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Why Everything Looks Different Now
Our story begins with a single color. I can tell you exactly how that color came into my life, too: with this very website’s first color scheme, which was based off of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade. I thought a mirabelle yellow would pop against the dark, classy red and muted gray-blue I’d also pulled from the painting. Plus, my birthstone is citrine, and if there’s one thing I love to do, it’s adding layers of meaning to make something more beautiful, the same way an oyster adds coat after coat to create a pearl. Now, I’m not one to half-ass anything. I commit, and I committed to my Scheherazade color palette, particularly…
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Why I Write Historical Fiction
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Read the First Chapter of IN ST. LOUIS WITH YOU
Do you remember In Charleston With You, from all the way back in April of 2021? In Chapter Six of that book, the heroine, Genevieve, mentions her childhood friend who moved to St. Louis before the book takes place. That friend’s name was Katherine, and I’m pleased to tell you her story is next. And boy, is it a story. Since the events of In Charleston With You, Katherine has been widowed. Her husband’s dying wish was for her to marry Lawrence Knightley, their best friend, for financial security, et cetera. Where it gets complicated? Lawrence is in love with her. It’s that aching, haunting kind of love you have for someone…
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Read the First Chapter of IN CHARLESTON WITH YOU
I’m pleased to announce I’ve successfully done what I secretly wanted to do for my past two books and never got around to doing—include the Victorian language of flowers! Yes, In Charleston With You—which will take place in part at the South Carolina Inter-State and West Indian Exposition of 1901–1902—stars a British man with a ne’er-do-well brother, both of whom inherited a love of floriography from their late parents. Across the pond, a beautiful, spit-fire pen pal will challenge everything the brothers have planned for themselves. And now, without further ado, you can read the first chapter for yourself… Chapter One Jacob Jacob blew air into his gloved hands as…
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Come Along on My Pandemic-Safe “Writing Retreat” to Get Ready for NaNoWriMo
National Novel Writing Month—a challenge to write fifty thousand words within November’s thirty days—will be here in just over two weeks. I’ve participated “seriously” thrice in the past, and so I recall with perfect clarity how it completely flips my life upside down. And you know I do so love the chaos. One thing I’ve learned during my attempts is that I must be prepared if I’m going to succeed. I know this because I haven’t been as prepared as I could’ve been in previous years, and I’ve never won. That’s why I’ve taken at least one out of my two free days every week to organize a little writing…
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Read the First Chapter of IN BUFFALO WITH YOU
Happy Book Birthday to my novelette, In Buffalo With You, which is available now! This book gave me headaches and butterflies, anxiety and elation, but I’m so happy with how it turned out. I hope you will be, too! This book was more rich with history than the last—the Newsboy Strike of 1899, real-life soprano Nina Morgana, and a particularly memorable event from the Pan-American Exposition that shocked the nation. I learned so much! And, of course, the romance is sweet and meant-to-be. Just as I did with In Barcelona With You, I’m sharing my first chapter with you right here on my blog. Enjoy! Chapter One Tommy In Tommy’s…
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Read the First Chapter of THE PRICE OF MAGIC
I think every girl goes through a mermaid phase. Mine was a nice, healthy length, perpetuated by the pool we had while I was growing up, a lifelong love of fairy tales and mythology, and Disney’s The Little Mermaid. Now that I’m older, I do still have a special place in my heart for The Little Mermaid—both the Disney movie and, now, the original tale by Hans Christian Andersen. In particular, I’m drawn to the sea witch. So drawn, in fact, that I finally wrote the little origin story that’d been swirling around in my mind since I was a child. It’s called The Price of Magic, and I’m thrilled…
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How to Enhance Your Reading Experience with Soundscapes
The sister blog post, “How to Enhance Your Writing Experience with Soundscapes,” can be found on Writer’s Atelier. What does your perfect reading experience look like? Maybe you picture yourself curled up on the couch or reading in the great outdoors. Maybe you don’t care where you are as long as you have something warm to drink. Maybe you’ve always been able to read any time, any place, under any conditions. (Lucky!) But what if I told you there was a way to truly immerse yourself in the book you’re reading like you never have before? You can do just that with soundscapes. What are soundscapes? Whether you’ve heard the…
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8 Unique Ways Readers Can Fill Their Empty Notebooks
The sister blog post, “8 Unique Ways Writers Can Fill Their Empty Notebooks,” can be found on Writer’s Atelier. How many empty notebooks do you have around your house or apartment? It’s okay, I can wait while you count them. Is it five? Ten? More? We bookish types are notorious for our love of paper. We love the feel of paper between our fingers, tag images of massive home libraries with #goals, and even try to capture the smell of old books in candles and soap! It’s only natural that such a love would extend to notebooks, journals, and stationery as well. Since I’ve been spending so much time at…
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Staying Focused with the Flora App
The Flora app was one of my favorite productivity tools before the pandemic. After a year of use, it’s now my favorite tool to help me track my time and stay focused in other ways, too. And now I’m using it to help me navigate the increasingly foggier days in self-isolation. I started using the Flora app back when I was still in college. I was looking for a free alternative to the super popular Forest app, and Flora drew my eye with its focus on flowers over trees. Not to mention that it had the same functionality, more or less, and it had overall positive reviews on the app…
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Supporting Indie Creators During Coronavirus
Maybe supporting indie creators during coronavirus is only at the back of your mind. Maybe you can’t even think about it because you’re trying to balance a thousand other things—homeschooling your kids, working from home, balancing your literal or figurative checkbook, or whatever obstacles the new world order has you facing. Money is tight, and tensions are high. That’s understandable. That’s to be expected, in fact, which is why the majority of my suggestions here will be completely free to you, but will mean the world (or, in some cases, a little extra money) to the indie creators you love. (And I say indie creators because I tried to keep…
