Music in the night

Annie Potter has been sneaking into Woodglen Hall, seat of the absent Duke of Glenmoor, for months, using a window the steward kindly leaves open for her. She comes to lose herself in the duke’s grand piano forte, an antidote to her miserable life in her uncles vicarage. A week ago a stranger interrupted her, […]

A New Day

Whether you celebrate Easter in the Christian fullness of Resurrection like I do, or spring and the goddess Oestra as the Anglo Saxons did, this time of year is about new beginnings. It seems I’m about to take a new look at some older works and begin again with them. My Dangerous and Children of […]

A Writer’s Brain

In order to produce a good story, your author needs to climb into the story, if she can. Focus and imagination are required. With luck, she’ll be as involved with the characters as you are when you read a good one and lose track of the world around her. Alas that is not always (sometimes […]

Blooms and Weeds

Spring has come to my world with a vengeance. Forsythia, hellebore, daffodils and their relatives, hyacinth are all in glorious bloom. The rhododendron is covered with buds ready to pop. Flowering trees are coming out up and down the street. My patio border is lagging behind. It looks like my hummingbird mint and ground covers […]

Cobblestones, Castles, and Cathedrals

Trudging behind my young companion last week was invigorating—and exhausting—but we explored every inch of Rome, at least the old city from the forum to Castel Sant Angelo, from the Bourghese Gardens to the top of the dome of Saint Peter’s in the Vatican City. Awed by art, amused by Irish pubs, and charmed by […]

Back to work

We crawled home—weary, pleased with ourselves, and refreshed—late Saturday night. Yesterday involved A) sleep B) laundry and C) sharing our adventures with my travel buddy’s parents. This morning I face a pile of email, the deadline to finalize my story for Love’s Perilous Road, and urgent messages from The Author’s Guild about Meta’s use of […]

Heading Down a Rocky Road

Staring at my lovely pink planner I’m a bit overwhelmed. Just a bit. I can do this. I leave on Saturday for a week away with my Grandson—more on that later this week. There is a long list of things I need to do before I depart. There are also church commitments, family commitments, and […]

Milestones

I read my way through three amazing beta drafts last week, all from wonderful authors. This year’s collection, Love’s Perilous Road, will include the Bluestocking Belles (Alina k Field, Cerise DeLand, Rue Allyn, Susana Ellis, Sherry Ewing, Elizabeth Ellen Carter, Jude Knight, and my humble self). We’ve also invited wonderful guests, Mary Lancaster, Maera Platt, […]

The Beta Begins

This week I have reading to do. When my friends and I (aka The Bluestocking Belles) prepare a collection we work at intertwined stories. While each of us writes her own story with its own hero and heroine’s journey, our characters always meet up at at least one shared event and often wander in and […]

Moving Along

The sun is so bright today I would almost think it was spring if more ice and snow weren’t forecasted for later this week. I am more or less on schedule for this month! I finished my promo tour for Snowed by the Wallflower on Friday–weary and suspecting at least some readers were tired of […]