My childhood was shaped by an eerie scene of cattails alongside a road that were beating, in the rising wind, a tattoo like ghostly hoofbeats upon a dark and lonely road. I’ve loved Disney’s The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949), an animated adaptation narrated by Bing Crosby, from the moment I first watched …
Beware the Headless Horseman! — Sleepy Hollow Country in NY State Read More »
Crisp fresh air, the colours and scents of autumn, funky small towns and eateries you wouldn’t discover any other way – it’s hard to beat a fall road trip for an all-encompassing travel adventure. Post-pandemic, there’s not much planning required for a road trip – decide the general area, throw some clothes in a …
Apparently “liminal spaces” are having a moment. I’ve been aware of them for a long time after reading a lot of Celtic mythology. The ancient Celts believed that there were many liminal places, thought of as ‘thin’ spaces, where the veil between worlds was fragile and we could sometimes get in touch with those …
These days there’s a label for everything. Our society seems unable to function unless it’s categorized a trend and given it a designation. I suspect there are people quietly living their own way without knowing that their lifestyle falls under a certain ‘aesthetic’. The poor fools 😉 What’s most interesting to me is our …
Are you ‘Dark Academia’, Neo-Victorian, or even Cottagecore at heart? Read More »
While I love doing research online for historical authenticity — let’s face it, I could get lost for hours — there’s nothing to beat actually visiting a historic site to give a writer all the fine nuances of life on a grand estate. To that end, hubby and I spend some time at the locally-famous …
Just a couple of quick tidbits this week. I’ve resumed work on Book 3, which is very exciting. Book 2 has been edited and should be ready for publication this fall, so all new readers of Through the Monster-glass won’t have too long a wait for what happened after the stunning climax. The first edition …
My launch party was a mixture of greatness and controlled chaos. I’ll explain that. I’ve done a lot of event planning in my time, and had every detail worked out, on a substantial spreadsheet — or so I thought. Actually, all my planning went…well, as planned 😉 Where I lost some control was in the …
Where did criminals, blackmailers, jilted or illicit lovers post their coded messages in Victorian England? Why, in the Agony Column, aka Personal Ads, of the venerable The Times newspaper. Without any censorship or disclosure of the identity of the ad-placer, and widely read by everyone, including the Queen, the column was ripe for intrigue from …
A quick post to share a terrific opportunity for anyone interested in writing a book. Reedsy is an online organization that offers editing, designing and other services for authors, but they also have a fabulous blog with an enormous amount of information for writers at any stage of their journey, as well as excellent free …
I’m doing this week’s post a day early because I’m sharing a time-sensitive deal for anyone who might want to try their hand at writing a Romance novel: a bundle of tools, resources and training by The Romance Writer’s Super Stack that expires 11:59pm PST tomorrow, April 11th. The package is one heck of …
