March is nearly here along with a spring forward adjustment to the clock which steals an hour of reading away! I’m dreaming of planting a little colonial garden but it’s too soon here in the Pacific Northwest. We’ve experienced one of the mildest winters on record. Rhododendron bushes were actually blooming in December! I missed our usual, beautiful snow, since we got a scant half inch this winter. But you need only look up from our foothills to see the Olympic Mountains dressed in white.

I made sure to put a snowstorm in my Christmas novella I told you about last post. I’m finishing the first draft now & adding historic quotes at the beginning of each chapter. To say I’m smitten with this story is truly an understatement. It highlights history at one of my favorite historic sites in the most festive way. But for now, back to spring & dreaming of new story ideas. If you have something in mind you’d like for me to write in future please let me know!

And please return to to this journal page for a title reveal soon for my next full-length historical romance with Revell releasing in January 2027! Cover reveal coming after that…

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I’m reading through the pages for Belle as I call this novel set in 1777. Dear to my heart, here’s the gist of it:

A tale of courtship & marriage, duty versus desire, faith & forgiveness.

We’re up to novel 17 now aside from my 2 novellas. It’s truly amazing that each book is a small universe or world of its own. I can’t count all the different worlds I’ve inhabited since childhood as a reader. And then quite a few as an author. So grateful! Reading is the gift that keeps on giving yet in the 18th-century, books were very expensive & literacy uncommon. Most were just trying to survive, our ancestors among them. They wouldn’t believe how much has changed should they be allowed a look at our 21st-century lives!

What do I love best about The Belle of Chatham? My heroine’s name, for one. My hero’s abilities & heritage. The theme of patriotism. A quaint New England village & then endless New York frontier & last but not least Virginia…

One of my editors said it was an impactful read for her, that she was moved when I went a different direction than she expected. Here’s hoping you feel the same. January 2026 is just round the bend!

BAKER BOOK HOUSE PREORDERSALE

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We’re now well into 2025 & this is my busiest – & hopefully best – writing year yet. Not much time for relaxing though I’m dreaming of a bookish picnic reminiscent of my childhood Kentucky days. My current chilly, damp Pacific Northwest life keeps me near the fireplace till June. Such is the fate of a sun-loving, southern expat!

Since I’m often asked during podcasts & at book events what I’m working on next, here’s a brief update…

Novel 18 has a name! But you’ll have to wait till this summer’s cover reveal to discover it:) Revell kept my working title which I love & I’m in an entirely new setting. Releasing January 2026 to coincide with our nation’s 250th anniversary of independence.

Novella 2 appears in July of this year – Bleu Galant’s happy ending from The Seamstress of Acadie. Watch for a cover reveal soon. Newsletter subscribers see it first!

I’m currently switching gears & writing a novel set in 1798 Georgian London, the very end of my beloved 18th-century, but what I’m discovering through research is fascinating. I’d originally based the story on pirates & smugglers along the Thames but am now going another direction with all those who shaped history for the better during that time period. Quite a bit of mystery & suspense in this one. I hope you find it fascinating, too!

My publisher, Revell, has asked me to write a Christmas novella which will release in September 2027. I’ll follow that up with a full-length novel in February 2028. Thank you all for making that possible!

So, for future reading think the American Revolution, late Georgian-era London, a colonial American Christmas, & the founding of Savannah, Georgia, etc. 

HAPPY READING!

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Hard to believe novel #15 is out there in the hands – & hopefully hearts – of readers everywhere!

Hardest novel I’ve ever written. Hardest novel to research because this is hidden history, so to speak. The late Queen Elizabeth issued a formal apology to the Acadians for the part the British played in their history during her reign centuries after the fact So hope you enjoy this little known, heartbreaking history & find it threaded with hope, pun intended!

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I’m currently in the release whirlwind of The Rose & the Thistle & don’t talk much about future publishing projects. I will say novel 15, set in Acadia or present-day Nova Scotia & colonial America, releases next January 2024. It’s currently on my editor’s desk which means an official title is coming soon & cover art will start. For a few weeks I get to focus on novel 16 so it’s back to Scotland I go, specifically Glasgow!

