Hey there happy reader!

I hope you’ve had a pleasant holiday week! I’m back from California and very happy to have survived the travel woes that have plagued the airports in the last few weeks. My time on the west coast was beautiful – every day was both sunny and warm. Spring is in full bloom there!

This time, we took a quick trip to Lake Arrowhead. 

The thing I find so interesting about Los Angeles is that you can take a ride out of the city for ninety minutes and be fully immersed in nature.

Of course, I never seem to learn to ask, “how long” when my older son says, “let’s go for a hike.” 

Seven miles uphill is his idea of a short, easy walk. It was a pretty view, but sheesh! I’m going to try and remember this in a few months when the entire family will be hitting the road for a vacation…

And now I’m home for a bit. 

I’m about to send “From Below the Horizon” to my editor (finally!) and I’m excited to hear what she thinks. Of course, it’s your opinion that matters most!

I still have some slots available for beta readers. If you’re interested, contact me at hilari.mpp@gmail.com and I’ll fill you in on the details.

Of course, I’m already thinking about what comes next. This will be a very different publishing experience now that I’m represented by Vinci books. I’m excited to see what their cover concept will be… as soon as I have it, I’ll post it here first!

The end of the journey I’ve been on for the last four (!) years with “From Below the Horizon” is bittersweet. 

I’ve lived with this story and these characters for a long time. The women of this book are meaningful to me; they are very much alive in my mind and probably will be for quite a while.

That’s how this process works… I create people who then take shape and become very real to me. I hear their conversations with one another; I am privy to their thoughts. They don’t just disappear for me on that last page. It takes some time to quiet my mind again.

But I already have the outline for my next book ready and its very different… more to come about that very soon!

For now, I plan to take a little break and enjoy the warmer weather ahead. I have a very long list of books I’d like to read, too. It will be nice to let another author tell me their story!

Hey there happy reader!

I’m here to wish you all a joyous holiday… whatever you celebrate!

I’m taking some time to be with my family – you know – cook, clean repeat! I’ll be back with more book news next week!

Hey there happy reader,

As I’ve mentioned many times in this newsletter, every six weeks or so I spend about ten days in Los Angeles visiting our son, daughter-in-law, and oldest grandson.

I do love it when I’m there – I enjoy being the one to pick up our grandson from pre-school at the end of his day and the wide smile he gives me on my arrival, lazy breakfasts with my family and fun dinners.

But getting there from New York? That’s become another story.

On a good day, it’s a bit of a hassle to get from point A to point B in the airport. 

New York’s JFK is big, and somehow my gate is always the furthest point from the security checkpoint. I get my steps in, that’s for sure. But at a time when a partial government shutdown has basically crippled an already fragile system, it’s chaos.

Without getting political, I think we can all agree that the TSA workers are being unfairly punished. 

I don’t have to travel, I choose to travel, but they are showing up for work every day without a paycheck at the end of the week. These people are not the 1%. They live paycheck to paycheck, and this is wholly unfair.

I’ve written to my senators and congressmen, letting them know that I believe that they can do better and come up with a solution to this mess. And let’s be honest. The politicians get paid whether they end this crisis or not…

All of this leads me to where I got the original idea for “From Below the Horizon.” (Stick with me. This TED Talk takes a minute!) 

My husband and I made a side trip to England in 2022, after our older son and daughter-in-law’s wedding in France. On a whim, we went to Stonehenge for the day. I was so taken by the female energy I felt there that the basis for the story was born.

I theorized that there was a chance that the population living on Salisbury Plain, the people who put the stones in place, were led by a group of strong women. No one knows the truth, because the history of that civilization has been erased. Without a written account (these events pre-date the Rosetta Stone or any other formal recorded language) we might never know, and that’s why fiction can make this so interesting.

A writer (like me) can imagine what might have happened and spin a story around whatever she thinks transpired.

But I’ve also been influenced by current events. In the last four years I have been increasingly disappointed by the people we’ve elected to run this country. The men in charge are doing a lousy job – in my opinion – and I think that if women were at the helm, we wouldn’t be in this mess! I mean, we outnumber the male population, we’re smarter (who organizes your household?) we’re tougher (do you think a man could birth a ten-pound baby?) and we would think twice before sending our sons into battle. So why do we let the patriarchy have its way with us? I’m over it!!!

So, in response, in my new novel, I’ve created a world ruled by smart women.

They know the threat that the men pose to their society and are determined not to allow the male population to dominate them. They find a way to live in a matriarchy, and when you read this book, I hope you’ll find them as interesting as I did.

Last August, The New York Times ran a feature piece about a group of women in Texas who decided to retire together. They formed a community called “The Bird’s Nest.” They built tiny houses, pooled their shared skills, and came up with a way to happily live out their lives surrounded by supportive and interesting women. Since women generally outlive their husbands, it’s a way to maintain companionship—with a side of mahjong, canasta, sewing circles, book talks, and communal meals.

Sounds like a little slice of heaven to me… what do you think?