Sheila's Guests and Reviews

In the 60s I was a kid in school. In the 70s I went to college. In the 80s I started a family. In the 90s I changed countries. In the 00s I gained a new citizenship. In the 10s I tried to be an author. And I sometimes feel old. But it's fun to read novels set in my younger days, to remember how things were, and to learn how different they might have been somewhere else. It's fun to read of earlier times too, my parents' days, my parents' world. And it's intriguing to read my way into different versions of my own present world--the lives of strangers who just might one day be my neighbors perhaps. I guess I'd classify the books I've been reading recently as "drama," though I'm not sure that's a shelf in the library. Some of them are historical, others contemporary; but all them take to me to almost-places where I've almost been, and they're all highly recommended. The Alice Network by Kate Quinn is set in the years of my grandpa...

Today I welcome Evy Journey back to my blog with another novel, Sugar and Spice and All Those Lies. She visited recently with Welcome Reluctant Stranger , and I'm happy to welcome her return today. She's going to talk about... The Importance of Being Inner-Directed By Evy Journey I once did research to expand and improve the Wikipedia entry on the novel North and South by Victorian writer Elizabeth Gaskell. Why am I telling you this? Because in my research, I learned from Jill Matus in The Cambridge Companion to Elizabeth Gaskell that Gaskell focused on the “interiority” of her female protagonist, Margaret Hale. That piqued my interest. I am a big fan of interiority. All my heroines from Margaret (in a N&S sequel I wrote) to Gina in Sugar and Spice and All Those Lies are high on interiority. They have rich inner lives. But what’s “interiority”?  You have it; I have it. Some people prefer to ignore it. Some like to wallow in it. I know I do. A few even live ins...

Today I get to welcome author Donna Fletcher Crow to my blog. I'm thrilled to be able to announce the release of her most recent novel, A Lethal Spectre. It's the latest in a series of mysteries set in Victorian times, all centering on Lord Danvers and his wife Antonia. Think Lord Peter Wimsey in an earlier generation perhaps. The stories evoke Victorian England in its complicated dust and glory, portraying all sides of fascinating stories, and always including real history and real events. A Lethal Spectre FIND IT HERE  https://www.amazon.com/dp/198765613X/ IN PAPERBACK OR HERE  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07C2MD17S/ ON KINDLE is particularly close to my heart for it's portrayal of social and political follies, not so different from those we know today. So, find a chair, pour a coffee or your favorite beverage, and meet Donna Fletcher Crow. Hello Donna! Sheila, thank you so much for inviting me to be a guest on your blog today. And thank you so much for yo...

Today I'm delighted to welcome author Larry D Thompson to my blog. He's touring the internet with his latest book, Researching the White Witch, and he's here to tell us about the research that led to the novel. So, thank you for stopping by Larry, and over to you. Researching The White Witch My son, Kel, who lives in South Florida, returned from a business trip to Montego Bay, Jamaica, talking about the legend of the WHITE WITCH. His story interested me enough that a few months later we both went to Jamaica to learn more about Annie Palmer, the White Witch,  and, also, about the Maroons. Kel had not stumbled across the Maroon story while he was there, but I did a little research about the area and learned about them. That trip let me to combine the Maroons with the White Witch to create what is certainly my best thriller to date (bear in mind that I’ll probably say the same thing about my next thriller; such is the nature of a novelist.). We s...