New Instant Pot: Lots of Room for Short Ribs
I wrote in January 2019 about my hesitation over my husband’s Christmas gift to me of an Instant Pot. I’ve also posted some Instant Pot recipes (see here and here), which I made after overcoming that hesitation, though I was still suspicious of a pressure cooker. Well, over the past three and a half years, […]
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 July 23 as a teaser […]
Not So Random Photos: An August Trip Down Memory Lane
I’ve written many times about Pacific Grove and Carmel, California, and other venues on the Monterey Peninsula. But for decades I didn’t visit that idyllic place in my past. My grandmother moved away from Pacific Grove in the summer of 1967. My husband and I went there once or twice when we were at Stanford […]
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 sketchiest of plots for that […]
Mindfulness: Did I Know It When I Felt It?
Earlier this week, I went to a yoga class for the first time in a couple of months. Life has been getting in the way, but I have missed the class, so I made it a priority this past Monday. It felt good to stretch and to hold the strengthening and balance poses as long […]
Big Sur: Memories Good and Bad
I’ve written several posts about childhood trips to visit my grandparents in Pacific Grove, California. And, I’ve been back to the Monterey Peninsula many times as an adult. One of the spots we frequented during my adult visits is Big Sur. Big Sur is a rugged stretch of the Pacific Coastal region south of Carmel […]
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 first attracted me to it. […]
Birthdays Old and New
I’m not good at remembering summer birthdays. Maybe it’s because there’s too much else to do. Maybe it’s because summer was never birthday season in my family. Growing up, my family’s birthdays were either in the spring or the autumn. We had birthdays in March, April, and September. The last kid was born in November, […]
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 husband could beat his wife […]
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, so we should pick the […]