Those who enjoyed Nancy Bilyeau’s debut historical novel The Crown will find its sequel The Chalice even more heart-wrenching and suspenseful. Once again we follow the adventures of former Dominican novice Joanna Stafford as she is torn from her peaceful country life and thrust into the maelstrom of Tudor-era intrigue. […]
Community! Find it in Unexpected Places!
I took up a swimming challenge at our local YMCA in January, and I’ve had plenty of time while plowing through the H2O to contemplate. One of the things that came to me recently – and which I did not anticipate – was what swimming (or any solitary sport), writing, […]
The Value of a Second Pair of Eyes
I recently completed my manuscript of The Rose Ring and sent it to my editor, who is also a very dear friend of mine. She told me she loved the story and I was very excited. It is always a bit scary for me to share something that I have […]
Balance in Fiction Writing
Balance. A few days ago, Ellen Gable Hrkach posted a great blog on common errors to avoid in writing fiction. One item she mentioned got me to thinking, namely too much dialogue. What’s ‘too much’? A lot of times that depends on the genre you’re writing. Clearly, screenplays and graphic […]
The Writing “Sin” of Greed
The November / December 2012 issue of Writers Digest featured an interesting article on “The 7 Deadly Sins of Self-Editing” by Janice Gable Bashman and Kathryn Craft. Using the 7 Deadly Sins as a starting point (and what Catholic writer can’t respond to some good old-fashioned guilt?) , the writers […]
Query Letters – How to write a good one
You’ve just typed The End on your manuscript, your gloriously awesome book that’s going to rocket to the top of the New York Times best seller list! Editors are going to line up at your door, fighting to be the one privileged enough to publish your work. Thousands of people […]
Gotcha! Hooks: What They Are and How to Create Page-Turning Fiction
What’s a hook??? I admit to scratching my head over that term, and for a much-too-long time. I would hear it when people were discussing top-selling novels; I’d see it in articles about the craft of writing. It was a frequent comment from my critique partners. “Not much of hook […]
Works in Progress – Trudging Through the Middle
I am at that place in my work in progress in which I want to set the manuscript on fire. Usually, this is only a figurative problem. After all, despite my sometimes tumultuous relationship with my laptop, I’m not likely to actually set it on fire. This time, I am […]
Marie-Antoinette and Freud: Why Careful Research is Important
“Her virtue is intact, she is even austere by nature rather than by reason.” —Joseph II to Archduke Leopold from Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette before the Revolution by Nesta Webster, p.158 The first decades of the twentieth century saw the rising popularity of the theories of Sigmund Freud. Freud believed […]
Scandal and the Queen
The other day I ran across an article entitled “Top 5 Marie-Antoinette Scandals” which was filled with errors. What an incredibly misleading portrayal of the Queen! Marie-Antoinette, in spite of being from a generation known for its fast pace of living, did not live in a manner which gave public […]