Yesterday I spent several hours waiting around awkwardly in my own home as an installer worked to replace two windows. One side of my big office window cracked and discolored months ago and it has been no fun trying to look out of it, especially as it often fogs up. This is the window right in front of my desk, so I see it for many hours a day. It’s been like wearing a pair of glasses with a lens … [Read more...]

I have posted in years past about the pleasures of visiting one of my favorite groups of women, the Tantalizing Ladies Tea book club. (These are the women I fictionalized as the “Ladies Tea and Knitting Society” in my Tales From Ivy Hill series.) But in the stressful, isolating year of 2020, this recent visit was even sweeter, especially because author-friends Michelle Griep and Erica Vetsch … [Read more...]

I always think it's fun to get a behind-the-scenes look at how book covers are created, and hopefully you do, too. Here are a few photos taken by my Managing Editor, Raela, during the photoshoot for An Ivy Hill Christmas. Enjoy! I hope you enjoyed seeing these few photos, and I especially hope you will enjoy the stand-alone novella, An Ivy Hill Christmas. Available now! … [Read more...]

Hear that? That's the collective sound of many people turning over a new leaf—myself included. Some people think of January as the time for change and resolutions, but for me this year, it's autumn. Labor Day has passed, the symbolic end of summer, and the temperatures are cool and crisp (at least here in Minnesota). The new school year has started (although it looks different this year … [Read more...]

When our local library reopened recently, my husband brought home a book he thought I’d like, called Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey. It’s an interesting collection of the daily routines of over 150 writers, composers, painters and scientists. Was my husband hinting that I would benefit from a more orderly routine? If so, he is no doubt right. I did not read the book cover … [Read more...]