I've been doing some book signings lately, and this brand is on the skirt of my display tablecloth. It seems to trigger unusual questions, so I thought it might be a good idea to explain it.
I spent many happy hours at the Williams farm south of Chandler, Arizona, from the time I was a little girl in the 50s to an almost teenager. The farm is long gone now, dozed over and developed into thousands of homes. My dad, his brother, and his sisters grew up and worked on that farm. And when they...
My historical fiction about a real woman, Sarah Herring, A New York Lady In Helldorado, was enjoyable for me to write. I love history and spent many hours searching out all I could find about her life. I found a couple of newspaper and magazine articles, and a Wikipedia page gave me more information and resources. If any of you have read a biography by such authors/historians as David McCollough or a book of history, such as Bruce Catton's books about the Civil War, you know these books...
I've been a writer all my life. I wrote letters a lot when I was growing up. No one called long distance unless it was an emergency. Then I read the book, Anne Frank - A Diary of a Young Girl. So I got a diary and wrote. In fifth grade, my teacher chose me to write an article for the local newspaper that featured my byline and picture. In high school, I had study hall, and used most of the time to write bad poetry and more. Usually about what I wanted in life, or my feelings and thoughts....
I sent the completed manuscript of my cozy mystery, A Dream Of A Murder, to my publisher recently. But I'm still thinking of things I could have added/deleted to make it better. That's an author's life. It's easy to fall into the "just one more round of edits" treadmill. I 'finished' that manuscript back in November 2024. I set myself a goal to get it done by the end of that month. and I wrote forward daily, even during Thanksgiving, to get it finished. I wrote over 15,000 words! The only way...
Hello, my friends! I thought I knew almost everything I needed to know about the book publishing business. I know now that I KNOW NOTHING! To be honest, I'm a relative newbie at this, and I thought that since I'd attended dozens of webinars on getting a book published, I was smarter than the average inexperienced author. After all, I'd self-published a book and managed that rather well. I knew how to format a print and ebook, design or shop for a premade cover, and I knew my way around KDP...
When I completed my book, A New York Lady In Helldorado, I was determined to get a Literary Agent and a Publishing deal. I self-published my first book, but getting it noticed was difficult and expensive. I researched how to acquire an agent and looked up examples of query letters that got results. I went to work and wrote a query. And another. I researched agents who represented my genre and sent letters I was sure would bring me success. Nothing. No reply, not “this stinks”, no “drop dead”....
When one decides to be a ‘writer’, there are many things to consider. I thought I needed to have a certain amount of literary skill, a creative mind and a disciplined personality. But that, dear friends, is not the half of what one needs to be a writer in today's world.
I set up my workspace in my home and was grateful for a quiet place to work. Son Todd put the desk together and son Aaron put the chair together. Husband Larry built a beautiful bookshelf that accomodates a small printer and...
The first time I met him in 1881, I was so excited. And so scared. As a twenty-year-old schoolteacher recently arrived from New York, I was more naïve than I owned. I assessed this man of whom I knew so little. He was tall and lean, made of grit and sinew, without an ounce of fat. The angles of his face were sharply unyielding, and I felt a little afraid of his imposing appearance.
Within days, I was sitting across from him at our dining table. I was here because Papa needed my help. I wavered...