Earlier this summer I reached a significant (cough, cough) birthday and was able to realize my dream of going on a river cruise to celebrate. Today I thought I'd share just a few photos with you. We went on Avalon Waterways and traveled through Hungary, Slovakia, and Austria, ending in Germany. We took walking tours of historic places like Budapest and Vienna, and enjoyed views of the … [Read more...]

I recently shared about my experience participating in a book festival in Hungary. (You can read about it here.) During that same trip to Europe, I also had the opportunity to participate in one more book event. This one took place in Bratislava, Slovakia. Martin, the publisher who produces my books in the Slovak language arranged an event at a large bookstore. As authors, we never have … [Read more...]

A few weeks ago, I had the novel experience of participating in a Book Festival in Budapest, Hungary. There, I met readers like Dalma, signed books, took photos, and listened to heartwarming stories (with some translating help). I also met members of the Hungarian publishing team. When I first started writing, I never imagined having readers (and a publishing team) in another … [Read more...]

Become a published author is my lifelong dream come true. I have written stories from a young age and, if I'm honest, wanted the pleasure of seeing something I wrote on a library shelf or in a bookstore. But over the years I've realized there are far greater pleasures and blessings on this writing journey. Here are just five of them, in no particular order: Friendships with readers: Whether … [Read more...]

This past weekend, I attended another interesting talk hosted by the Jane Austen Society of North American (Minnesota chapter). For this month's meeting, we met in a dressmaking studio in St. Paul. The topic: The Art of Regency-Inspired Dressmaking: Tips and Tricks from a London-Trained Dressmaker. Our speaker was master seamstress, Colleen Kahn. Colleen talked about dress design and how (and … [Read more...]