Darkness and Light

Here on the east coast of the US, the day begins to darken by 4 PM. Add to that general dreariness and grey clouds and it is fair dim this month. Luckily it is the season of light. There is a reason our ancestors of most traditions put their light festivals in late December! As […]

A Failed Attempt at Discretion

Gemma, misunderstanding something Jeff said and desperate to see him in the face of her family’s interference, set out on foot for Regent’s Park at dawn. Luckily servants alerted Jeff and they came upon her just as a sneak thief took her reticule and knocked her in the gutter, and before he could do further […]

Beginnings

When I start a new book, I plunge in. I hope my starting point will hold, but sometimes it doesn’t. I had to delete and entire first chapter more than once. Early days I’m in a bit of a dance with my characters, just getting acquainted while introducing them to my readers. I am back […]

Land and More Land

…that it took approximately 10,000 acres to yield an income of 10,000 pounds to a landowning aristocrat in the Regency Era? As you can imagine, it took a pile of money to pay all those servants, maintain a townhouse in addition to the country manor, and keep a stable of good horses and carriages. No […]

A Herd of Turtles

To manage my new pace of releasing a novel every four months (thank you Dragonblade Publishing!!) I have to create a draft in two months. That pace requires that I write at least 2000 words a day (10,000 a week) for eight weeks. More or less. Those months are bracketed by a month of beta […]

Naming the Enslaved

Did you know that: Slave registers were kept for the former British Colonial Dependencies between 1813-1834 The practice began as a result of the 1807 Abolition of the Slave Trade Act of 1807. That law outlawed trafficking in enslaved people between Africa and British colonies but considered those already in place to be “lawfully enslaved.” […]

Ten Years and Still Learning

Last week was a little rough. Joyful, but rough I’ve been writing much of my life. I’ve been publishing for ten years. This year everything ratcheted up a notch. I recently read something from Virginia Heath. She said, “Being a professional writer, I always have a new story on the go and at least another […]

Release Week!

The Defiant Daughter remains 99 cents the first part of the week until it is released into the wild on Thursday. Early reviews have been really, really GOOD. I have scheduled four Facebook Group takeovers and two video interviews this week. I’ve had no time to plan a celebration, so I will probably just have […]