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Fuel
I recently posted this picture on Facebook/Instagram of the 108-year-old window in the dining room of our century home. This glorious view of pink blooms filling the window is mine for a precious few weeks in late April every year. This view fills me with intense joy. The kind of joy that can’t be defined…
Keep readingSea of Red
My sci-fi suspense novel, Sea of Red, is officially available on Amazon as of today! This novel took me longer to complete than my other books took me to finish. I began working on it Autumn 2021 but was unable to pick it up again until Summer 2022 due to a period of profound sleep…
Keep readingMy Community
This picture was taken of myself and author, Dawn Dagger, on March 23rd in Massillon, Ohio, at the Massillon Public Library’s Spring Author Fair. I love this picture because it reminds me how blessed I am to be surrounded by such an amazing writing community. Dawn was a featured author at the Spring Fair as…
Keep readingShifting Perspective
While recently going through a box of old pictures, I found this wonderful photo of my grandparents, taken on their wedding day in 1926, in the small village of Szakadat, Hungary. It immediately filled me with a sense of joy to see my grandparents when they were young and just starting their lives together, rather…
Keep readingBarren
There are times in the life of a writer when they feel barren. Devoid of any inspiration or even a desire to write. Despite the despair we may feel when these times occur, these times are normal for every writer – for artists of all kinds. In a strange way, we can learn to look at…
Keep readingMiddle Earth
My husband and I recently visited Watkins Glen State Park in New York. We hiked a spectacular gorge trail in the park that boasted no less than twenty waterfalls! It was breathtaking, but what was even more breathtaking to me was a comment my husband made after taking the photo featured here. He said, “It…
Keep readingThe Third Adventure!
Last month, I released my latest middle-grade chapter book in the Nose Apart series. This book welcomes back the mysterious and curious little creature, Boba, for the third time. The Nose Apart books deal with issues that children often encounter in their lives – the existence of a disability, racial tension and physical abuse. The…
Keep readingHeld Up
While riding my bike recently, I came upon this large tree which had been uprooted by strong winds. What struck me at this scene was that two significantly smaller trees were now supporting the larger fallen tree. The thought came to me that writers are often a similar kind of help and support in the…
Keep readingBlack and White
We’ve all heard the phrase, “Life isn’t all black and white.” The implication of this phrase is that there are certain situations in life that are nuanced, that there isn’t just one way of looking at them. The same should be true of the characters we create. Our characters should not be simplistic or their…
Keep readingRenewal
This picture brings to mind the word renewal. After the barrenness of winter, spring has come. And with it – renewal. Seasons of barrenness often occur in the life of a writer as well. Seasons when we struggle to find the right words. Seasons when there are no words at all. For myself, there was…
Keep readingBeyond the Mysterious Beyond
My children were avid fans of the Land Before Time series when they were younger. As I’m four chapters into writing a sci-fi murder mystery, a line from one of the songs in the series keeps echoing through my mind: Beyond the mysterious beyond. After a writer pens the first sentence of a novel-in-progress, they…
Keep readingLocal Author Fair!
It’s almost time for the North Canton Public Library’s Local Author Fair! If you’re in the area on September 25th, stop at Price Park in North Canton, Ohio, anytime between 11:00-2:00 to check out the many local authors who will have books available from every genre under the sun! I will have historical fiction, tween…
Keep readingA Just Measure Official Release
It’s 1892 in Lancashire, England and William Somerset, the 6th Earl of Devonton, and his sister, Lady Angelica, are about to receive important guests at their ancestral home, Chalkley House. For some unexplainable reason, a sense of foreboding falls over Lady Angelica from the moment their guests arrive. When murder eventually invades Chalkley House, Lady…
Keep readingA Just Measure
Within the next week or two, I’ll be releasing my newest novel – a Victorian-era murder mystery set in Lancashire, England. My oldest son is the one who encouraged me to write it. For the longest time, he’s been telling me I should write a mystery in the tradition of Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers &…
Keep readingStop!
