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Why the Jersey Shore? Why Seaside?

I’m super excited to welcome today’s guest blogger — Gayle Roper! Gayle is one of my really-long-time writing buddies and one of my mentors, both in writing and in directing writers’ conferences. Gayle has a new book out and we’re celebrating with a story behind the story and a book giveaway. Please welcome Gayle!   WHY THE JERSEY SHORE? WHY SEASIDE? As I …

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Secrets of a Charmed Life

Meet Susan Meissner! Susan is a multi-published author of seventeen books, including . . . Her book, A Fall of Marigolds, was named to Booklist’s Top Ten Women’s Fiction titles for 2014. Her story, The Shape of Mercy, was named one of the 100 Best Novels in 2008 by Publishers Weekly. She’s a speaker and writing workshop leader with a …

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Story Building and Book Giveaway

I’m excited to have bestselling author Lauraine Snelling with us today. How does a story present itself to an author? Where do the ideas come from? You may Lauraine Snelling for her historical fiction, in particular, her Norwegian immigrant series. Here, Lauraine shares the story building process for her new contemporary novel, Heaven Sent Rain. And she’s giving away a copy!

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St. Charles: Full Circle

How does an Arizona author end up setting her newest works of Historical Fiction in Missouri? Saint Charles, Missouri, to be exact? Enter . . . a children’s book illustrator named Chris Sharp.

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Civil War Stars Block Pattern

I’ve said it before and I’m sure I’ll say it again, but story research is so much fun! Visiting a story setting, yes. But so is the nose-in-books research, which is what led me to The CIVIL WAR Sewing Circle by Kathleen Tracy. Better than a candy story for someone with a sweet tooth, Kathy’s book is full of quilts, …

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Doc Susie & Book Giveaway

You never know who you might meet in Cripple Creek, Colorado! While I was in Cripple Creek in August to participate in the Gold Camp Days and Western Literature Festival, I made Wyatt Earp’s acquaintance through a program presented by his grandson, Wyatt Earp. Then during a book signing at the Cripple Creek District Museum, I met Doc Susie, played by Hedy Boyce. …

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Reading with a Map and Making an Itinerary

Charles and Clara Tanner are headed to Cripple Creek, Colorado, this month to visit the landmarks mentioned in my Sinclair Sisters of Cripple Creek Series. Sweet fans of my fiction, the couple gave me permission to share excerpts from their notes to me. December 2012 Dear Mrs. Hodgson, What a blessing the four books on the Sinclair sisters have been to myself and …

Prairie Song – In Search of a Promised Land

  What would drive people from the familiar into the unknown? What would cause men to venture into a harsh wilderness, leaving their families behind? Or uprooting them? For the Israelites, it was captivity in Egypt and the hope of freedom in a Promised Land that drove them from the prison they’d known for generations. In the early 1840s, emigrants …

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Prairie Song Campfire Supper

Boney’s turn to cook supper. A fact that has the Boone’s Lick Wagon Train Company captain, Garrett Cowlishaw, and the other four trail hands sticking close to camp. All the wagons are set in their curved line, the livestock graze hobbled in the meadow, and the company’s children haul buckets of water up from the creek. Men are greasing wheels …

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Wagon Train Overlanders Speak

Since I write women’s historical fiction, it makes sense that I’d want to hear from women and men from the time and period in which I’m setting my stories. For my Hearts Seeking Home Series, I turned to the diaries and journals of folks who had made the trek west by covered wagon. The grammar, spelling, and punctuation remains authentic, as …