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 […]

What to write this year?

The Bluestocking Belles met yesterday. It is always a challenge to get everyone in a conference call due to the spinning earth. We have members in Australia, New Zealand, San Francisco, Florida, South Carolina and, of course, the urban wilds of Eastern Pennsylvania. We were plotting our next holiday anthology. Our overall story trope is […]

Coffin or Casket

We’re highlighting historical fiction a day late this week. Lizzi Tremayne sent us a thought provoking piece about research, the rivulets down which writers may find themselves…and asks if it really matters.   Not to be getting morbid on you this early in the piece, but really, it’s important. Getting the detail right makes a […]

Writing to Order

I received this picture and a lovely thank you this week from the reader who won one of my contests last year. The prize was a short story for which she chose specifications. In this case she wanted a scandal caused by a cat. That took some thought! She also wanted a gruff alpha hero, […]

All the Time in the World

Highlighting Elizabeth Ellen Carter with some thoughts about time and its historic context—while giving us a bit of her Revenge of the Corsairs. In the 21st century we might be ‘time poor’, but at least we can tell the time – in fact, there is no avoiding it! Personal timepieces are everywhere! Just about all […]