Preparing Easter at The Three Coins Inn for early reviews
So exciting … I am writing my first series! I’ve decided to turn my début novel, Three Coins, into a series. In Easter at The Three Coins Inn, I’ve picked up the story four years after my story left off – to follow my three unlikely friends, Emma, Tiffany and Annarita, after they cemented a…
Read MoreEscaping the heat in the mountains of Abruzzo
After a fairly mild spring and summer, the heat has set in in Rome. So I was happy my younger son suggested a weekend escape to our favorite mountain hideaway, and we left for a weeekend in Ovindoli in Italy’s Abruzzo region. It’s an easy hour and a half trip from Rome, but its slower…
Read MoreNew collection of short stories of Daring Women – benefiting a great cause
On 8 June for Women’s Fiction Day, I joined twenty-two women’s fiction and historical fiction authors to release our new anthology, Feisty Deeds: Historical Fictions of Daring Women. Aside from the excitement of a book launch, this project is even more special to us because all proceeds go to fund the Women’s Fiction Writers Association…
Read MoreWroclaw, Poland from up on high
The first thing I do whenever I visit any city new to me is discover the highest point so that I can ascend it and see the views from on high. In a modern Americam city, that will be a skyscraper. In European centers, that will generally be a medieval belltower. So when my husband…
Read MoreTwo new book awards for my short story collection!
So incredibly excited to receive two new book awards for my short story collection, Drink Wine and Be Beautiful. I recently learned that my collection won both the 2024 American Legacy Book Award, Finalist – Short Stories and the Next Generation Indie Book Awards 2024, Finalist. This means that my short story collection has now…
Read MoreBack to Ohio’s Amish Country
I went for the first time to Ohio’s Amish country back in 2020, when I was bringing my oldest son to college nearby. Four years later, this May, I was with my husband and younger son for my older son’s graduation. They had never been to Amish country and wanted to see it. So as…
Read MoreMy April 2024 reads
April brought another fabulous – and varied – month month in books. I started the month off with a classic author, Elizabeth Gaskell, a friend and contemporary of Charles Dickens, who published her novels serially in his literary magazines. I had never read her novella of the Salem Witch Trials and enjoyed this interesting recounting…
Read MoreNew BookFest Award for Rome’s Last Noble Palace!
So pleased that my latest novel, Rome’s Last Noble Palace, has just won its sixth literary award! I am very pleased that my dual timeline novel won Third Place in the BookFest 2024 Award in the Women’s Fiction – Historical Fiction category. I had so much fun writing this dual timeline novel (1890s and…
Read MoreBack to those Prague cafés and restaurants
I was recently back in Prague for a couple of days, and took the opportunity to return to a few of my favorite cafés – and discovered some new restaurants serving Czech favorites. Obecni dum café in Starometska (Old Town) was one of my old hangouts, back when it was all dark, with red velvet…
Read MoreBeach reading season 2024 officially begins!
I had a lovely mid-week day off last week and decided to take a hop down to seaside Sperlonga. I love visiting this pretty beach town. Heck, much of my first novel, Three Coins, was set here. In that novel, three women meet and become unlikely friends when they are all in Sperlonga off-season. Some…
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