There are worse things than creating a character that some readers don’t like, which is what I did in my first novel, A FALSE DAWN. Now I love my character, Louise, but she doesn’t ask for help from anyone else, nor does she offer much help to others. She’s...

The old world becomes new. Working on volumes two and three of my series which started with A FALSE DAWN submerges me in creating a new world out of lives that took place in the mid-1700s. What a wonderful way to spend my time, while (like everyone else I...

This election season, I’m doing something I’ve never done before: writing postcards endorsing candidates for the Pennsylvania legislature, all of them women. Maybe that’s a coincidence, but these women represent the subjects I care about most: better healthcare, fairer treatment for everyone, and controlling the gun madness. I wish...

Last month, the women of Philadelphia staged a big celebration for the 100th anniversary of winning the right to vote. Of course, they had to stage it online. I wish I could have been there to cheer them on. More than ever, women are making a difference. So many...

Today, a colleague was giving me feedback on my first novel, which she had just finishing reading for the second time. I had to explain things to her that she didn’t understand – and did not like – about my main character, Louise. After two readings, there were major...

It’s happened before, but this was the first time I really noticed it. One of the pretty ladies in a TV commercial smiled at the camera – smiled at me – and I smiled back. Like we knew each other. Like she was my friend. The stay at home...

When I lecture on women in Colonial America, I use the word “Indian” more than 100 times in the first 45 minutes. I don’t say “Native American” because, frankly, the word Indian rolls off my tongue much easier. Sometimes I’m corrected for not using the more up-to-date term by...

When Jeanine Cummins wrote the novel, American Dirt, she wrote a brief epilog about her reasons for writing the book, trying to explain how she could take on the task of writing about a Mexican family trying to smuggle themselves across the border into the US, when Cummin herself...

There are times when I beat myself up about my first novel. Many people really enjoyed it, but few people remembered any details about the story when I talked to them weeks or months later. Perhaps it’s too much to expect of people who probably read one book after...

I never paid much attention to short stories until I started writing them. Admittedly, that’s not a good way to start. I’m taking characters from my second novel, SUNRISING (due to be published next year) and creating new story lines for these characters with short pieces that I hope...