As my Tradewinds series with Mountain Brook Ink draws to a close with the release of Barefoot Memories this month (YAY!), I’ve found myself fighting more than a few waves of nostalgia. I started writing the first book in the series, Porch Swing Girl, when I was barely fifteen years old. Now I’m creeping up…
Themes crop up in stories whether or not the author means to include them. I didn’t set out to write about prejudice in Montana Gold, but the topic is hard to avoid when writing about the American West. Hills of Nevermore (Montana Gold, book 1) opens the series in 1863, a time of tremendous upheaval.…
Writing my Frasier Island series was a labor of love. My father served in the US Navy during World War II, and researching these books put me in touch with several people knowledgeable about the Navy. The whole experience gave me a much deeper appreciation of our military and of my father’s generation, who sacrificed…
Recently I was driving in my car, my thoughts careening all over the place (only my thoughts, not my vehicle), when I suddenly realized I had tightened my grip on the steering wheel and my stress level had gone way up. I gradually became aware that music I hadn’t even been paying attention to was…
By Vickie McDonough The holidays are mostly over, except for putting away decorations, finishing up all that food we cooked, and saying goodbye to some lingering relatives. Soon we’ll be trying to lose the weight we gained over the holidays and working to pay off all those presents we bought. The holidays sure can be…
Heroes on horseback, derring-do, and deeds of honor. The Middle Ages appeal to my love of romance. Oh wait—were you thinking I meant the Wild West? The two eras share a lot of similarities. Medieval people lived near castles the same way western settlers made their homes close to forts. You could hardly blame them.…
Here in New England, autumn was beautiful. The mild temperatures and the rainfall throughout the year meant that the leaves changed slowly and stuck around a lot longer than usual. They were especially vibrant, too. Today though, it’s twenty degrees Fahrenheit, and I wonder where the autumn weather went. I just transplanted a shrub last…
[Sara Davison] What I Learned Selling my Books in a Bar
As soon as we walked into the room, we knew we were wasting our time. A friend of mine and I had been invited to have a book table at an event in our city. Neither of us knew much about what the event actually was, but since it was late November and they were…
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