When you read the history about how people changed their lives, very little ever seemed to happen overnight. Women struggling for freedom have had to fight for decades, if not centuries, to get the changes they wanted in law and behavior. But change does come. The vested interests, those...

Abigail Adams’ famous letter to her husband, John Adams, in 1776 contained this memorable line: “Remember the ladies.” She wanted to make sure the Declaration of Independence he was working on that year accounted for the liberty of all Americans, not just men. But does anyone remember the FIRST...

This fall, I’ll be hitting the road again to speak at libraries to promote my lovely leading lady, Louise (pictured here) in A FALSE DAWN, my first novel. I’ll be speaking about FRONTIER FEMINISTS, three real-life women of the 1700s who inspired me to write a novel. While I...

Do you know what one of the best businesses for women was in early America? The fur business. Acting as middlemen, the French and the English had to work closely with the Indians who actually hunted the furs, so good interpersonal skills were required. Plus, the middlemen were often...

A good book makes history come alive, don’t you think? I was leery about reading Barkskins. It’s 700 pages about the northeast U.S. timber industry before and after the American Revolution. Hardly sounded like spell-binding stuff, but it was! I could not put this book down. Wonderful writing, great...

2020 will be a huge year for women’s history, especially in my home town, Philadelphia. The celebrations are tied to the 100 anniversary of American women gaining the right to vote. There will be museum exhibitions, conferences with professional women and student leaders from around the U.S., and a...

Recently, a friend called me to say how much she enjoyed my first novel, A FALSE DAWN. Her praise and enthusiasm for the book lit up my insides like a furnace, and really made my day. I wish I got more calls like that. Don’t we all? And I...

I just gave what is probably the last speech on a topic that’s been dear to my heart since I began writing historical novels. But that day, I didn’t particularly want to give it. “The French in America” describes why the French came here in the early 1600s, what...

I get asked a lot, “We did you write a novel with a woman as the main character? What makes you an expert on women?” It’s not as if I can write from personal experience, being a guy. One reason is that Louise, my character, really spoke to me....

I’ve mentioned before that any man or woman worth following in a novel has to have (1) character and (2) a conscience. My character shown here, Louise, needed something else as well: commitment. She started my novel as a pampered and protected young woman who, within the first several...