Category: novel

The Thrill of Discovery, The Agony of the Fact

I decided to write a historical novel because I wanted to get completely out of my day-to-day life and contemporary everything—terrorism, the failure of capitalism, modern marriage, childhood and adolescence, politics, racism, climate change, you name it. Did I have…

A Pantser Turned Plotter

I took a research trip in mid-September. The trip itself was amazing. I spent time with archival information. I saw photos of the woman whom I’m modeling my protagonist after. I felt my main character in that room with me….

Working Through Research Anxiety

On almost every night around 9:30, you will find me enthusiastically darting up and down the street in front of my house, treat bag wrapped around my waist, my dog Zephyr at my side, wearing the human equivalent of noise…

Your Research is Showing

Everyone has to do research from time to time. When one reader exclaimed of my early sprawling draft, set in the 1930s and ‘40s: “You sure know a lot about a lot!” I did not take it as a compliment….