Learning to Dictate, Then and Now
I have a love-hate relationship with dictating. I think best with a pen in my hand, and second-best with my fingers on a keyboard. Far behind comes turning my thoughts into spoken words. As a law student and young attorney, I had to write many memos and legal briefs. Most of these documents included a […]
On Angst and Sit-Coms
My youngest brother is eleven and one-half years younger than I am. Given where our birthdays fell, he started kindergarten the same month I started college. I’ve written before how he took me for show and tell over my Christmas break when he was in kindergarten, and I got upstaged by his classmate’s golden retriever. […]
Back to Beginnings: My Next Writing Project
Perhaps it seems odd that I just announced the publication of my last novel, My Hope Secured, a week ago, and now I’m writing about beginning another novel. But the only way I know to improve as a writer is to keep writing. It’s a very different feeling facing a blank screen than the final […]
Things I Like About Our New House
It’s hard to believe my husband and I have been in our new home over three months now. Some days it feels like we’ve been here forever. Some days it feels like we’ll never get settled. It felt like home when I walked into the house after we traveled out of town for a week […]
MY HOPE SECURED Is Published!
I am so pleased to announce that my latest historical novel, My Hope Secured: Love and Loss on the Oregon Frontier, is now available. My goal this year was to have this book published before Thanksgiving, and I’ve done it. If you have friends and family members who like Western fiction or family sagas, please […]
Hallowed Ground: Visiting the 9-11 Museum
This isn’t a typical Halloween post, but it is about hallowed ground. The original meaning of Halloween is All Hallows Eve, the holy evening before All Saint’s Day on November 1. The fun side of the holiday came from pagan autumn rituals. In this post, I return to the hallowed side of the holiday. On […]
Uber Convert
Kansas City is a driving town. Except for a few corridors, it is difficult to use public transportation to navigate our metropolitan area. When my husband and I first moved here, we lived in an apartment just a few short blocks from one of the main north-south routes, and we usually took the bus to […]
Writing Historical Fiction: My Odd Research Topics, Including Murder
Many authors these days have very strange browsing histories. Writers of thrillers have to research espionage, weapons, and clandestine operations. Fantasy writers delve deeply into the legends of wizards and dragons and vampires (not my cup of tea). As for me, in addition to the basic timelines and geography of the Oregon Trail and California […]
Wedding Photographs of Siblings and Spouses
As I wrote recently, I’ve had weddings on my mind. Here’s another post on the subject of weddings. This time, the bride(s) and groom(s) are me and my siblings. Specifically, this post is about framed wedding pictures of me and my spouse and my siblings and their spouses. My mother had this thing about years […]
Haunting Books Read in 2019
Most Octobers I have posted one or more reviews of “haunting books” that I’ve read in the past year. This month, because of other things I’ve had to write about (a novel about to be published, a family wedding), I haven’t posted any book reviews yet. This post remedies that situation. Here are a few […]