I had a fun discussion with some girlfriends earlier this week about movie soundtracks, and our favorite movies. No surprise that mine are almost all historicals, complete with sweeping soundtracks, lots of fiddle music, often with a Celtic strain. It's the music that...

Instead of having to track down various websites or book resources that give lists of what this or that item was worth in the late 18th century when I find myself needing to insert such historical tidbits into a scene, I'm proposing to start my own list here on the...

I've had a crash course on stays this week, between my friend Carla Gade's posts on Dressing a Colonial Lady, and the blog and emails of the Colonial Lady herself, Mary Spencer. If you'd like to tell between stays and corsets, check out Mary's informative and...

I seem to need pretty high stakes to make a lifestyle changing resolution and stick to it. Take exercise for instance. I want to feel good and look my best, but that wasn't enough to get me exercising regularly in my twenties. Then I had cancer at 30, which was cured,...

Not long ago I was talking to a friend about finding a single word to define where you are in life, or that describes what you feel the Lord is working out in your soul, or expresses a goal you have for yourself for this (still relatively new) year. She shared hers...

The summer after high school I worked in the graphic art department of the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. It was an internship position I earned on the strength of an essay, (ironically, because I was far more interested in becoming an...

How is a novel born? What's the first step? Get ten writers in a room and probably each will have a slightly different answer to that question. Since I'm in the very early stages of story-weaving Jesse, working title for my up-next novel, here's my answer: It all...

Thought I would share a few things I'm looking forward to in the coming days, weeks, and months. On the writing front, I'm looking forward to printing The Quiet in the Land in hard copy and reading it for the first time ever, straight through. I'll print it on Sunday...

My brother called on my birthday and during the conversation asked me what was my favorite part of writing a novel. That's hard to pin down, because when something goes perfectly right at any stage of the process, then of course that's my favorite part. But one thing...