I’m just back from a river cruise!
I’m still heavily researching my new Victorian Edinburgh series–the School of Malcolms. If you want to see what I’ve been doing, pop over to the Word Wench blog. Here’s a link to my post on Victorian train travel and another on knives and swords. And if you use a computer keyboard, you might want to … Read more
As I grow older and realize life is growing shorter, I give in to my impulses far more often than I should. Of course, when I was young, I was poor and didn’t have the money or time to buy that pretty pillow or the stack of books on Mayan history. I was forced to … Read more
I believe I’ve mentioned once or twice that I am an introvert. I sit at my desk the better part of the day, writing what’s in my head, oblivious to the outside world. To avoid disappearing entirely inside my head, I have learned to go out and meet readers at conferences or book signings, and … Read more
I am spinning wheels on the current Unexpected Magic work in process, which means I’m diving deep into research mode, looking for a way out of the corner I’ve written myself into. Having started my career by driving librarians crazy with inter-library loans attempting to dig out esoteric information, I am always amazed by the … Read more
Above all, it’s the characters in this series who keep me endlessly fascinated. Ana, the eldest sibling who once ran away from responsibility, is now learning to deal with her large family, their fortune, and the mysterious spy inhabiting her attic. She might not actually appreciate the duty, but with the help of the rest of her family, Mallard the Butler, and Graham, spy extraordinaire, she’s managing to keep up with them!
My romances often reflect issues I grapple with personally. But because the books are upbeat and often humorous, the issues aren’t immediately obvious. Sure, my blind marquess in THEORY OF MAGIC has anger issues. He’s disabled in a society that considers disability a matter of shame. His heroine (and quite frequently, his family) point out that as a marquess, he’s fortunate in a society that walks over the poor and helpless, but in 1830, wealthy white privilege is a matter of fact, not social commentary.
Still, I tried to show the very human tendency to judge others on the basis of appearances or hearsay, without any evidence to prove that opinion right or wrong. I’m as guilty as anyone. I scorn books with poorly written blurbs or bad covers, assuming the writing will be equally unprofessional. I am a literary snot. I know this, but it’s an easy way of dismissing the barrage of information crossing my computer screen.
An old argument, currently revived and raging around the internet, is the one where some people insist authors cannot write about any ethnicity/race/religion/sex but their own—which pretty much leaves the entire library to white male writers since there are far more of them than anyone else. Yes, I agree that a strong female/African/Muslim point-of-view character … Read more
I know readers seldom think about a writer’s thought process when creating a book, but since that’s what I do all day, that’s what is on my mind most of the time. So pardon me for occasionally wandering off on mental writer acrobatics. 
I am currently drafting the latest genius mystery. These are told in first person from my main protagonist, and third person from whichever of her family has a point of view in the story.
The first of my excerpts for Magic in the Stars have been going out, and I’m receiving a deluge of lovely mail pointing out that my hero doesn’t know the name of his own dog. Well, people have been a little politer than that. What can I say? When I write, names change. It just … Read more
