Friends enrich our lives, plain and simple. Whatever journey we’re on, it’s better with friends. Friends who mourn when we mourn, rejoice when we rejoice. Friends who want to hear the whole story. Friends who come alongside and make things easier. The journey into publishing is no different—it’s better with friends. I’ve made bunches of […]
Believe me, I was ecstatic when I first saw the cover of The Pursuit of Lucy Banning. Even before that, when the art director at my publisher sent me a photo of the dress they proposed to to put on Lucy. Gorgeous. I cannot tell you how many remarks I’ve heard about that dress! Everybody […]
Today begins a summer Wednesday series from writers I’ve had the privilege of meeting in cyberland. Nine writers will tell us what no longer scares them (but must have at one time). Welcome Erin McPherson, author of The Christian Mama’s Guide to Having a Baby. She has several more books in the works. When I […]
Last week my brother posted on Facebook that he thought he had been in the Banning ’hood. That made me smile. The setting for my story The Pursuit of Lucy Banning is a real place! Three years ago about this time, I was in Chicago and saw Prairie Avenue for the first time. The Glessner […]
A person can only have so many books in the house, depending of course on the house and how many other people you have to make room for. Eventually, there comes a time when you have to pull a book off the shelf and consider whether it’s time to send it off to its next […]
Here are some more old items from around my house courtesy of my husband’s family. What stories spring to your mind? When my daughter was little, I used to regale her with a continuing saga every night. I suppose many writers do this with their kids. Ordinary items in her bedroom became plot complications before […]
A decade ago I was an in-house editor at a publishing house. Deadlines were unrelenting and unforgiving. Because of the nature of the market we served, the product HAD to go out the door on time. Not three weeks late. Not three days late. We moved projects between editors and designers in brown paper bags […]
Four days till Christmas. Are you rrrready? I’ve mentioned before that I had a terrific research partner while I was writing the stories for the Avenue of Dreams series. Stephen Reginald is a docent for the Glessner House Museum on Prairie Avenue in Chicago. The museum does an elaborate rendering of Christmas at the Glessner […]
“I want to be an author for my career.” Mind you, I’d only met this nine-year-old boy a few minutes earlier and he had no idea what I do. But we shared an aspiration, and he was the proverbial breath of fresh air for me that evening. He just loves books so much that he […]
Have we always been fascinated with the lifestyles of the rich? I have no doubt that people with wealth can use it for the good of others. Sometimes, though, I swallow hard at the public choices people with a LOT of money make. How much money did Kim Kardashian’s wedding cost for a marriage that […]
