Hey there happy reader,

I’m back from a week in sunny Los Angeles, where thankfully, the air quality is back to normal “smog” terrible. The horrible fires in January left behind a large swath of devastation. Entire neighborhoods have been erased, but the rains that followed did wash away much of the smoke and ash. It was wonderful to be outside in the warm sunshine to celebrate our oldest grandson’s second birthday!

Sometimes I just marvel at a toddler’s capacity for imagination, sparked by a few simple toys. 

He was fascinated by this gift of a play set of pots and pans, mimicking the motions he’s seen both his parents use when making breakfast. We spent many happy hours “cooking” eggs and pancakes in his room!

We had so much fun pretending that I was inspired to bake with him, so we made challah together. 

He had such a blast mixing up the flour and eggs, then kneading the dough. Plus, he was thrilled with the result. Bonus? He ate it, which if you know anything about toddlers — they love a food for a day and the next day they refuse to eat it!

If you have a young child who would enjoy baking with you, the picture book “Challah Day” by Charlotte Offsay is a perfect gift. 

It offers beautiful illustrations of a family baking together and then enjoying the fruits of their labor. It has a recipe for challah in the back so you can try it for yourself. It’s a delicious activity, especially when you turn day old challah into French Toast!

Once I returned home, I was happily surprised to find that the weather was warm, and the sun was out. 

I know it’s just nature’s way of teasing me – it will get cold again. But for today, I took a long walk to enjoy the reprieve. Now I’m headed back to my desk and my work-in-progress, “The Stones.” I promise a fuller report on that and my preparation for my trip to Guatemala and Joyce Maynard’s writer’s intensive workshop next time.

Hey there happy reader!

I’ve been a busy author! I’ve spent a ton of time at my desk, working on my new historical novel. For some reason, it took a lot of time for me to get into the groove of this book. Despite that I had basically outlined the entire thing in my mind, getting started took a minute. I was stumped by the lack of a title for the longest time. But I decided that the simple approach was best, so, I’m calling it “The Stones.”

You would think that a book title about an iconic monument would come to mind easily. 

This one didn’t, until I stepped back and stripped it down to the most basic concept — the stone circle itself is a major character in the story and those massive boulders needed to be acknowledged. Sometimes the most obvious thoughts are the ones that don’t surface until you least expect them to!

And…bonus! 

Here’s a very rough excerpt from the opening pages:

Miriam slowly opened one eye and then the other, narrowing them and squinting in the direction of the lone window of her bedroom. A seam of light separated night from day at the horizon. She knew that it was early, but once she was awake, there was never the chance that she’d fall back to sleep. At least last evening she’d been spared the bizarre dreams she’d been experiencing for months, shadowy figures crossing great expanses of open fields, seemingly searching for something she couldn’t place. She slowly turned her cheek against the scratchy pillowcase, waiting to feel that familiar ache at the base of her skull. Thankfully, it wasn’t there today. At least not yet. Her migraines were unpredictable. While she had some warning before one struck, she never understood what caused them in the first place.

She slowly shifted into a sitting position, reminding herself that this single bed in her sparse dorm room didn’t leave much space for movement. She longed for the day when she’d finally have her own apartment, but as a graduate fellow living off a sparse grant, that wouldn’t be anytime soon. She was doing important research and had made some headway toward her dissertation, but she was not yet close to being financially independent. Sometimes she wondered if she’d ever get there. It seemed that all her college roommates were well on their way, their careers firmly established, some of them married and living in elegant doorman buildings with polished marble-floored lobbies, their furniture lavishly purchased at Restoration Hardware and Pottery Barn. Those leather ottomans and linen sectional couches were a faraway dream, or so it seemed to Miriam. She was immersed in an ancient world, a place full of so many more questions than answers that she often felt like Sisyphus, constantly pushing a boulder uphill with no end in sight.

The research she did was never ending. Every time Miriam felt like she was just about to breakthrough and uncover the one missing piece that would snap the puzzle into place, she hit a wall. She had postponed her dissertation argument twice now. Her mentor and chair of the dissertation committee, Dr. Matthias Solomon had told her plainly that without meeting her current deadline date, Miriam would no longer be a PhD candidate at Columbia University. They had given her all the leeway possible, there were no more extensions to be had. The pressure she felt was enormous, and the debilitating headaches she suffered as a byproduct did not help.

