Hey there happy reader,

Well, it may not be officially autumn yet, but the two signs that we’re moving in that direction are apparent. First, the leaves are falling, so that means that it’s time to close the pool!

And in New York City, children are starting school today! 

It’s always been the tradition here to start classes after Labor Day. Whenever I hear of kids returning mid-August, I always think that they’re getting cheated out of their summer vacation. I know that other states end school by early June and we close at the end of that month, but if I was a kid and the sun was blazing outside, I don’t think I’d be able to concentrate at my desk!

Anyway, it is a pet peeve of mine when I see a car going around a stopped school bus with its lights flashing. Let’s remember to slow down and let those young people cross the street safely. It only takes a minute of your time and it’s well worth the effort!

On to other news… I’ve started a Substack column. 

It’s the place I read the current thoughts of some of my favorite authors, so I’ve decided to join in the fun.

The material will be different than what I post here. You’ve still got the inside track to all my news and current events in this newsletter. My Substack is an opportunity for more reflective writing.

I plan to talk about my journey from being self-published to now having a publisher, the differences, and the trials and the challenges of each. I hope you’ll follow along and subscribe.

Here’s the link to the first one to get you started:

I think that by next week, I should have the cover art for “From Below the Horizon” to share with you. 

Vinci sent me the first version, which I sent back for some serious changes. They sent a second version, which I tweaked some more. I am confident that the next image I see will be perfect. Once it is, I’ll post it here first!

Finally, I was watching the Today show and saw a piece about a woman who has a travelling bookshop! 

It’s called The Fleuria, and it looks awesome. Stephanie Pao is the owner, and she drives around Southern California in an Airstream filled with romance novels. What a concept! I’m in LA so often… I think I’m going to reach out and see if I can do an event with her! I’ll let you know if that happens…

For today, I’m just going to buckle down and write! 

That Brooklyn Bridge series is calling me and I’ve got to get my protagonists out of the mess they’ve created for themselves.

Hey there happy reader!

Is time accelerating for you as quickly as it seems to be for me? Here it is, Labor Day weekend, and I feel like my chore list has grown exponentially.

While summer is the time for laying back and enjoying the warmth of the outdoors, autumn always signals a return to preparing for the long winter ahead.

There’s so much to do in the yard – clean up the remnants of the garden, plant some mums and winter cabbage, cover the lounge chairs, put away the umbrellas and close the pool… and that’s all before the leaves fall and the raking begins!

Then, of course, I must carefully deck the house with Halloween decorations…

I absolutely love this time of year, though, so I’m not complaining. Well, just a bit. I mean, it is a lot of work, lol!

And, of course, I’m busy writing. My work-in-progress, “The 48 Hour Rule” has morphed itself into a series – “The Brooklyn Bridge Books” – and I’m busy constructing my “book bible” as we speak.

What’s a “book bible?” Good question!

It’s a comprehensive and organized document that highlights the different characters names, features, plot points and resolutions so that every story is intertwined and makes sense. It would be terrible to start a series without one because it’s easy to forget a character’s eye color, for example, from one book to the next. And while I’m sure my readers would find any mistake I might make, I’d rather not err in the first place. A good book bible will keep you honest, that’s for sure!

Besides writing, I’ve compiled a fall reading list. It’s long!

So much good fiction is coming our way, starting with this title, which I’ve already pre-ordered! 

A woman whose life seems to be falling apart re-reads some of the books written by an author who was her favorite when she was much younger. 

She begins to imagine what it would be like to have this writer be her friend. Ann Pachett said this book is “a tender and hilarious novel about heartbreak and the journey from isolation and loneliness towards love.” I can’t wait to read it – and I LOVE the cover!

But just in case you need a fun read to tuck into your bag for one more beach day…

My publisher, Vinci Books, is offering this hockey enemies-to-lovers romance for FREE! 

It’s a parting gift of summer, just for you!

Hey there happy reader,

There’s hot, and then there’s inferno-like heat. That’s the situation in Los Angeles right now… it’s blistering outside, making the simplest of errands feel impossible. Just walking across the supermarket parking lot feels like a trek across a desert at noon! I’m happy to be back in my native New York City humidity, and that’s saying a lot.

(me, melting in the heat!)

That kind of weather doesn’t help the creative process, either. 

All I could think about during my visit with the family were glasses of cold water and air-conditioned spaces!

It was our grandson’s last week off before his second year of nursery school began, so we limited ourselves to inside activities. Thank goodness for the Los Angeles Science Center and Kidspace. The exhibits kept him busy and offered refuge from the blazing hot sun outside.

I do hope that my next trip there in October will be cooler, but who knows? I mean, global warming is a thing, right??

Let me answer that last question. 

It is a thing… before heading to Los Angeles, we spent a weekend in Cle Elum, Washington, about ninety minutes outside of Seattle at a wedding celebration. While cooler there, the air was filled with wildfire smoke.

The dry conditions caused by a drought ignited forest fires and we were constantly shuttled inside and then out again, putting the scheduled outdoor ceremony at risk.

Just as the wedding party prepared to walk down the aisle, a sudden rain shower washed enough of the smoke away for the nuptials to be held outdoors.

Everyone was thrilled – it was a real life “happily ever after.”

As for me, I’m back at work in my home office, and am oh so happy to be here for a bit. I’m hoping to get a huge chunk of my work in progress, “The 48 Hour Rule,” finished before I hit the road again this fall.

