Hitting Milestones

One down and one to go in my parade of novellas. “Well Done, Harry” went to the editor Friday. To get it there I had to consolidate comments from my beta readers***, edit it, add an author’s note and my bio, and proof it word by word. For that last step, I’m now using the […]

Dog Days

Life, as always, rolls along, sometimes aiding the writing, sometimes interfering. Dogsitting, for example. I always swore I would never call a small animal my “Granddog” no matter how adorable and affectionate he might be. Family is family; dogs are dogs. But lately I’m softening. My daughter’s dog visited for the weekend while his hoomans […]

Macbeth in Fact and Fiction

Join Alina K. Field for the facts about the Real Macbeth that lie behind her novel Fated Hearts A few years ago I took on the project of adapting the story of Shakespeare’s Macbeth for the Tragic Characters in Literature series. My mission? Move Macbeth’s story into the Regency era and give him the happy-ever-after […]

Summer Nights

After two weeks of evening and nighttime storms, summer nights have been pleasant here in the urban wilds of eastern Pennsylvania for the past several days. We went to the Jersey Shore on the 4th, had a lovely dinner, and walked in the surf watching the little coquina shells burrow into the sand every time […]

Renewed and Energized

I returned from Sin City this weekend ready to write and confirmed in the general direction of my plans. The master class on Tension and Conflict was super helpful and so were sessions on Female Archtypes, Marketing, and Medical History among others. Hobnobbing with other writers is always motivating and motivational. What did I learn? […]

Off and Away

I’m jetting off to Vegas tomorrow. Lest you think I’ve take a sudden and uncharacteristic turn toward decadence, I should clarify that I’m going to attend the Historical Novel Society of North America conference.  I will be able to hobnob with authors, chat with agents, take a master class on Conflict that Hooks and one […]

War Wounds and Veteran Care

Alina K. Field brings facts about the use of prosthetics in the Regency Era as used in her novel Claims of the Heart June 18 th this year marks the 210 th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo where so many combatants died and others experienced dreadful injuries such as amputations. Surprisingly to me, not […]

Summer Daze

Do you define the beginning of summer as Memorial Day? I tend to, meteorology aside. First of course, we remember the fallen, but it is always a joyful, if hectic, time around here. No parade this year, alas. We headed to the shore last week–feet in the surf, towel on the beach, toes in the […]

Pressing Forward

Big accomplishment last week! I finished “Music in the Night” and shipped it off to Dragonblade for inclusion in Dukes All Night Long. Now, by “finished,” I mean that I merged comments from four beta readers and did a light edit, considered a major insight from one of them, deleted half of the first chapter, […]