On this Father’s Day, I look back and remember my dad, who was a prince among men. Tall, handsome and smart, he didn’t make his mark on the masses, but…
A Prince Among Men
I Once Had A Farm in Ireland
My mother’s family were farmers, so when I heard about Siggy Buckley’s blog tour about her book on organic farming, I Once Had A Farm In Ireland, I wanted to hop…
Are Pulitzer Prize Winning Novels For Everyone?
I recently read All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, Pulitzer prize winner 2015. Though his book wasn’t a page turner, I didn’t want to stop reading once I’d…
Putting Spice In Your Brand
What kind of writer are you? Do you have a series with a protagonist that shows up in every book you write? Do you write in the same genre? Do…
Finding Graham Greene And The Mob In A Havana Hotel
The Hotel Mercure Sevilla, where we recently stayed in 2015, is where Hemingway wrote some of Farewell To Arms, but it’s also known as the place Graham Greene chose to write…
What’s A Time-Slip Novel?
The other day, I was asked on Goodreads’ Ask An Author, “Where did you get the designation “time slip? I’ve not seen that before.” I was reminded that I hadn’t…
Hemingway In Cuba
After two weeks in Havana, I have many stories about Ernest Hemingway in Cuba. There are tours to all of the Nobel prize-winning author’s haunts: the bars that he frequented,…
Pushing Boundaries
For writers and artists, pushing boundaries is a natural act. As creative spirits, we want to test how far we can go. Look at how the book Fifty Shades of Grey changed the publishing…
20 Genders And More, Really?
This morning—while taking a break from writing a novelette, one that shows sex in the 50s—a letter to the editor in a recent Maclean’s magazine caught my attention. The writer mentioned that…
What’s So Special About St. Patrick’s Day?
Ah, I love the Irish. I toured Ireland with my husband, Robert, in 2009 to visit my first cousins, who, prior to that, I hadn’t met. I fell in love…