Most authors will tell you, the road to publishing is long and slow. They’re right. You write your heart out, and then you wait. And wait. And W-A-I-T. There’s much to do during the wait–editing, revising, submitting, recovering from rejections, rewriting, submitting again, learning, praying, hoping. And sometimes when the drought ends . . . … Read More
san francisco
Comparing Japan’s 9.0 quake to 1906 San Francisco
After all of the research I did on the 1906 San Francisco quake for my novel Shaken, I am always fascinated when I hear about other earthquakes around the globe. The footage from Friday’s earthquake and tsunami in Japan has been absolutely heart-rending to watch. Here’s how this new quake stands up against the 1906 San Francisco … Read More
1906 Film: A Trip Down Market Street
The internet is an amazing tool for the historical fiction writer. I’ve found wonderful old books, photographs, newspaper clippings, personal letters and journals. Some of my favorite finds are videos. But, since I’m writing about the early 1900s, they can be tough to come by. Moving pictures were still in their infancy. One of the most spectacular (from a … Read More
The Pull of History
I laughed out loud the other day when I read a Facebook post from another writer who mentioned being sucked into the “black hole” of historical research. It’s a pull I’ve been fighting myself. Somehow, when I read historical fiction, it never dawns on me the hours that writers put into getting the historical background … Read More
Letters from San Francisco
Yesterday, I shared some photos from the 1906 Earthquake in San Francisco, the setting for my young adult novel, Shaken. Photos have helped me imagine the scene, but another thing that has aided my research are letters. In the early hours after the disaster, people immediately began writing letters to their loved ones describing the … Read More