Today I am delighted to announce that I am participating in a holiday giveaway with other historical fiction writers. Some lucky winner will receive a free copy of Lead Me Home as part of this giveaway, along with a dozen other books. All of the authors participating in this event […]
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SAFE THUS FAR Is Now Available!
As I announced in my newsletter on November 19, Safe Thus Far is now available on Amazon in paperback or Kindle formats and on Barnes & Noble for Nook. One fan wrote that she was dropping everything for a day to read Safe Thus Far. After she finished the book, […]
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Congratulations to NaNoWriMo Participants This Year! Keep Writing!
Last year in November I posted about my progress on NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), when writers attempt to write a 50,000-word novel in thirty days. I hit the target, then blew past it! I toyed with doing NaNoWriMo again this year. But I decided the timing wasn’t quite right. […]
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SAFE THUS FAR Is Coming Soon!
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote that I had sent my novel to beta readers. Their feedback is now in (thank you, betas!), and I am busy polishing the text in response to their comments. In general, their feedback was positive, so I am on track to finish up […]
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Thoughts on Story and History and an Update on My Work-in-Progress
Longtime readers of this blog know that it started as a WordPress.com blog called “Story and History: One Writer’s Journey Through Life and Time.” I’ve kept the title “Story and History” even after I integrated the blog into my author website in 2017. And I also use the full title […]
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HISTORY OF OREGON: Hubert Howe Bancroft and Frances Fuller Victor
As I research my historical novels, I often refer to Hubert Howe Bancroft’s History of Oregon and History of California. They are not the most readable of reference books, but they are encyclopedic on their coverage of issues related to 19th-century settlement of these Western states. A couple of months […]
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A Curmudgeonly Author’s Take on Social Media
It’s been awhile since I wrote about my likes and dislikes on social media. (But see here and here and here.) During the pandemic, social media has been the only way for an indie author to market books, so I have been forced to use it and to explore some […]
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When the Work-in-Progress Progresses Slowly
All writers have times when their writing moves slowly, and I am in one of those times. It feels like I have been editing my work-in-progress forever. Maybe I should have expected this—the first draft came together very quickly during NaNoWriMo last November. A quick first draft probably means there […]
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Evolution of the American Flag
The United States just celebrated its 245th birthday on Sunday, July 4, 2021. In recognition of this event, last week I created a graphic to use in promoting my novel, Lead Me Home. I used an image of the current U.S. flag in the graphic, but that got me thinking […]
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2021 Historical Novel Society Conference
Last week I attended my first Historical Novel Society conference. I’ve been to other writing conferences in the past, but this was special, because historical fiction writers are my tribe. The conference was virtual, and the sessions were recorded and will be posted for attendees to review, so I have […]
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