Reading at the Glen Ellyn Bistro Monet in front of a Monet print with Susan of the bistro. Brunch was great!

Reading at Kris Waldherr's Art & Words Gallery in Brooklyn

In the Irish West Country -- photo by Fiona Claire

Writing historical fiction: sometime journal of a New York City novelist

from a hot New York City and active novelist!

July 17, 2010

It's been so long since I wrote here! It's hard to believe that I was in Glen Ellyn outside Chicago just four weeks ago! I am intensely working on my new novel and have been wonderfully surprised by the many e-mails from readers and book clubs about CLAUDE & CAMILLE. Our writers' group which formed (more…)

my magical trip to the Glen Ellyn, Chicago book festival!

June 20, 2010

I am back from a very quick two day trip to Glen Ellyn where I talked about CLAUDE & CAMILLE at a booksigning/lunch at the charming Bistro Monet. What better place? The walls were filled with reproductions of Claude's work. It was one of the loveliest book events of my writing life. Go to (more…)

book tour, blogs, and holes in socks

June 10, 2010

It's official. I have to spend my time taking care of the outer me. My author reading clothes are lovely, but when I finally went to get new sandals again today (I had to admit that mine were incredibly worn down), I noticed the pathetic holes in my socks.If someone took a picture (more…)

the book blogger's reception in New York City

May 27, 2010

And how wonderful to meet ten lovely bloggers who all reviewed CLAUDE & CAMILLE and hosted my guest posts! I also met the congenial Margie from JustBooks in Glen Ellyn outside Chicago who is hosting me in a reading at the BistroMonet there on June 19th.

The gathering of perhaps 75-100 people was held in (more…)

the joys of writer friends!!

May 18, 2010

I had a lovely dinner at a local French restaurant with my historical novelist friend Susanne Dunlap and then a few days ago had dinner with writer Pam Leggett and Madeleine L'Engle's granddaughter Lena Roy who has her first book coming out. I don't know what I would do without all my writer friends, (more…)

a windy, clear New York day

May 8, 2010

I walked down to the park and the wind was tossing the trees and snapping the flags; there was a huge sound of wind. Behind the Memorial at 89th street the Hudson Guild Shakespeare players were practicing again with a very intense, compelling actress with spiked hair shouting against the wind. Now that the (more…)

Three weeks after my novel's debut

April 28, 2010

It is STILL strange to get so many comments (almost all of them perfectly wonderful) to this novel which was a story inside me for so long. I have had several strong press reviews and online reviews, topped by the rave in the Boston Globe and People magazine's choice of the book as a (more…)

The Albany Empire State Book Festival and the amazing blog tour so far

April 12, 2010

I spent two days at the Albany Empire State Book Festival where five thousand writers, librarians and book lovers gathered. Amazingly, they had a panel on historical fiction in which I was able to participate, struggling through a rather heavy head cold which descended on me as I arrived by train in Albany and (more…)

debut reading at NYC B&N and first online reviews

April 8, 2010

The debut reading for CLAUDE & CAMILLE was more than I could ever have hoped. We had nearly a hundred people with many standing in the back. One person bought six or seven copies! I saw so many beloved old friends there and afterward a few of us went out to eat. I was starving; I (more…)

thoughts on the eve of the publication of my new novel

April 6, 2010

I have spent the evening going to dinner with my husband and have been e-mailing friends in a kind of daze. I think only another writer can know the time and intensity it can take to bring a novel together. It is an enormous force of will, thousands of hours, incredible support from many (more…)

HISTORICAL NOVELS

CLAUDE AND CAMILLE
the love story of the young, unknown Claude Monet and his muse Camille Doncieux
MARRYING MOZART
Four lovely, musical sisters and one suitor -- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
NICHOLAS COOKE and THE PHYSICIAN OF LONDON
The first two novels of a trilogy about a brilliant Elizabethan man who was an actor, physician and priest
THE PLAYERS: A NOVEL OF THE YOUNG SHAKESPEARE
the passionate love story between Shakespeare, his patron and Emilia Bassano -- based on the sonnets