Inspired by Life ... and Fiction

Novelists bound by the pen, sisterhood, & more

Cooking up Fiction

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I love to cook. Or more rightly, bake. So as I'm writing my novels—especially the Southern ones—it's a natural thing for my heroines or secondary characters to be cooking up some scrumptious entrees and desserts. Here are just a few: Click each of the images for the recipe Ever had Buttermilk Pie?  This is a recipe that's been in my family for years. I bet you I've made this pie at least … [Read more...]

Loose Threads

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Thanks to the ladies of Northside Baptist Church in Murfreesboro, TN for inviting me to speak this past Saturday morning and for giving me such a warm welcome. What a fabulous group! One of the ladies, Lynn Bolles Drewry, grew up in Fayetteville, TN and went to high school with my sweet dad (Lynn and I figured this out a few months ago when she attended a book signing at the Belmont … [Read more...]

Finding Inspiration | Guest blogger Laura Frantz

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Nothing like a summer ride up into the woods and mountains of Washington State. Here's my dear friend, Linda, and I preparing to go. Since my next hero is a horseman, among other things, I'm rehearsing the role, so to speak :) The woods were so cool despite the 80 degree day and so lovely with the sunlight filtering through the trees... My favorite summer flower here is the wild rose but the … [Read more...]

Belmont Mansion as Adelicia knew it

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The Belmont Mansion in Nashville, Tennessee, the setting for A Lasting Impression and A Beauty So Rare, is a special place to me. Not only because of its significance in Southern history, but because of the love and care the Belmont Mansion staff and curators continue to give the Italianate summer villa that Joseph and Adelicia Acklen constructed in 1853. Belmont Mansion, Nashville, … [Read more...]

Epitaphs, and having the last word

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I've always loved cemeteries. Their quiet. Their shadows. Their reminder of the brevity of this life. This past Sunday, my Dad, his wife, Esta, and my daughter Kelsey and I visited Georgia National Cemetery in Canton where my mom's earthly body is buried. I know we often say where "so and so is buried" when we refer to someone's grave. But the clearer heaven becomes to me from studying … [Read more...]

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