Novel Settings
Place has a deep effect on people and their lives. In the same way, a region’s landscape, weather, and culture play an important role in shaping fictional characters and plots. A sense of place is what I enjoy most about southern novels – maybe because I’m from New England. To Kill a Mockingbird gets top… Read More
Katharine Britton
Katharine has a Master’s degree in Creative Writing from Dartmouth College. Her screenplay, Goodbye Don’t Mean Gone, was a Moondance Film Festival winner and a finalist in the New England Women in Film and Television contest. Katharine is a member of the League of Vermont Writers and PEN New England. She teaches writing at Colby-Sawyer College, and is an instructor at The Writer’s Center.
When not at her desk, Katharine can often be found in her Norwich garden, waging a non-toxic war against the slugs, snails, deer, woodchucks, chipmunks, moles, voles, and beetles with whom she shares her yard. Katharine's defense consists mainly of hand-wringing, after-the-fact.
This Fragile Life
How Much of Me is in the Story? As a writer, I often get asked how much of my writing is autobiographical. The easy answer is, of course, not much. I write fiction; I make up stories in my head. None of it is real. But there is a more complicated answer, because in another… Read More
Kate Hewitt
Kate was born in Pennsylvania, went to college in Vermont, and has spent summers in the Canadian wilderness. After several years as a diehard New Yorker, she now lives in the lovely Cotswolds in England with her husband, five young children, and an overly affectionate Golden Retriever.
You can follow her musings on village life at her blog, http://www.acumbrianlife.blogspot.co.uk.
Want to know more about Kate? Read her answers to the most common questions she’s asked here.
Shattered Illusions
My children were in elementary school the first time I stayed in a campground. It was with a group of writers held at a member’s mountain vacation house. My sister and I knew nothing about pitching a tent and as we pulled out the instructions to ours, some of the other attendees told us to… Read More
Candice Poarch
Candice Poarch takes pride in crafting believable stories featuring African-American heroes and heroines. The characters in her books demonstrate a strong sense of community and family support. She firmly believes that everyday life in America (whether small town or major metropolitan city) has its own rich rewards. She also likes telling stories that will leave today’s busy reader feeling refreshed and hopeful—not always an easy task, she says, but well worth the challenge.
Her fourteenth book, BITTERSWEET, (Dafina, July, 2006) deals with the heart, family, extended family and community. "I really enjoyed Bittersweet... romance, comedy, mystery and intrigue...I would definitely recommend Bittersweet as a book club selection." —Karen Monroe, Woman2Woman Book Club member. Candice Poarch’s fifteenth book, SWEET SOUTHERN COMFORT, will be published by Kimani Press in November, 2006.
A native of Stony Creek, a small town in Southern Virginia, Candice Poarch holds a Bachelor of Science degree in physics from Virginia State University. Formerly a computer systems manager, writing is now her full-time career. She is a member of Romance Writers of America, Multicultural Romance Writers, and Washington Romance Writers, where she served as publicity coordinator for three years and worked on market news for two years. Investing is her favorite hobby. She particularly wishes to teach children the value of investing, feeling that children can use these skills to help provide them with financial security and confidence in their adult lives.
Ms. Poarch is married and has three children. She currently lives in Springfield, Virginia.
JUST BREATHE
In JUST BREATHE, Sarah Moon has an alter-ego of sorts in her comic strip heroine, who goes through many of the same trials and tribulations. There’s a little bit of me in Sarah, even though she’s younger, thinner and more naive than I am. That’s the fantasy element coming into play. I live deeply inside the… Read More
Susan Wiggs
Using blunt scissors, pages from a Big Chief tablet, a borrowed stapler and a Number Two pencil, Susan Wiggs self-published her first novel at the age of eight. A Book About Some Bad Kids was based on the true-life adventures of Susan and her siblings, and the first printing of one copy was a complete sell-out.
Due to her brother's extreme reaction to that first prodigious effort, Susan went underground with her craft, entertaining her friends and offending her siblings with anonymously-written stories of virtuous sisters and the brothers who torment them. The first romance she ever read was Shanna by the incomparable Kathleen Woodiwiss, which she devoured while slumped behind a college vector analysis textbook. Armed with degrees from SFA and Harvard, and toting a crate of "keeper" books by Woodiwiss, Roberta Gellis, Laurie McBain, Rosemary Rodgers, Jennifer Blake, Bertrice Small and anything with the words "flaming" and "ecstasy" in the title, she became a math teacher, just to prove to the world that she did have a left brain.
