My latest published novel, Safe Thus Far, was a finalist for the 2022 Thorpe Menn Literary Excellence Award. Several of my novels have been nominees for the award in earlier years, and I was pleased that this book was a finalist. My novel was in good company. The winner of […]
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Time Is Relative: I’m One Degree of Separation from 1867
Recently I was doing more research for my current work-in-progress the is set in 1867. (Yes, it’s drafted. Yes, I’m heavily into editing. And yes, I’m still researching arcane issues.) I came across a tidbit of information I hadn’t focused on before, and it got me thinking about how 1867 […]
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Lawyering and More in Frontier Oregon
Mac McDougall, one of the major characters in my series, is an attorney who is also an investor in many early Oregon enterprises. Although his background is convenient for the plots of my novels, many real historical figures in Oregon’s history were like the fictional Mac. As I research, I […]
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HNSNA Mini-Conference: Writing the Past with Authenticity, per Susan Meissner
I wrote last year about attending the virtual conference sponsored by the Historical Novel Society North America (HNSNA). This year, the major Historical Novel Society conference was in England, and I was not able to go. (Someday, maybe I can attend a foreign writing conference.) HNSNA sponsored the mini-conference on […]
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Early Railroad Bridges Across the Missouri River
Although I have a lot of editing to do on my current work-in-progress (the sixth book in my Oregon series), I am beginning to think about the next book. I’m planning for the seventh novel to be the last book in the series, but who knows? I only have the […]
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Insecure Writers Support Group: Plowing In, Plodding Along, and Indoor Plumbing
One of the many websites for writers to which I subscribe is the Insecure Writers Support Group. I’d been writing for several years when I ran across this site. Of course, like all writers, I am insecure. I don’t remember how I found the Insecure Writers Support Group nor what […]
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Domestic Violence in the 19th Century
My current work-in-progress deals in part with domestic violence. The 19th century was a time of transition in society’s attitudes toward spousal abuse. It is a challenge to know how to write about the problem because their attitudes were so different than ours today. Prior to the mid-19th century, a […]
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My Current Take on Social Media: The Good, Bad, and Ugly
Like many writers, I have a love/hate relationship with social media. Marketing gurus tell writers that a social media presence is an essential part of an author platform, and we must have a platform and an author brand to sell books. And yet, we also hear we can’t be everywhere, […]
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Use of Laudanum in the Mid-19th Century
Authors continue to research aspects of their plots throughout the drafting and revising of their novels. For my current work-in-progress, I’ve had to revisit old research topics, and today’s post discusses a new line of research. (I hope no one ever researches my web search history. It is full of […]
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How I Came to Write a Novel Series
I didn’t set out to write a series of novels about the Oregon Trail and settlement of Oregon. I only intended to write one historical novel. But I have now published five books in my historical fiction series, and I’m working on the sixth, with a seventh planned. How did […]
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