December 2017

Finding Beauty in Small Places

Sometimes the world can feel overwhelming. Illness (our own or that of loved ones), alarming happenings around us, or disappointments of professional or personal kinds can each drag us under the border of happiness like an undertow in the sea, and keep us down. This year has been a challenging one for many people for… Read more »

18 of the Most Buzzed-About Middle Grade Books of 2018

My son’s elementary school principal shared this with me over her holiday break: a link to www.readbrightly.com’s recommended list of middle grade novels in 2018 that included The Mad Wolf’s Daughter (March 6, 2018). I’m deeply touched to be included, but also quite touched by the means through which I heard of it. Maine schools are… Read more »

My First Trade Review

It’s thrilling to have my very first trade review for The Mad Wolf’s Daughter out into the world, on Kirkus’s website: And here’s the full thing!

Castle Scenes: Part 1

The great medieval castles of Scotland have always inspired me and helped me create my fictional worlds. In this series, I’ll share pictures of castle bits that have directly led to specific scenes in my novels. For this post, let’s talk castle stairs. I always knew that castle stairs were narrow, and spiral, and designed… Read more »