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...]

A huge part of a writer’s job is to create word pictures. We try to describe a room or a house or a village in such vivid detail that readers can see them, too. We transport you there, so you can smell the dirty socks in the bedroom or the aroma of bread baking inside the house; you’re tempted to sneeze as you inhale the dirt on the dusty village street. Whenever I research a story I take plenty … [Read more...]

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...]