Late one night, she finished the book she was reading and was confronted with a reader's worst nightmare--She was wide awake, and there wasn''t a thing in the house she wanted to read. Figuring this was the universe''s way of taking away her excuses, she picked up a Big Chief tablet and a Number Two pencil, and began writing her novel with the working title, A Book About Some Bad Adults. Actually, that was a bad book about some adults, but Susan persevered, learning her craft the way skydiving is learned--by taking a blind leap and hoping the chute will open.
Her first book was published (without the use of blunt scissors and a stapler) by Zebra in 1987, and since then she has been published by Avon, Tor, HarperCollins, Harlequin, Mira and Warner Books. Unable to completely abandon her beloved teaching profession, Susan is a frequent workshop leader and speaker at writers' conferences, including the Romance Writers of America conference, the PNWA and Maui Writers Conference. She won a RITA award in 1994, and her recent novel The Charm School was voted one of RWA's Favorite Books of the Year. She is the proud recipient of several RT awards, the Peninsula RWA's Blue Boa, the Holt Medallion and the Colorado Award of Excellence.
Susan enjoys many hobbies, including sitting in the hot tub while talking to her mother on the phone, kickboxing, cleaning the can opener, sculpting with butter and growing her hair. She lives on an island in the Pacific Northwest with her husband, Jay, her daughter, Elizabeth, and an Airedale that hasn't been groomed since 1994.
A CHILDHOOD REVISITED
I’ve lived in America for most of my adult life but there are things I still miss about England. I suppose some of this is a longing for a time more than a place. I have happy memories of my childhood, of the innocence of life in the English countryside, off on my bike for… Read More
Rhys Bowen
Rhys Bowen’s mysteries have been nominated for every major mystery award, including the Edgar for best novel, and she has won nine of them. She currently writes the Molly Murphy Mysteries, set in turn-of-the-century New York City and featuring a feisty Irish immigrant woman. In 1997 she began a new, lighter series, this one about a minor royal in 1930s England. The first book was called Her Royal Spyness. It has been described as Bridget Jones meets Charade as told by Nancy Mitford and described in a Booklist starred review as "A smashing romp." The first book has appeared on many bestseller lists and award nomination slates, including the Dilys award for the book that independent booksellers most enjoyed selling. A Royal Pain and Royal Flush are now in stores and Royal Blood comes out this fall.
Rhys was born in Bath, England, of a Welsh/English family, and educated at London University. She worked for the BBC in London, as an announcer then drama studio manager. She sang in folk clubs with luminaries like Simon and Garfunkel and Al Stewart, and also started writing her own radio and TV plays. Needing to escape from the dreary London weather, she accepted an invitation to work for Australian Broadcasting in Sydney. While Down Under she met her future husband John, who was on his way to California. She married and settled in the San Francisco area, where she has lived ever since, raising four children. (Although she now spends her winters in her condo in Arizona.)
Finding nothing like the BBC in California, Rhys started writing children’s books. Her first picture book was named a NY Times best book of the year. More picture books followed, then Rhys moved to young adult novels, writing many best selling titles. She also wrote some adult historical sagas and some TV tie-ins. When she felt she had exhausted her enthusiasm for writing for teenagers, Rhys decided to write what she likes to read: mysteries with a great feel for time and place. Her childhood memories of her Welsh relatives were the inspiration for her first mystery series: the Constable Evans novels. The stories were immediately well received. The second book, Evan Help Us, was called "a jewel of a story" by Publishers Weekly and nominated for a Barry Award. Evan’s Gate received an Edgar Best Novel nomination.
Wanting to try her hand at something different and edgier, Rhys conceived Molly Murphy—brash, fearless Irish immigrant in New York City. The first book in this series, Murphy’s Law, won three awards including the Agatha. Every subsequent book has received starred reviews and award nominations. For the Love of Mike won the Anthony Award at the world mystery convention. Oh Danny Boy won a Macavity. The ninth book, The Last Illusion, will be published in March 2011.
