10 authorial confessions 1. There are times that I have sat and watched words which I am typing appear on the screen in front of my eyes… and not recognized…Continue readingThe Possessed Author
More than a decade after my most popular book, ‘The Secrets of Jin-shei’, was published, it keeps cropping up here and there – sometimes in a new form (an ebook…Continue readingWhen a Novel Came to Tea
In the beginning, the author created… When I first began writing historical fantasy, I was inspired by times and places rooted in our own familiar world – but leavened…Continue readingHow to build a world
Excerpt from1st chapter of Random, Book 1 of The Were Chronicles In ‘The Were Chronicles’, shapeshifting Weres and normal humans live in an uneasy alliance. The Weres are officially tolerated…Continue readingRandom Werewolf
Photo by Hisu Lee at Unsplash.com In fiction and in life A life is made of moments. It is stitched together from the things you remember most vividly — the…Continue readingThe Moment
PHOTO by Filip Mroz at Unsplash If you walk into any bookstore you will find things shelved and classified according to rigorous criteria. Cookbooks, hither, not to be confused with…Continue readingA back door into magic
Hard cover of U.S. HarperCollins edition An ebook version of “The Secrets of Jin-shei”, a historical fantasy that I wrote in a white heat in 2002, was released this year…Continue readingThe “Blessed Book”
What is fiction for? Why on earth do we read fiction? One of my husband’s favorite “writer” stories concerns an author with a very Southern mother whom he called to…Continue readingLying for a living
I’m going to a writers’ retreat in a rustic and charming place on the shores of Lake Quinault in Washington. It’s March. The light is that earnest bright shade of…Continue readingThe writer and the storyteller
Lovereading.co.uk once wrote that they love epic books with swathes of characters creating a wonderfully complex plot, but asked rather plaintively: “Sometimes is it all too much?” They produced a…Continue readingToo many characters?