Knowing when to stop is a gift. When to stop eating. When to stop spending. Knowing when to stop saying yes…or no. When to stop participating in an unhealthy situation. When to stop closing ourselves off to love. There is wisdom to stopping in so many situations. The same wisdom about stopping applies to our…
Keep readingA Nose Apart
My new middle-grade children’s book, A Nose Apart, is now available on Amazon! The main character of this story is a tiny and mischievous creature named Boba. Boba loves to eavesdrop on the humans who walk the trails of the nature preserve where she lives, but she ends up getting herself into a world of…
Keep readingStimulus
We just exited 2020, so you may have wondered if I was writing about cash from the government when you saw the title of this post. 🙂 However, I’m thinking about a different kind of stimulus – I’m thinking about the things that supply stimulus to our imaginations. Like this image my husband recently captured…
Keep readingThe Ever-Watching Eyes
I seem to have a theme going with using my husband’s nature pictures with my posts. 🙂 For good reason, I think…he’s an amazing photographer! He captured this image of a Praying Mantis at a beautiful state park near our home. The way it’s looking at the camera seems almost fierce. As if it’s gazing…
Keep readingVibrancy
A few weeks ago, my husband took this exquisite photograph in a flower garden in one of our favorite state parks. The thing that immediately struck me about this image was the vibrancy of the colors. The green, the orange, the yellow, the black. Even the white in the background. All vivid. Vibrant. Gorgeous. It…
Keep readingThe Roots
I ride my bike between 6-8 miles most mornings. And most mornings, I pass this amazing tree on the banks of a stream. The thing I love most about this tree is the root system. The roots stretch out for yards in each direction, supporting and holding up the tree. It moves me every time…
Keep readingThe Red Dress
In The Red Dress, twenty-eight-year-old Arabella Edwards is alone, on furlough, and having random panic attacks for the first time in her life during the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown. To keep herself busy and her mind off everything going on in the world, she decides to clean the attic of her 1845 home. In the attic,…
Keep readingStraight Paths
When we’re writing a novel, we’re leading our readers down a path. In the best case scenario, that path is one that leads to a satisfying conclusion. It can take years to develop the kind of storytelling prowess that doesn’t get bogged down in unimportant details, but is holistic and tightly woven. As we write,…
Keep readingThe Birth of a Book
Last year, I wrote a paragraph for the beginning of a novel. Just a paragraph. I really felt there was “something there” but the story refused to show itself. It remained hidden. And it frustrated me. Then, this pandemic hit. And suddenly, the words that had been so elusive, revealed themselves. I’m currently working on…
Keep readingWe’re All Writers Now
My husband took this photo a few days ago and I posted it on Facebook with the caption…In the midst of crisis…beauty. As you’re all aware, the crisis I was referring to is the Coronavirus pandemic that has literally shut down the entire world. As thousands of people have said by now, these are unprecedented…
Keep readingBack In Time
If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you probably know by now that I love everything about the olden days – the gowns, the manners, the carriages, the homes – it all fascinates me and fills me with a sense of wonder! I love that time when things seemed far simpler and more gentle…
Keep readingDestination
What will my destination look like after I’ve written the final sentence of a new book? Will the ending be anything like I envisioned when I began the book? Have the characters revolted against the carefully formed storyline I created and gone their own way instead of the way I wanted them to go? Will…
Keep readingThe Eye of Imagination
During a recent snow hike, I noticed this small tree bent over by the weight of snow. Without really thinking about it, the thought came to me that this tree resembled a woman bent down with sorrow, grieving an enormous loss. Her pain was unbearable. It was palpable. In that moment, I realized how transformative…
Keep readingPerspective
When you look at this picture, you may think you’re looking at a piece of fabric. In reality, your’e looking at an aerial view of a wheat field after it had been harvested. Pretty amazing, huh? Looking at this picture always makes me think about how wrong our conclusions can be if we’re not looking…
Keep readingIn the Stillness
It snowed overnight where we live. I went out before sunrise to clean snow off the cars, and while I was alone in the darkness, I took this picture of the enormous pine tree on the side of our house. Yes, I still have the Christmas lights on the tree, and yes, I’ll probably leave…
Keep readingStop and Sit Awhile
My husband and I went hiking a while back and came upon this moss-covered log on a pine forest trail. For some unknown reason, it caught my eye, and I spent at least five full minutes gazing at it. Not that I believe in talking trees, but it seemed to have a story to tell…
Keep readingInhale & Exhale
My husband took this picture of the Milky Way last year high on a hilltop in Carrollton, Ohio. When I saw it, it took my breath away. I felt as if I was inhaling something beautiful into my soul. At moments like that, I realize what a gift nature is to a writer. In an…
Keep readingMusic and Manuscript
Music moves our souls. It is transcendent. And it’s a wonderful source of inspiration for writing. When you need to dig deep to write something especially heart-wrenching, a melancholy piece of music can take you to “that place.” If you need to write something inspirational, listening to upbeat, triumphant tunes can provide the perfect words…
