When I was growing up, I often explored the land around where I lived, usually on horseback. I would pack some snacks or a lunch and go out riding through the pine woods and along the white sandy roads. Sadly, many of those woods and wild places are gone, but thankfully not all of them. …
As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, Inspirations and Interesting Tidbits, a great deal of inspiration for the land around Ashwood town came from my own memories. I grew up walking down sandy roads and exploring the woods around where I lived, usually on horseback. A lot of those places are long gone …
It has been a while since I posted one of my fairytales and this one has been brewing in the back of my mind for a while. When my daughter and I were visiting a botanical garden, we saw the most beautiful fish. The pictures just don’t do it justice! It was the palest gold …
Unlike many gas lamp fantasies, my upcoming novel Where the Angels Dream is not set in Victorian London or New York or some other similarly industrious city (or sometimes the fantasy equivalent of them). No, for Ashwood town and the land around it, my inspiration came from places a little closer to home. I grew …
Happy Halloween! It should come as no surprise to you that when I started my current WIP “Where the Angels Dream” I fell down a LOT of rabbit holes. The story, set sometime in the late 1890s, is about Devon and Sara Amaris, a brother and sister with a strong affinity for the dead. There …
Yep, cheese! Or more accurately, how to make it. When I was writing The Broken Court there was a sentence, this sentence actually… Some of what was left, she set near the hearth with the plans that she would make cheese with it. which sent me off into an hour-plus long search on making cheese. …
As many of you already know, I have a deep fondness for classic fairytales. That fondness extends to their illustrations as well. The bold pen and ink drawings, the intricate block prints, for me, they are part of what makes those classic tales so compelling. When I saw fellow author and artist Anne Nydam’s block …
Excerpt from The Broken Court, book 2 in the fantasy series Stolen Away. This scene is very much a nod to a book I read and loved as a young girl, “A Net To Catch The Wind” by Margaret Greaves. It was a library book, and I wanted to own a copy so much. Of …
I often sketch or doodle on what ever piece of paper happens to be handy. My muse must like the rhythmic scratching of my pencil because it has helped me get past many a writing block. I thought it would be fun to share some of those sketches with you along with an excerpt or …
This post certainly falls into the random thoughts category! I was going through pictures, looking for ones I can put into a calendar for this upcoming year; however, the pictures that seemed to keep grabbing my attention were the ones of food. Ummmm, food! One thing all of us share in one way or another, …
Idyll Dreams & Nonsensical Things 