In the first post in this 3-part series, I wrote about why I chose to begin doing research into the life of Rose Wilder Lane. In this post, I’ll continue the story. When I first learned about Rose, back in the early 1970s, I had no idea that, years later, I would write a novel […]
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This post was originally published at HerStories, a Story Circle Network blog (June 10, 2013). I’m reprinting it here (slightly revised) at the request of friends and fans who watched the recent American Masters program on Laura Ingalls Wilder and were disappointed (as I was) in its scant depiction of Rose’s life and the role she […]
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The Kindle edition of the latest Dahlias mystery is now available for preorder! The paperback edition will be available next week, the library hardcover edition will be published next spring, and the audio will be announced soon. It’s 1935 in little Darling, Alabama. The town has a new radio station, Voodoo Lil has a little […]
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We’re having a Book Giveaway to celebrate the upcoming publication of The Darling Dahlias and the Voodoo Lily–coming later this month. Win these four signed hardcovers for yourself or for gifting. Quick-and-easy entry–simply comment below, telling us what you like best about the Dahlias. Continental U.S. only, please. One entry per person. Comments close on […]
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The second Pecan Springs novella trilogy is coming out this week! Available right now on Kindle, it will shortly be available on Nook and iBooks. Here’s the scoop, via my author’s note at the beginning of the book. If you’re looking for an entertaining (and, I hope, thought-provoking) read, this might suit you. Enjoy, with […]
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Last week was the 75th anniversary of V-E Day, the day when Nazi Germany formally surrendered to the Allies. It reminded me of a telling pair of photographs that I dug up when I was doing the research for one of my favorite writing projects: a biographical novel called […]
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This enchanting 1957 cat-memoir by May Sarton may be the grandmother of the current litter of cat-cozies, a fact that may or may not endear it to you, depending on how you feel about cats and cozies. I ran across it on my shelf last week and sat down with it immediately, remembering the great […]
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When In Cold Blood was published in 1965, Truman Capote’s book was a landmark, widely promoted as a factually true account of the 1959 murder of the Clutter family in a small town in Kansas, and of the investigation, the trial and appeals, and the execution of the two convicted killers. Capote (with his longtime friend […]
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My experience of Shirley Jackson began with her two memoirs, Life Among the Savages (1952) and Raising Demons (1957), both genuinely funny, crisp, and captivating. I discovered them in the early 1960s, when I was a young mom with small children, learning how to write and wanting a career as a writer. In those books, […]
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One of the most fascinating mysteries in American literature is the mystery of Harper Lee’s single masterpiece, To Kill a Mockingbird–especially after Go Set a Watchman was published and we realized that there really were no masterpieces tucked away in Lee’s bank vault. Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee, by Casey Cep, […]
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