Author’s Blog

Gag! Words I Don’t Want to Hear

This week’s starter in the 52 Week Challenge is “Words that make me go ICK,” or maybe just GAG. Simple enough. I might begin with feces, puke, scabies, worm guts, pustules, zit… Need I go on? My least favorite word? Fuck. I know, I know; it is a good plain Anglo-saxon word that cuts through […]

Quang Trung, the Emperor Who United a Country.

Highlighting Historical Romance: Mike Lord tells us about the emperor. I came to Vietnam in 1997 to work on a poverty reduction project in a mountainous province about 150 miles from Hanoi. I wanted to read as much of the history as I could find in English of the country in which I was working, […]

7 Entertaining Oscar Moments (and 7 Lame Ones)

Well, the ending was worth staying up for even if did run absurdly, insanely long. Warren Beatty gave it to the wrong movie? Unbelievable, but not his fault. As always, the show was a mixed bag, but it had some good moments: The hidden figures actresses introducing the real Katherine Johnson Emma Stone’s dress The […]

Titles and Other Painful Decisions.

Readers may have noticed that I’ve been participating in the Marketing For Romance Writers (MFRW) 52-Week blog challenge. The idea is that all the participating authors post on a single topic, and we get to see the wide variation in approaches to the topic. It is a bit fun, and I plan to continue, but […]

Castles: Fiction and Reality

Highlighting Historical Romance Ruth Kaufman shares her research and her passion. Years ago, I had the opportunity to travel to England and Wales and explore some amazing castle ruins and stay in two castles (Amberley and Thornbury). I knew I had to visit Castle Rising, in the village of Castle Rising in King’s Lynn, Norfolk, […]