I’ve done all the work to build settings that show how I think the countryside around Antietam Creek looked in 1862. I researched the Battle of Antietam, battlefield nurses and medicine (only enough; I’m squeamish). I’ve considered the clothes people wore then, the foods they ate, the names of the roads and churches and when the trains ran.

And, most importantly, I’ve created characters I love and thrown all the disasters, mishaps and misery at them I could handle. And then I threw a little more. Sure I spent a fortune in tissues (I cry a lot when I write.) But I think it was worth it so I could develop a deeply felt, emotionally intense, historically accurate picture of people that didn’t ever exist.

Oh but how they have become part of my life — and I hope they’ll become part of my readers’ lives.

And that has led me to the next level of creativity. How do I make sure the people who will love DIVIDED LOYALTIES find it?

This card is the first step. Basic, simple, important info. I got 500 of them to hand out every time someone asks — and even if they don’t! — “When is your book coming out?” “What’s it called?” “Where can I get it?”

(BTW — That’s not the official cover. It’s the work of a local artist, Megan Tilghman, young and very talented. She even made me an animated version.)