Keep readingThe Ones that Touch Us
It’s probably not wise to admit this while I’m trying to sell books, but I’m often embarrassed when I think about my early writing. Reflecting on my first book, I’ve sometimes felt that it isn’t “deep” enough – that because it’s not classic-type literature, it isn’t worthwhile. But watching You’ve Got Mail tonight – a…
Keep readingNostalgia
This picture of our huge pine tree was taken last winter during the holidays. This tree all lit up instantly takes me back to my childhood and the wonder I felt when I got up before anyone else was awake and sat in the dark, staring at the lights on our Christmas tree. Those times…
Keep readingThe Exhilaration of Experience
In April of this year, my husband and I went to Punta Cana with dear friends. During that trip, I went parasailing for the very first time. In this picture, I’m front and center, hands lifted high. Parasailing was one of the most peaceful and yet exhilarating experiences of my life. Floating sixty feet above…
Keep readingWrite What You Want to Read
Write what you want to read. I read that line today on an Instagram post written by a Young Adult author – and it really resonated with me. I love the “olden days.” I love touring historical homes, the floor-length dresses, the manners, the slower pace – I love everything to do with that bygone…
Keep readingBeauty
Beauty. It’s one of the things that draws us to create. Wherever we find beauty – in nature, in music, in art, in writing – it magnetically draws us in and compels us to create so that others may taste the intangible joy we’ve experienced by beholding beauty. Artists create beauty out of a multitude…
Keep readingThe Untold, Told
In October of 2018, my husband and I sat in a restaurant across the street from this idyllic Bed and Breakfast in Bar Harbor, Maine. I fell in love with this ivy-covered home and the lure of its history. My mind instantly raced with questions. Who had lived in the home when it was first…
Keep readingInspiration
Inspiration. We all need it in order to create. We can find inspiration in a person. We can find it in a favorite author. We can find it in a place. One of those places for me is a beautiful cemetery in Canal Fulton, Ohio – the town where I lived from age ten to…
Keep readingKindred Spirits
This charming setting is the the Anne of Green Gables homestead in Prince Edward Island, Canada. After years of dreaming about visiting the land of my fictional kindred spirit, my husband and I finally made it there for our 30th anniversary in October of 2018. It’s hard to put into words exactly what that experience…
Keep readingOtherwise
We can all remember the joy we felt when we read our first book and were wonderfully, magically, transported to a whole new world! Having tasted that joy, writers write so that others can have the extraordinary experience of going to worlds other than their own by merely opening the pages of a book. When…
Keep readingFavorite Characters
Favorite characters. Every writer has a character they’ve created who is special to them. One of my favorites is Celia Petrov from The Boundary. She’s an elderly dynamo who lives life with absolute gusto! She may not be strong on self-awareness, but she’s strong on loyalty, love, compassion, and curiosity about life. She didn’t burn…
Keep readingLocal Author Fair
I hate having my picture taken. Fact. I simply despise it because I’m so unphotogenic. Fact. But I love this picture taken at the North Canton (Ohio) Public Library’s Local Author Fair on September 28th because one of my favorite people in the world is in the picture with me. This aspiring writer/horse-lover was the…
Keep readingThe Boundary
Like Travis Barrett, the main character in The Boundary, I love a good mystery. I decided to set this mystery in a library because libraries are some of my favorite places in the world. The Canal Fulton Public Library in my (second) hometown of Canal Fulton, Ohio was converted from a family home built in…
Keep readingMany Waters
Many Waters is a story close to my heart as several of the settings in the novel are places I’m familiar with. Like Karen Burke, my first job was at Montgomery Ward in Canton, Ohio, and Karen’s family home on Meyers Lake is where my mother-in-law lived for many years. Karen’s predicament in love is…
Keep readingThe Invisible Line
The Invisible Line is set in beautiful Paris, Ohio – a place where I’ve picked blueberries and enjoyed the gorgeous scenery from a friend’s back porch. The main character in The Invisible Line has a painful secret – something many of us carry in this life, feeling we’re beyond hope. The message of this book…
Keep readingNothing Hidden
The opening conflict in Nothing Hidden is similar to a violent altercation I witnessed as a very young child, and I drew from that memory while writing this book. That incident has stayed with me throughout my life – just as the violent episode Mona Krane witnessed impacted the entirety of her life. The unfolding…
Keep readingMystery In Time
Mystery In Time is the second book of the award-winning In Time series. In this adventure, Victoria and Emmeline Hill, and their servants, Lorna James and Stefan Cano, travel from 1902 to 2018 to Emarie’s hometown of Killbuck, Ohio, in order to enlist her help in clearing their father’s name of a crime he did…
Keep readingWritten In Time
Written In Time is the first book of the award-winning In Time series – a time-travel adventure in which twelve-year-old Emarie Gordon is transported to the year 1901 via the portal of an antique Underwood typewriter. In 1901, she meets wealthy sisters, Victoria and Emmeline Hill, and their servants, Lorna James and Stefan Cano. Through…
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