Winds of Inspiration

First Coffee

The wind blows where it wills… It was super windy on Saturday, a gift from Hurricane Willa as it swept back out to sea and turned into a nor’easter blowing across the Jersey shore.  Tradition shows the Holy Spirit as a might wind, blowing wherever He chooses.  Inspiration is like that. I’m looking out at […]

Hell’s Aftermath

Highlighting Historical Romance with P.A. Estelle My contribution to this anthology is, The Widow Buys A Groom. It takes place three years after the ending of The Civil War. This was my first story during this era and research included topics such as, Elmira, a Union camp where Confederates were kept and information on the […]

Real-life Civil War Soldier Brings a Character to Life

Highlighting Historical Romance with Jessica James Even though I grew up in Gettysburg, Pa., I didn’t have any interested in the Civil War until I moved to Virginia and discovered a real-life Confederate soldier named John Singleton Mosby. This Virginia legend is difficult to miss and impossible to overlook. One cannot drive through Loudoun or […]

Trashed! Coffee please!

He who talks more is sooner exhausted. Lao Tzu   That must explain why I am completely trashed this Monday afternoon—much talking and dancing and costume changes and friend making and parties—many parties at the Historical Romance Retreat at the Mission Inn last week. I learned that there are right hand quills and left and […]

Family ~ the Third Week

Continuing my analysis of the families of the characters in my books, we come to the Haydens. This is a very different bunch than the others I’ve written about. They are wealthier, more powerful, better connected, and—dare I admit it—less happy. If have read any of my books you’ll have met the Marquess of Glenaire—later […]

Family Stories and Train Robbery in Texas

  Highlighting Historical Romance with Wareeze Woodson The beginning of Bittersweep needed no research. Yellow fever swept though Texas in epidemic proportions around 1880. Being placed in the wagon and forced out of town actually happened to my grandmother at age five. I imagined the setting and the fictitious town of Bittersweep, but something like such a place did […]

Family~Week Two

Last week I wrote about family, about the role it has played in my books, and about the role it will take in my next series. You can read that post here if you missed it. This week I’m mulling the family of the Earl of Chadourn, the Landrums. This one is complicated because the […]

Let the Party Begin!

The Unexpected Wife will finally be released in the wild (er, published) on Wednesday. At least the Kindle format will be; print may lag a little, but it should be available soon. Join in the celebration! How you ask? Let me tell you: Order a copy! Or if you are a Kindle Unlimited member beginning […]

The Long Wait

Time hangs heavy when you wait. Nothing about The Unexpected Wife has gone quickly, and this last part seems to drag forever. I am not convinced that independently publishing goes any faster than publishing through a small press, but in that case, the author is in control of the entire process. The Unexpected Wife is […]

Fortune Telling in the 19thCentury

Highlighting Historical and Time-Travel Novels with Nancy Thorne Her novel, Victorian Town, is a YA paranormal romance novel set in 1876. Researching the 19thcentury led her to countless interesting topics. Fortune telling was one of them. In the 1800s, Marie-Anne Lenormand secured her reputation as a famous card reader. For over 40 years Marie-Anne was […]