My next trip includes a visit in London with my publisher, Vinci Books. More about that as we get closer to that exciting adventure…

Hey there happy reader!

Well, we’re in it now. The dog days of summer. And if you’re like me, it’s the worst time of year.

I hate the heat and humidity that August brings. 

It’s like I’m stepping into a sauna as soon as I leave my garage. The sun is too hot, too bright, and not appealing; even a trip to the beach feels like a chore.

I end up sitting inside in the air conditioning behind my computer screen, cooking up story ideas, novels, and dreaming about pumpkin spice lattes!

Oh wait! That’s not a bad thing!

On one particularly hot day last week, as I was hard at work on my new novel, “The 48 Hour Rule,” a frosty beverage in hand, wearing my skimpiest summer dress, I had an “aha” moment.

This book wasn’t a standalone after all.

It was the first book in a new series!

Welcome to “The Brooklyn Bridge” series!

If you recall, the first book is about Brianna and Jack. After a fateful meeting in a coffeeshop one morning, their romance blossoms and they are well on their way to a happily ever after.

But wait! Jack has two roommates.

One is his stunt double who loves a challenge. His rival stunt actor is a woman who believes that she can do any trick he can, but better! As they try to outdo one another, a spark is ignited that cannot be ignored.

The other is a fellow actor who is filming a movie where he portrays a single dad. When he meets the child playing his baby, he falls for the little boy’s mother. She’s widowed and trying to survive raising an infant on her own. That book is up next!

Interested? I hope so!

I truly never expected to write another romance series, but this idea just won’t leave me alone. 

I’ll keep you posted on my progress as I navigate another book bible and this series’ intermingled characters. Fun times ahead!

I’m off next week to attend a wedding on the west coast, so there won’t be a newsletter. But once I’m back home, I’ll fill you in on all the ins and outs of writing a series. It’s not for the weak at heart…

Hey there happy reader!

I am so lucky to have one of the writers who I met on my trip to Guatemala stopping in New York to visit with me on her way to Kenya…

We’re spending some time catching up on each other’s lives and I’m helping her learn how to upload a manuscript to Amazon. 

I spent ten years as an indie writer, so I’m well versed in this process. While it seems daunting at first – choosing royalty rates and securing foreign rights – it’s really straight forward.

But what’s changed since I began my publishing journey is that today, Amazon asks this all-important question: “Was AI used in the creation of this manuscript?”

If the answer is yes, you need to check a box. 

If you check that box, Amazon will put a disclaimer on your copyright page disclosing this information. And don’t try to get around it because Amazon’s AI bots read every upload and spit out work that they think is questionable. Big brother is definitely watching…

Currently, an “author” is allowed to publish up to ten AI generated manuscripts PER DAY! 

And I’m not referring to writers that use ChatGPT or Claude to do research. I’m talking about having the computer WRITE THE DAMN BOOK!!! Ugh.

These AI generated books are crowding the marketplace. 

And they’re making it impossible for new authors to get a literary agent or have their work read by a traditional publisher.

I can promise you that I will never allow AI to tell my stories. I would rather stumble over every word before I enter a tag line and have my computer write the book for me. What fun is that, anyway??

I’ll get off my soapbox now… but thanks for letting me rant for a bit. 

I think I’ll head into my office and get back to my work-in-progress, “The 48 Hour Rule.” At least within those pages I can control most of what happens next…

Hey there happy reader!

I’m taking a break from writing another research-heavy historical novel and instead am working on a contemporary romance set right now in New York City.

Instead of spending hours in the library (yup, that’s right. I’m old-school that way!) I’m using a bit of a different process to create this work. I’m lucky enough to live near the setting of this novel, so I’m putting myself right in the middle of it all…

My new book, “The Forty-Eight Hour Rule,” takes place in trendy Brooklyn Heights. 

In case you’re not familiar with the neighborhood, it sits on the East River and has a lovely promenade where on a nice day, you’ll find tons of people outdoors taking a stroll.

This tony neighborhood is filled with coffee houses, high-end boutiques, and townhouses, many of them now divided into apartments.

While it is expensive to live there, its proximity to lower Manhattan makes it highly desirable for those who work in the financial district, a short subway ride away.

(My character’s apartment building)

My female protagonist is a speech therapist at a private school there, and she lives close enough to her job to be able to walk to work – an important detail because she is claustrophobic and won’t ride the subway. Her claustrophobia is well-earned, a trait that is revealed over the course of the story, but that’s information for another day…

Right now, to get myself in the proper mindset for writing a book about a thirty-something living and working in this city, I’m using music to help me understand my character.

I listen to these songs in my car or while I’m cooking dinner. It truly helps to put me in the mind of a much younger woman, one who is trying to find her footing in an ever-confusing world.

Interested in listening along? Here it is:

Every writer I know has a process, and that process matters. 

I find that expanding my horizons – whether it’s listening to music or looking at a painting or sculpture, helps to broaden my mind and think differently about what I’m putting on the page.

Sometimes we need to draw our energy from other areas of art; it often ignites the necessary spark that we can then to bring back to our own work.

What do you do to push the limits of your own imagination? Where do you get your creative ideas from? Whatever your outlet – gardening, knitting, or firing up the kiln – how do you put your mind in motion?