If you know me at all, you know that I am a fan of Jane Austen. I have been ever since I fell in love with Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy in the 1995 BBC/A&E adaptation of Pride & Prejudice.Seeing it led me to re-read Jane Austen’s books and in turn, to set my novels in the Regency period.    So it should come as little surprise that I would be interested in something called an Austen … [Read more...]

Does it ever amaze you how quickly and painlessly we take pictures these days?  Not that long ago it took fragile glass plates, tons of chemicals, and patience and courage galore just to capture one single photograph. I wrote about that painstaking process in From a Distance. And sometimes, when I’m snapping away with my phone, capturing pic after pic after pic with hardly a breath much less … [Read more...]

Don’t you hate it when the batteries go dead on devices you rely on like cell phones and laptops and tablets? But when we use them incessantly without taking time to plug them in, they eventually run down and stop working. After a year of hard work, I just completed another novel, and I have to admit that my creative batteries are dead. Totally dry. Used up. It’s time to take a break from writing … [Read more...]