I’ve been to Glasgow & it has a very different feel than Edinburgh. Museums & art galleries like Kelvingrove are a treasure trove & are FREE! Glasgow is fun & culinary & musical & historic in its own way. One of my favorite memories was watching the street band Clanadonia play & capture the spirit of Scotland so well!

Setting is truly a character in my novels & while I don’t usually have a person or template in mind for characters I almost always do for the homes they live in. In this case, Dumfries House is a Georgian wonder saved & reopened to the public in recent years. It’s the perfect setting for novel 16. I have a great deal more research to do but somehow those characters started talking & needed to be on the page as so often happens. I’m five chapters in & don’t mind a bit:)

So here’s to novels 15 & 16!

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Nay, it never gets old! Releasing a novel remains a unique experience even for someone who’s been writing stories since age 7. I’m always felt so at home with my writing & it’s always been a joy, a bit like the best friend I never had. Releasing it for public consumption has been a learning curve as it does feel a little like having your diary read! I’m still a bit amazed but very grateful for readers who enjoy my imaginings. Truly a wondrous thought that a book is just the alphabet rearranged over & over again in endless ways!

The Rose & the Thistle is one of my favorite novels that I’ve written. It may have required the most research. I truly hated writing THE END. But now it’s out there, filling reading minds &, I hope, hearts.

Thank you!

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At some point in my publishing career, podcasts became the thing. I’m having fun talking books with a variety of podcast hosts so if podcasts are your thing, too, please have a wee listen…

Billie Jauss – Start Small Believe Big

Nicole & friends – The Unending TBR

Ruth Douthitt – A Writer’s Day

UP NEXT:

Liz Tolsma – Christian Historical Fiction Talk

Alison Treat – Historical Fiction Unpacked

Jaime Jo Wright – MadLit

Jenny Wheeler – Joys of Binge Reading 

A heartfelt thank you to podcast hosts whose literary love is truly inspiring!

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Dear readers, I would love to get to know you a bit better! To help with that, my publisher, Revell, put together a short survey for you to share a bit more about your interests and hobbies. It should only take a few minutes to complete, and the best part is that everyone who responds can enter a special giveaway for their choice of one of my books and some book swag! The winner for the giveaway will be chosen on Friday, June 11, at noon ET, so don’t wait! Click the link below to find the survey:

READER INTEREST SURVEY

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I really enjoyed my time on HISTORICAL FICTION UNPACKED despite being camera & microphone shy:) It’s always fun talking books with another bibliophile. Alison has a voice made for audio & asks all the right questions. Have a wee listen as my new hero might say. Just click on the link below…

Podcast

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I’m awaiting the final pages for Tidewater Bride, a last review/reading before the book goes to print. My last visit to Jamestown was solo on an overcast spring day. Solo research trips are one of the most wonderful things on earth! I took these pictures, including the statue of Pocahontas, a historical heroine of mine since childhood. But who was she really?

In this twelfth novel, I’ve sifted through history and saved what seems to be the most credible accounts about her. Not the things we were taught in school or saw in movies. Her name – Pocahontas – is even in doubt, as is the story of her saving Captain John Smith from death at the hands of her own people.

What we do know is that she was the daughter of a powerful chief. She turned cartwheels when she visited James Towne’s fort as a child. Later, she married John Rolfe, plantation owner and foremost tobacco cultivator in Virginia during the 17th-century. Pocahontas had a son, Thomas. She died while in England and is buried at Gravesend, a melancholy name for her resting place. Other than these fragile facts, we know very little.

And it’s there that inspiration ignites and those shadows began to take on substance. Coupled with her own people’s history about her which rings true on repeated readings, I found the real Pocahontas to be far more fascinating and complex {and tragic} than I’d first believed.

Which is why I love writing historical fiction that takes on history and brings hope.

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