Writing my newest novel, Tie Me Down, was a bittersweet endeavor, because it took me back to a city I know intimately well, a city I love and miss and despair will ever be the same. I went to New Orleans when I was twenty years old because a tug deep in my belly told me that that city was where I was meant to be. I’m not usually one to change my whole life around on a feeling, but no matter what I did, the niggling sensation wouldn’t go away. It kept bothering me—all spring and into the summer, until finally a letter came from one of the grad school’s I’d been accepted to offering me a last minute teaching assistantship that paid all of my tuition and gave me enough to live on. That was the sign I needed and I sent a letter to the grad school I had originally decided to go to asking to be removed from the list of incoming students, packed up my car (with the help of my dad) and headed to New Orleans to take the university up on its very generous offer. And I have never, once, regretted it. Within…

Muse – the source of an artist’s inspiration; the goddess or the power regarded as inspiring a poet, artist, thinker, or the like… sometimes represented as the true speaker, for whom an author is merely a mouthpiece” I spoke in an earlier blog about the “magical thinking” some creative types (myself included) are prone too. In particular I talked about synchronicity, or those seemingly meaningful coincidences that suggest you’re on the right track by providing you something you need when it’s most useful, or giving you a direction when you’re lost. Today I’m going to muse about…the muse. To read more about the muse, and comment for a chance to win a copy of Highland Rebel click here Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.

Being a historical novelist has its perks and pitfalls. The perks? Being able to work in pajamas is probably my favorite. I love the travel that comes with the job–whether it’s when I’m on the road meeting readers or embarking on a research trip. I love being to stay up till four in the morning writing and getting to sleep late (mornings have never been good for me; I’m much more coherent in the middle of the night). And I love the reading my work requires–poring over diaries and letters written by Victorian woman, studying the history of the time. It’s this perk that leads to a pitfall–a pitfall that is one of the hardest things to deal with when writing historical fiction. Often, when you study history, you find that the actual truth does not always match with modern ideas of what the past was like. We like to think we know the Victorians–how they were prudes who never let any female out of the house without a chaperone and admonished their daughters to lie back and think of England. None of which is quite true. According to Michael Mason’s fantastic book, The Making of Victorian Sexuality, in the…

When I took up creative writing–romantic fiction no less–I faced some tough challenges. I wanted to write about my own Indian Hindu culture with all its colors, tastes, scents, and textures, with the firm belief that it was interesting to non-Indian readers. However, most people don’t associate romance with India, where arranged marriage, dowry, male dominance, repressed women, and loyalty to family overrules individual needs and aspirations. To add to that, I decided to become a novelist at the ripe age of 50, so my writing career began as a”menopausal epiphany.” Want to know more about the shy heroes and heroines of India? Click here. Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.