
Writing historical fiction: sometime journal of a New York City novelist
Autumn is slowly coming to New York City!
September 24, 2011

Central Park will look like this towards the end of October or early November. Imagine walking through those leaves!
Oh joy! autumn and spring are my favorite times here. I will get a chance to see autumn outside the city too with my several readings in Long Island, New Jersey and one in the gorgeous Berkshires at the Clark Museum! The other day, my older son and I walked over the Brooklyn Read More
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Hurricanes and revisions!
August 28, 2011

pre-hurricane clouds hover over lower Manhattan
I have been rushing forward with great inspiration on revisions for the new novel over the past several days but I am afraid the hurricane coming towards NYC somewhat diverted my attention this weekend! It was the tremendous feeling of not knowing what would come. Last night I went out briefly hoping to get Read More
back from an extraordinary trip to Italy!
July 4, 2011

Giotto's Kiss of Judas from the Scrovegni Chapel in Padova
I have been away at an extraordinary trip to Italy, traveling with the West Village Chorale who joined forces with a 60-voice children's choir and an orchestra to sing Mozart's REQUIEM in churches in Venice, Verona and at a villa created by Palladio in Vicenza. I made notes and notes for novels and in Read More
a few thoughts about how I write
June 2, 2011
A dear friend, the writer Susan Dormady Eisenberg, was asking me about my particular techniques of novel writing and I hadn't thought about it much so decided to post it here.
I never pre-plot. I start with a character or two I can love and a place and time which interests me. Read More
I never pre-plot. I start with a character or two I can love and a place and time which interests me. Read More
a book club appearance and a walk in the park
May 27, 2011

I am the one in Monet blue surrounded by the book club members!
I have had several readings of CLAUDE & CAMILLE with my powerpoint presentation lately, and last night I met with a book club in a French cafe in Pleasantville. What a lovely group of people!
Others news from the book front is that people tell me they see the novel in bookstores everywhere, including airports, Read More
Others news from the book front is that people tell me they see the novel in bookstores everywhere, including airports, Read More
A guest blog from my friend Laurel Corona about FINDING EMILIE.
April 26, 2011

Normally novelists struggle to find people to write blurbs for the back covers of their books but when I heard through the grapevine about Laurel's first novel, I e-mailed her agent and said, "I must read this novel and blurb it!" And so here we are a few years later and Laurel is my Read More
The Fiction Writers' Co-Op
March 10, 2011

I simply must introduce you to this marvelous group of 51 novelists who have banded together to help each other with every kind of writing and publicity challenge. We came together by invitation of the gifted Cathy Buchanan (The Day the Falls Stood Still). The link to a list of some of the writers' novels Read More
being still and writing well
February 13, 2011

I realized again today how much stillness I need if I am to write well. I miss my warm weather walks down to the Hudson River. I tend to be the sort of person who would like to use every hour productively. I lie down on the sofa and then remember who I didn't Read More
my writing schedule
January 17, 2011
I am inspired to write this by a post on the Girlfriends Book Club where 18 writers tell how they write. Link is left!
I generally am asleep by midnight (trying not to think of all the things Read More
I generally am asleep by midnight (trying not to think of all the things Read More
A beautiful Christmas memory - Langstaff's Christmas Revels
December 16, 2010
We put on Christmas cds to prepare for some holiday guests and the music and words of the original Christmas Revels burst into the room, filling my heart with such memories! Perhaps twenty years ago when I was revising and trying to find a publisher for my first book, the Elizabethan NICHOLAS COOKE, I Read More