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…
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…
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…
This summer I’ve gobbled up so many beautiful books: Here’s a list, probably not complete, though these have had a profound effect on me as a human being and as a writer. ON THE COME UP, by Angie Thomas. I listened to this one, just as I listened to her audiobook of THE HATE U…
Divided Loyalties, my Civil War-era saga of an Irish teen who volunteers to serve the men wounded after the Battle of Antietam, will be officially re-released in paperback July 1 with a brand new cover. I am delighted to introduce it now. It is very different from the original cover, darker but softer, I think.…
I have joined the most awesome group of writers. We’ve formed a Facebook page, Off the Beaten Path Historical Stories, designed for readers so we can share what we’re writing, researching, studying and reading. And so we can get to know those people we love almost as much as our own family. Our readers. We are…
