Welcome back to Fiction Friday.  This is our fourth excerpt of Sarah Miller’s letters to Amasa Miller in 1853, a story within the much broader contemporary story of my novel Endless Chain.  Look for the three previous parts in my last three Fiction Friday blogs.  Scroll down and begin with March 21st,  or follow the…

I’m sharing the historical section of my novel Endless Chain here at Fiction Friday, beginning two weeks ago and continuing today. Endless Chain’s story is for the most part contemporary, but the historical section, written as letters from Sarah Miller to the man she loves, Amasa Stone, in far off Petersburg, Virginia, is an important element.…

Today’s Fiction Friday is the conclusion of the first letter that Sarah Miller writes to the man she loves, Amasa Stone, in 1853 about the event that’s happened on the Miller farm in rural Shenandoah County, Virginia. This excerpt comes from my novel Endless Chain, the second of the Shenandoah Album novels, and Sarah’s letters…

This week I answered a question you might have asked yourself about writers. Do we ever re-read our work once it’s been published? On Tuesday and Wednesday I re-read my novel Endless Chain, published in 2005 and reissued in trade paperback last year. The reason why is a secret, but what I found in the…

Today I’m featuring  part two of a story by Kate Chopin.  You’ll find the first part in last week’s Fiction Friday. As I was living in Louisiana and researching my two novels Iron Lace and Rising Tides, I read almost everything by Kate Chopin, as well as Lafcadio Hearn’s Chita, and many nonfiction works by…

Welcome to Fiction Friday.  Mardi Gras may be over, but we aren’t yet finished with Louisiana.  I thought you might enjoy this short story, written by author Kate Chopin in 1894 in a work entitled Bayou Folk.  I’ll post it in two parts with the conclusion next Friday. Kate Chopin, born Kate O’Flaherty, grew up in St.…

I’ve spent the last two weeks revising one of my very first novels,The Unmasking.  The novel came out from Harlequin Superromance in, gulp, 19. . . A long time ago. As I read The Unmasking again,  I loved the story, but my writing has improved, well, enormously.  What took me twelve words to say now…

I’m going to tell you a secret. One of the very best parts of being a writer is being with other writers. More often than not we’re together online, not in person, but there are always conferences, booksignings and brainstorming sessions where we meet and share stories into the wee hours of morning. In the…

What a special treat today for Valentine’s day.  While I know this spot is billed as Fiction Friday, today’s excerpt is actually a recipe from a new cookbook, The Two Day a Week Diet Cookbook, designed for Amazon’s Kindle. Don’t have a Kindle? You can read the recipes on your computer, smartphone or tablet by downloading…

Congratulations to Sandy Heringer who was the winner of a copy of Tear Down and Die by Joanna Campbell Slan.  The first book in Joanna’s new mystery series was featured on Fiction Friday a week ago.  As always random.org made the selection.