I will always remember 2019 as the year of Angie Thomas and her young adult novels. I started the year reading THE HATE U GIVE and scooped up ON THE COME UP late in the summer. I cherished the strong teen-aged voices of Star and Bri. My heart broke for Star when her friend was gunned…
A Christmas short story By Mary K. Tilghman Pyotr Ilyich, the nutcracker The family had barely walked away, their decorating finished when two angels put down their instruments and looked at one another. And boy were they angry. On the other hand, the snowman, a big round ball of a being dressed most inappropriately…
E. Elizabeth Watson has shared on her blog a long wonderful list of holiday reads, everything from my little book, Love Letters & Gingerbread, to her Scottish romance Christmas Wore Plaid to a collection of Hanukkah stories. Lots are historical fiction, including those rugged Scots and the always popular Regency. But there are contemporary romances,…
Yesterday I was fortunate enough to read Edgar Allan Poe’s “MS. Found in a Bottle,” a short story he wrote while living in the West Baltimore house. It’s said this story of a storm-tossed ship launched Mr. Poe’s career as a weaver of strange and eerie tales. Much more frightening was opening my own work…
With National Novel Writing Month over, I’m emerging from my writing cave for two really fun events in December—besides the Christmas holidays, of course. First up, Sunday, Dec. 8, at 2 p.m., I am the featured reader at the Poe House and Museum‘s monthly Authors Series. I will be reading from Mr. Poe’s “MS. Found…
By now, National Novel Writing Month fans, you should have written 32,000 words on your latest romance/thriller/mystery/memoir/adult-fiction/YA/historical. Right. Did life get in the way for you too? It definitely did for me. First came the house issues. Then we had to celebrate my son’s engagement to the most wonderful young woman in the world. Phew.…
This weekend, Nov. 1-3, booklovers will gather at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor to snatch up some new books and book-related stuff and—my favorite part—to see and listen to lots of authors writing lots of great books. The Baltimore Book Festival has become my home in the past few years. Cancel everything! I have to hang with my…
