I almost got tripped up by tomatoes. When I was creating the world of DIVIDED LOYALTIES, I thought I considered everything. I went through antique photos of clothes and uniforms. I drove through the countryside near Sharpsburg so I knew what Maureen saw as she marched from home to hospital and back. I read an article (thanks…
It was just a kelly green notebook, the kind I used for Math and Social Studies. But inside, day after day, for years, it served as my mother’s diary. Mom documented all kinds of things inside: births, deaths, new jobs, Easter brunch, the day she finished her hand-hooked rug (It took a year and a…
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…
DIVIDED LOYALTIES, my Civil War historical novel is available in paperback and e-book by Black Rose Writing. When war comes, will Maureen side with family or country? I wrote my Civil War novel for my mother and my daughters. I wrote it to honor Clara Barton, a personal heroine and the women with the healing touch. DIVIDED LOYALTIES tells the story…
You have to love a place that puts poetry on the town sea wall. Queenstown, a pretty resort town set on Lake Wakatipu in New Zealand, has a long stone wall that separates a tiny lakeside beach from the Marine Parade. (Isn’t that a great name for a walk beside the water?) The poem chronicling the…
It’s down to the wire for my first book. It’s been read, re-read, critiqued and a couple of editors have given it a quick look. Everyone has their favorite word, one editor told me. Mine is “felt.” So I’ve gone through my 70,000 words, changing or at least thinking about changing every single one of them. Most…
I’m busy editing the manuscript of my Civil War novel. Cutting and pasting, rewriting and rethinking. Oh yes, and occasionally cussing over why I can’t keep things straight in Scrivener. (I’m learning!) So I laughed when I came across this photo from my visit to the Morgan Library in New York last December. When Lord…
Now I know what it feels like to get a book contract. Heady. A thrill up there with winning the lottery or taking an exciting new job. Scary as any step into the unknown. And it came as I spent a day in bed, sick as a dog. About 3 p.m. I felt well enough…
Too many adverbs. Telling instead of showing. POV problem. Huh? I can count on my eagle-eyed group of critique partners to point out my story’s flaws, mistakes and plain bad writing. I got lucky when I signed up for an online critique group. I was ready to let someone else read my story but I never…
Megan half expected the house to look different from the day she went away. Though it had been only a few days, she felt as if things had changed dramatically since she left to look for her brother Ben. Perhaps it was only she that changed. She watched Mrs. Johnson’s carriage drive away before taking a deep breath…
Mary K. Tilghman, writer 