-car accident that led to months' worth of car repairs, new medical issues, and insurance fights.

This new site is Phase One for a few "secret projects" she's alluded to that will add more of her resources for writers. Then she'll work on more fiction books.

Short answer? Everything.

Longer answer? In addition to rebuilding every page from scratch (and redesigning many of them in the process—be sure to check out her new Home page and About page), Jami's site-rebuild project also added a few new pages, such as:

• this "News & FAQs" page
• a "Start Here" page that includes the same "Choose Your Adventure" quiz as found on her new homepage (this quiz asks a handful of questions to help direct you to the pages or resources most helpful for your needs!)
• a My Account page (and many other pages) for those logged in to access all the Members-Only features and resources (Not a member yet? Check it out here!)
• a Blog Highlights page to collect links to all the best and most helpful posts in Jami's blog (and those same links are also broken out into Storytelling, Writing Craft, Career & Publishing, and Process & Miscellaneous pages)
• several pages for the Creativity Unlocked Academy, which will collect all her new resources, tools, products, and classes
• a Link Hub page (for use as a custom "link in bio" page with apps like Instagram) 
• a page for collecting Testimonials (which are much appreciated!)
• several pages under For Writers to highlight Jami's Free, Members-Only, and Premium resources
• and several more to come...

Don't worry! There are several free options for reading ebooks on your desktop computer, tablet, or smartphone, so it's not necessary to purchase an ereader unless you want their fuller features.

If you buy from Amazon, the Kindle Cloud Reader works on any browser and allows you to read any Kindle books you've purchased right from within the Amazon store.

Many ereaders also offer apps to create a similar reading experience on a computer, tablet, or smartphone:

• Kindle App for desktop (PC or Mac) or tablet/phone (Android or iPhone)
• Nook Reading App for Windows or tablet/phone (Android or iPhone)
• GooglePlay Books app for iphone

Fill out the form on this page to start the process of ordering a signed book from Jami, complete with a custom message.

However, if email newsletters aren't your thing, follow Jami on BookBub to get a notification when she releases a new book.

My inspiration comes from everything and anything. I've been inspired by history (especially mythology), current events, and once, even a spam email!

Note: For more about the myths that inspired the Mythos Legacy series, be sure to check the Mythos Legacy FAQ section about how the mythological stories of our world overlap with the story world of Mythos.

Umm, all of the above? Plus throw in just a "what if" premise or a snapshot of a single scene. Each story is different and comes with its own seed of an idea.

At minimum, I usually need to research the setting locations for my stories even though I've lived or visited many of the places. (What we pay attention to while visiting is different from what details I might need for my story.)

For many stories, I also need to research non-setting details, such as a character's job or how things work. Like most authors, I usually do far more research than I need. A few hours of research might turn into a single phrase in the story!

I don't know about "most challenging," but I do have a failed research story...

For my story Treasured Claim, one scene takes place in Chicago's Tiffany's jewelry store. Having never been in a big flagship Tiffany's store before, I called the store to get an idea of its size and layout (all one room or multiple rooms, etc.). They refused to answer my questions for security reasons—maybe they thought I was trying to find a weak point in their store's security?

Other than that, I've had fun researching settings from private Bahama islands for sale (Treasured Claim) to abandoned offshore oil rigs in the North Sea (Stone-Cold Heart) and everything from blacksmithing (Ironclad Devotion) to how raw diamonds are turned into jewelry (Stone-Cold Heart). Storytelling gives me the opportunity to write what I want to learn!

(Note: For more about the unusual research Jami's done for each story, check the "Behind the Scenes" tab on each book's page.)

When I first started writing, I planned every scene of the story because I thought that's what "real" authors did. Luckily, after learning more with that story, I discovered that pantsing a story is perfectly acceptable too. In fact, all my stories published to date have been pantsed to some extent, as that one story I tried plotting needs more work before it's ready to share.

For me, writing by the seat of my pants allows my imagination to take the lead (and my subconscious is much more creative than I am). So my process usually means I know a few things in advance (there's going to be a happy ending!), but most of the story develops as I go.

All. The. Time. Seriously, that’s the best when that happens.

That feeling is a big part of why I write. LOL!

For whatever reason, each story I write seems to have a exceptionally difficult scene. Usually the trickiest aspect is getting the emotions on the page match the impression I want readers to have.

For example, Treasured Claim includes a scene where the point-of-view character thinks they did something horrible and unforgivable, but the would-be "victim" doesn't see the situation that way. I needed readers to see the scene from the non-point-of-view character's perspective as they read, even though they were in the "perpetrator's" head. That's a very convoluted situation to get readers to understand, and I can only hope I got close.

Even though I write by the seat of my pants, my drafts don't change much during my process. I don't usually write scenes that are later deleted or waste time on storytelling dead ends (which means I don't have bonus Deleted Scenes to share!).

Instead, my process includes several editing passes. The first pass or two (or three) add details and develop ideas, themes, and characters more deeply. After that, changes are just at the nitpicky level (and I am a nitpicky perfectionist!) to improve sentences and paragraphs.

The biggest change I've made at a story level was with Stone-Cold Heart, where I added two scenes to the ending to make it more emotionally satisfying, and even that difference is a fairly minor change compared to many authors' processes. Otherwise, my first draft is still completely recognizable as the same story as the finished book.

Not usually. I've given my characters a single trait that also applies to a person I know (such as being sneaky or having a skill), but that's just a coincidence and is usually the only thing they have in common.

Not yet. As a perfectionist control-freak, I find the current AI tools and resources result in information that's too generic, overly wordy, or generally non-helpful. When I write, either fiction or non-fiction, I have specific insights I want to share, so I'm not just trying to come up with words to meet a word count.

In fact, my AI Policy for this site states that I generally don't allow AI-generated content at all, for myself or guest posters. My policy allows for AI-assistance applications, as those don't remove writers from the actual writing process, but I haven't yet found tools that are helpful with my process.

For my fiction writing, I rely on both my very supportive family and my awesome writing buddies, Angela Quarles, Buffy Armstrong, and Shaila Patel. My family puts up with a lot of insanity from me, and Angela, Buffy, and Shaila are the perfect best writing friends to keep me sane (or saner, anyway).

For my non-fiction work on my website, my readers constantly encourage me. I couldn’t do this without all of that support.

I’ve been known to write anywhere and everywhere. I’ve used an ancient tablet, mini-computer, and laptop while away from home.

My usual desktop computer space is like a cave simply because the stacks of books, reference material, and general clutter keep it very…um, cozy. Some might say messy, but I’ll stick with “cozy.”

I don’t do coffee or much alcohol (I know, I’m a writer heathen!), but I always have a glass of water with me. (I live in the Arizona desert, so drinking lots of water is a requirement.)

I need a stash of chocolate nearby too. I get antsy if there isn’t chocolate in the house.

When I get into a groove and the words flow, writing feels like magic.

I hate promoting and trying to sell my books (or me/my brand), so I'm very bad at that aspect and generally try to ignore it or just do the minimum. As far as the writing-aspect itself, the nitpicky level of editing, questioning every “as” or “could” or whatever, makes me want to tear out my hair.

Yes and no—I’m definitely more productive with a deadline, but I don’t like the stress aspect.