Rhys also enjoys writing short stories and has achieved much critical acclaim for them. Doppelganger won the Anthony award and was included in the world’s finest mystery and crime stories anthology. More recently her story Voodoo was chosen to be part of the anthology of the best of 50 years of Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine.
Rhys is a past national board member of Mystery Writers of America. When not writing she loves to travel, sing, hike, play her Celtic harp, and entertain her grandchildren. She blogs at Jungle Red Writers and Rhys’s Pieces.
This Cuckoo’s Calling “Ka-Ching”
The minute I heard the news report, I knew. The fix was on. You probably did too. Some booksellers have told me they laughed out loud when they heard. Then rubbed their hands together with glee and immediately put in an order for more (or in many cases their first) copies of The Cuckoo’s Calling… Read More
Jaycie Cash
Jaycie Cash is the pseudonym of a woman in the book biz who is proud to have Oklahoma roots. She is currently at work on her second book, THE SPLIT-FAMILY ROBINSON.
EATING THE ELEPHANT
I recently read an article about a woman who’d climbed Mt. Everest. Her mantra before and during this amazing feat: “Eat the elephant one bite at a time.” I didn’t really pay much attention to it at first, at least not until later in the morning when I sat down in front of a blinking… Read More
Karen White
After playing hooky one day in the seventh grade to read Gone With the Wind, Karen White knew she wanted to be a writer—or become Scarlett O'Hara. In spite of these aspirations, Karen pursued a degree in business and graduated cum laude with a BS in Management from Tulane University. Ten years later, after leaving the business world, she fulfilled her dream of becoming a writer and wrote her first book. In the Shadow of the Moon was published in August, 2000. This book was nominated for the prestigious RITA award in 2001 in two separate categories. Her books have since been nominated for numerous national contests including three more RITAs, has twice been a finalist for the SIBA (Southeastern Booksellers Alliance) Fiction Book of the Year, and has twice won the National Readers’ Choice Award for Learning to Breathe and On Folly Beach.
Karen currently writes what she refers to as ‘grit lit’—southern women’s fiction—and has also expanded her horizons into writing a bestselling mystery series set in Charleston, South Carolina. Her sixteenth novel and first hardcover, The Time Between, was published in June 2013 by New American Library, a division of Penguin Publishing Group, and debuted on the New York Times bestseller list at number 25.
Karen hails from a long line of Southerners but spent most of her growing up years in London, England and is a graduate of the American School in London. She currently lives near Atlanta, Georgia with her husband and two children, and a spoiled Havanese dog (who appears in several of her books), Quincy. When not writing, she spends her time reading, scrapbooking, playing piano, and avoiding cooking.
Her seventeenth novel—the fourth book in the Tradd Street series—Return to Tradd Street, was published in January 2014. June 2014 will see the release of her second hardcover, A Long Time Gone, set in the Mississippi Delta, and in July Peguin will publish the anthology Grand Central, a collaboration with nine other authors.
Karen loves hearing from readers. Please email her at [email protected] or write to Karen White, PO Box 623, Roswell, Georgia 30077.
Fan Karen on facebook! www.facebook.com/karenwhiteauthor
Writer’s Block – It Exists!!
For years, I’ve been one of those admittedly annoying writers who denied the existence of true writer’s block. I’ve always gotten tons of ideas for books and stories and my “quick tip” for conquering writer’s block was just to apply some BICFOK (Butt In Chair, Fingers On Keyboard) since writer’s block was essentially just a… Read More
Michelle Rowen
Michelle Rowen has sold sixteen novels in paranormal romance, urban fantasy, futuristic romantic suspense, and young adult fantasy. She has been on the Waldenbooks/Borders Group romance bestsellers list and was the winner of the 2007 Holt Medallion for Best First Book. Michelle lives in southern Ontario and is the 2010 President of the Toronto Romance Writers. Please feel free to contact her at [email protected]. She loves hearing from readers!
Lydia’s Hope
Do you have a sister? If so, you know that despite quarrels, envy, frustration, and all the other negative emotions that siblings can arouse so easily, a sister is still a treasure. Your sister is the person with whom you never have to pretend. She’s seen the worst in you, and she loves you anyway!… Read More
Marta Perry
Born in Pennsylvania, I now live in a century-old farmhouse in a valley in the eastern part of the state. My husband and I have a daughter, son-in-law and two grandchildren in Philadelphia, a daughter, son-in-law and two granddaughters in Charleston, South Carolina, and a son, daughter-in-law and and two grandchildren in Tampa, Florida. We keep the phone lines busy with our e-mails! Before I retired to write full time, I was a church education director.
