Weather, Atmosphere, and Storytelling

Lately, I’m obsessing on the weather. Winter has been unrelenting and the swings have been dramatic—rather like a well-plotted novel, but much less satisfying. Saturday night we ate out on our patio, enjoying a dead perfect evening—not too hot, not too cold, no bugs, bright sun—knowing full well such evenings are rare. It was 80 […]

Beer, Science, and the 18th Century

  We’re Highlighting Historical fiction with Elizabeth Ellen Carter today. She explains how shape enhances our enjoyment of beer. This is important. After all, as Benjamin Franklin is reputed to have said, “Beer is proof God loves us and wants us to be happy.” When doing some research on ale glasses for my upcoming title […]

Five Tips and Real Life

Recently John Le Carré gave CBS’s Sixty Minutes five tips for novel writers. You can find them here. One was easy: “Keep a travel journal.” Some were lessons I learned the hard way: “Make the verb to the work,” and “Start your story as late as possible. One is giving me fits. “Start writing at […]

Paris Then and Now

Sofie Darling comes to us today with some facts about Paris and The Medici Fountain. Following the assassination of her husband Louis XIII of France in 1610, Marie de’ Medici removed herself and her son, the new king of France, from the intrigues of the French court to a safe place where she could rule […]

The Global Tourist in New Zealand

Jude Knight introduces us to Victorian Tourists to New Zealand. The nineteenth century, says the book I’m currently reading, was the European century; the century in which Europe dominated the world. The nineteenth century was a European one also in the sense that other continents took Europe as their yardstick. Europe’s hold over them was […]

4 Reasons I Love Baseball

We spent yesterday celebrating Mother’s Day early by watching the Phillies beat the Nationals at Citizen Bank Park with #1 daughter and her family.  I have loved baseball since elementary school. No other sport (even my beloved Ohio State football) even comes close. There are 4 reasons why. Family. We trooped in, three generations, all […]

Three Heroines, Three Points of View

Highlighting Historical Romance: Three heroines from A Holiday in Bath This delightful Regency anthology will be released on Tuesday, May 9. It features three different stories each with a heroine with different reasons for being in Bath and very different attitudes about it. Caroline Trenholme, The Art of Kissing in the Park  Caroline is the […]

11 Things That Tickle Me

Actually, many things tickle me this week.  To begin with, The Reluctant Wife will finally—finally—go live on Wednesday.  That makes five published novels and three novellas. I’m celebrating on Saturday with friends who also have new books this spring. We’re calling our party Love Speaks (that would be from Loves Labor Lost). We plan to […]

Three Gems; One Holiday Destination

Highlighting Historical Romance: A Holiday in Bath It is my privilege to be part of A Holiday in Bath, a collection of new novellas, all set in Bath, an English spa city known for its thermal springs and healing waters from the time of the Romans. By the Regency era it had become a fashionable […]

6 Places to Find Me This Week

It’s almost here! Those of you that read my blog know I have two releases coming out soon, including The Reluctant Wife, the next installment in my Children of Empire Series.  Soon after will come Holiday in Bath, an anthology that includes my novella, “Lord Edmund’s Dilemma.” I owe it to my books to make […]