Author Mollie Cox Bryan and Scrapbook of Secrets
When a new mystery novelist contacted me months ago and told me she was from the Shenandoah Valley and the author of pie cookbooks, I was intrigued. She asked me to read the first mystery in her new series, Cumberland Creek Mysteries, from Kensington, to give her a cover quote, and I agreed. After all, both…
Read MoreSunday Poetry: A Burning Light
Welcome to Sunday Poetry. If this is your first visit you can read about the purpose and inspiration of my Sunday poetry blogs here. I fell in love with this poem and poet immediately. The poem is short, but it packs a large punch. I found Boarding House after first finding Ted Kooser through another poem on the…
Read MoreWords and the Way We Use Them
Sometimes we stumble into history. My husband and I did exactly that last week when we chose to visit Mt. Dora, Florida. Little did we know that Newt Gingrich was planning a visit, too. The Florida Republican primaries were in full swing, and so was the Gingrich entourage. As we ate breakfast on the porch…
Read MoreAmazing Grace
Florida. What’s not to love about my home state in January? Last Monday I stepped off a plane in Orlando and saw palm trees and sunshine, not to mention a host of children sporting mouse ears. It was home-like if not exactly home. Disney was still quietly buying up orange groves when I spent two…
Read MoreWork in Progress
This isn’t a blog about the newest book-in-progress, although there will be plenty of those coming up. No, this is a blog about the lack of a blog today. Or if this isn’t a blog, at least it’s an announcement. Tune in tomorrow instead, when I will have (mostly) recovered from my travels through Florida looking…
Read MoreSunday Poetry: By the Highway Home
Welcome to Sunday Poetry. If this is your first visit you can read about the purpose and inspiration of my Sunday poetry blogs here. Today’s poem is Reluctance by Robert Frost. Are you reluctant to let go of something in your life? Are you hanging on when you shouldn’t because you need to move on? Are you afraid to…
Read MoreLists: People I Really Want to Read About
Remember “lists?” I introduced my first list on the 13th, and you responded with wonderful additions. You can read the comments if you click on the link. Here’s my next and last list for January. Anyone who adds an item by commenting on either post by January 31, is entered in a drawing for an…
Read MoreEverybody Loves a Hero
Novelists watch life unfold and shake our heads. There’s a test to tell just how absurd it all is. We ask ourselves, what our would editors say if we went to them with a particularly odd story. For example: “Have I got an idea for you. Let me do a modern day Titanic novel, okay? Only this…
Read MoreSunday Poetry: I Have No Name
Welcome to Sunday Poetry. If this is your first visit you can read about the purpose and inspiration of my Sunday poetry blogs here. Our family just welcomed a baby boy, my first grandson, and today’s poem, Infant Joy by William Blake, is for Liam Michael, born January 12th, and precious, as all babies everywhere are. Infant Joy…
Read MoreThe Write Way: Setting Up A Series
This week, in addition to meeting my new grandson, I also met my new cover. One of these I adored on sight. (I’ll let you guess which.) Sometimes that happens. The new cover is for the first book in a series, One Mountain Away, which debuts in August. The series is titled Goddesses Anonymous. This…
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