Nikki Loftin

Okay, this one’s weird. Tonight, my dear friend and neighbor Sue came over to celebrate her birthday (um, by bringing over her birthday presents – chocolate-covered strawberries and muscat – to share. Take note, friends. On your birthday, YOU provide the feast!). She announced that her husband Bob had inadvertently mowed down the tall grass [...]

This month, two of my essays came out in the local parenting magazine, ParentWise:Austin. I wrote one about my mother-in-law Liz, who passed away over six years ago (leaving an enormous hole in my life) and one about my own mother, who is still around and just LOVES it when I tell funny stories about [...]

Writer Friends, I am pleased to report that my dear Writer Friend Lori and I both made our word quotas for the week. And that means you will not have the special treat of reading the fiery invective I had prepared — insults involving her parentage, her hygiene, and especially her writing technique — for [...]

My life is full of chickens. I have the actual living, clucking kind here on my pretend farm in the Hill Country, the hens who lay their darling little brown eggs, rendering every day of my life an Easter egg hunt in miniature — oh blissful country life! (Dang. Where is that sarcasm font?)  Also, [...]

Hi, Writer Friends! Did any of you hear that news piece a few weeks back during the Olympics, about the relative psychological ramifications of winning the silver versus bronze medal? It went something like, yeah, gold is what you want, but if you have to win silver or bronze, you’ll be happier with bronze in [...]

I did it. I just finished my torturing of a young boy… I mean, my revision of Raymond. Now, off to a couple of Betas to make sure I don’t just “think” I’ve pulled it off.
But I think I may have. Squeee!
And now I face the prospect of a week at least before my Blessed [...]

For a writer, there’s nothing like that feeling you get when you’ve been to a really great conference, and you come home fizzy and full of ideas, encouragement from your peers, and potential writerly awesomeness.
I just got home from the Best Conference Ever. (Um, the conference was Austin SCBWI, driving distance from my house, so [...]

Merry Christmas Eve, Blog Friends!
It’s cold in Texas today and getting colder — beginning to feel (at last) a bit like Christmas. I got a stocking stuffer this week already — an essay of mine will appear in The Ultimate Christian Living anthology, out next March. Yay! (Of course, Santa may have to work a [...]

Give me a second and I’ll tell you, as soon as I figure it out.
I suppose I spend most of my time writing children’s fiction. So, when people who want the short answer ask what I do, I say that. (Actually, I say Middle-Grade Humor for Boys, although that’s not entirely true. My current WIP [...]

A perfect weekend. Yesterday we celebrated Dave’s birthday with a dinner at Eddie V’s and a night in the Hyatt Regency on Lady Bird Lake in Austin — free babysitting courtesy of Aunt Lari. Yay Lari! Yay free babysitting! (Of course, we took a side trip to the Alpha & Omega gallery to see Dave’s [...]