I knew I wanted to become a writer when I was eight years old and picked up my first Nancy Drew mystery. "The Secret in the Old Clock" — remember that one? Somehow that dream was put on the back burner for a long time, but eventually it re-surfaced. I've written everything from educational materials to devotional articles to travel pieces to children's fiction, but the books I'm writing for Steeple Hill's Love Inspired line have to be the most satisfying I've ever done. It's such a joy to tell a romantic story that includes the spiritual lives of the characters. I'm delighted that I'm also writing romantic suspense novels for Love Inspired Suspense. And coming up next year will be a series of three Steeple Hill single titles about Amish characters.
When I'm not writing, you may find me visiting my grandchildren, helping out at church, or enjoying an evening out with my husband and friends. And several times a year you can track me down on my favorite island beach. I'll be the one in the deck chair with a new novel and a blissful expression!
Bad Boy Good Guys
I’m a sucker for a good redemption story, especially one where someone who seems completely irredeemable gets a second chance to get it right. That kind of story poses an interesting question: What does a hero have to do to be a hero? Regardless of background and history, what does it take to be heroic?… Read More
Paula Graves
Down here in the American South, we don't hide our crazy people. We showcase them. I've always thought it was because eccentric people make for the best stories, and we Southerners love our stories. Faulkner, McCullers, O'Connor, Porter---these are our chroniclers, writers steeped in the slow, steady pulse of the South's pride, suffering, honor, madness, venality and redemption. I grew up in Alabama, the heart of the South, and live here still. The need to tell stories has been a driving force in my life from a very young age. As a child, my favorite books were Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew mysteries and Harlequin Romances. When I realized there were books that featured both romance and mystery, I knew I'd found my calling. Now I write for Harlequin Intrigue, where I get to play both matchmaker and murderer and get paid for it. In addition, I work a full-time day job at a Birmingham ad agency, where I'm a copywriter and graphic designer, a background that comes in handy when it's time to redesign my website and create promotional materials for my books. I'm also known among certain circles as the Cat Whisperer, but that's a whole other story. I love to hear from readers, so please click the contact button on my website and tell me what you think about my books.
June Releases Sizzle
We’re well into June. So, here comes the sun . . . and the entertainment. Writerspace Top Shelf Authors with book releases this month include: Woman’s Own By Robyn Carr Trade Paperback Released May 17, 2013 (reissued from 1990) Published by Liza Dawson Associates www.RobynCarr.com Ablaze against the bustle of nineteenth-century Philadelphia is this sweeping… Read More
Jaycie Cash
Jaycie Cash is the pseudonym of a woman in the book biz who is proud to have Oklahoma roots. She is currently at work on her second book, THE SPLIT-FAMILY ROBINSON.
Mysteries and Messages
Thanks yet again to Writerspace for inviting me to blog. I was here just a few weeks ago discussing, among other things, the reprinting of my third Pet Rescue Mystery HOUNDS ABOUND with a special seal on it as part of Penguin Group (USA)’s Read Humane program. And now I’m here because of my first… Read More
Linda O. Johnston
Linda O. Johnston, a former lawyer who is now a full-time writer, currently writes for Harlequin Romantic Suspense. Her stories include the upcoming Shelter of Secrets miniseries and the K-9 Ranch Rescue miniseries, as well as stories for the HRS ongoing Colton series. She also writes mysteries, which have included the Barkery & Biscuits Mystery Series and Superstition Mysteries for Midnight Ink, and the Pet Rescue Mystery Series and Kendra Ballantyne, Pet-Sitter Mysteries for Berkley Prime Crime---with more to come. And nearly all her current stories involve dogs.
Linda O. Johnston is giving away a copy of THE SOLDIER'S K-9 MISSION to one winner. (winner's choice of print or Amazon eBook)
Latest from our Blog
What the World Needs Now…
Besides love? More book clubs! When I first came up with my idea for THE BEST LIFE BOOK CLUB, I thought I was being so original, so clever. A book about a book club – yes! And then, after I’d surfaced from my writing cave back into the sunlight, I blinked and saw… all kinds… Read More
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