Standing now on shaky feet, Miriam thought about the place she was researching — Stonehenge. She had been mesmerized by the ancient structure when she had studied abroad as an undergrad and had based her entire academic career on the theory that the massive monument on Salisbury Plain was engineered by women. What she couldn’t figure out yet, but what she was trying to uncover, was why these women seemed to be erased from the history of the place. She’d been back countless times and was about to head off to England again, this time to Oxford, for a look at some of the documents in their extensive library. She had applied to offer a seminar on her findings to date in exchange for room and board for a semester, and luckily, she had been granted that request. She had to find the key as her final dissertation defense date was set and now was only six months away. The clock was ticking, and Miriam still had more questions than answers…

This novel is told from two points of view. 

Miriam lives in the present day and Maya lives at Stonehenge. Both women share a common bond and even though they don’t know one another, their lives will mesh. It’s one-part magical realism, one-part historical fact and a little bit of suspense all rolled into one fascinating story! I’ll share more of it as time goes on, but for now, I hope I left you wanting more!

Hey there happy reader,

Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, and for a romance writer that’s like the Superbowl and New Year’s Eve all rolled into one very sweet holiday! Did you know that in the week leading up to this day of love, Americans will consume fifty-eight million pounds of chocolate?!?!?

While most of us celebrate with flowers and candy hearts, the actual day was meant as a tribute to St. Valentine of Terni. 

In the late 5^th century, Pope Gelasius declared February 14^th as a day of remembrance for this man who secretly married men and women after Emperor Claudius banned these unions, wanting to keep his soldiers dedicated to him instead. It wasn’t until the 14^th century when the holiday became associated with romantic love.

Then, in 1861 Richard Cadbury, the son of the founder of the British chocolate company of the same name, created heart-shaped boxes of their confections, decorated with Cupids and rosebuds, popular symbols of romance to this very day.

And before you could say, “will you be my valentine?” a celebration was born!

For many, Valentine’s Day is just another Hallmark holiday. 

For some, it becomes a target date to become engaged or to get married. In recent years, “Galentine’s Day” has been celebrated as a way for women to spend some time with their bestie. Whatever you do or however you celebrate, just know that it’s the perfect day to indulge in something decadent… I for one always opt for dark chocolate and a glass of very good Pinot Noir!

This Valentine’s Day I plan to be deeply immersed in writing. I am down the rabbit hole of my latest work in progress, my Stonehenge novel. I’m at the point where that’s all I can think about. My characters are keeping me busy, even as I sleep. I keep hearing them tell me their stories. Now it’s my job to write it all down!

Hey there happy reader!

I don’t know about you, but I’m struggling through my third head cold of this winter season! The weather has been so wonky – one day warm, the next day frigid – it’s hard to get a handle on what to wear and how to prepare yourself to go outside. Earlier this week I woke to a snowstorm, only to have the temperature reach close to sixty degrees by mid-afternoon. Sheesh!

I have been inside working on my current novel (still no title. UGH) about Stonehenge. 

Here’s what I can share… 

There are two female protagonists, one living in the present day and one living at Stonehenge right before it was abandoned by the people who built it. My present-day heroine is researching the historical site, first at Columbia University where she is a graduate student, and then at Cambridge University in England. My past-day heroine is the leader of the people of Stonehenge. She knows that their task is complete – the stones are in place – and that her job is done. The question is what she plans to do next…

Both women are linked by a common ailment. They both suffer from migraines and they both use homeopathic remedies to alleviate their symptoms.

Some migraine sufferers have claimed to be able to see auras, and that’s an important detail for this story. 

My heroine in the past does see auras of different colors and uses those auras to help her make important decisions about the true motivations of the people around her. My present-day heroine sees them as well; they signal the appearance of the bizarre dreams she has when a migraine is forming in her head. Sometimes she thinks that she can see into the past, but can she? Or is her research influencing her life in a way that blurs the line between reality and these strange, headache induced nightmares?

As I’ve mentioned before, this book is my first novel to employ a bit of magical realism, a literary technique I’ve long admired but never attempted to write before this.

I continue to enjoy the challenge of dipping my toes into uncharted waters. I find it both a creative experiment and a stretch of my own imagination… I can only hope you enjoy it once you have this book in your hands!

This is the work-in-progress that I will take with me to Joyce Maynard’s Writer’s Intensive Workshop at the end of March at the real Bird Hotel in Guatemala. I can’t wait to have the chance to share my rough draft with other authors and get their feedback. It’s both nerve-wracking and exciting at the same time…

As for my current reading list, the above are just some of the titles I’ve read repeatedly in the past two weeks. 

My California family will be heading home to LA soon, but we’ve had so much fun for the time they’ve been with us. While the circumstance was scary, we’re all hoping that the rebuilding process can begin shortly and that things will go back to being “normal” once more.