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Hello friends. While I write this, spring has not yet sprung, we are still a few days away from making it official, but it is March and...

Greetings from Snowy Michigan. I’ve capitalized the S in snowy as I firmly believe Snowy Michigan is a real, solid place and thus worthy...

Hello friends. Happy New Year to you. I hope you have found a way to focus on something good. As I said last year, in my January essay, I...

Hello Friends.   As we reach the final chapter of 2024, and as I close in on the final chapter of Jane, the fourth book of The Austen...

Hello friends. How are you? Doing alright? Hang in there.    There is a moment at the end of Monty Python’s Life of Brian  that is equal...

Hello friends, while I know it is spooky season, I don’t feel particularly interested in spending time thinking about frightening things...

Hello Friends. Happy September. I realize I start a lot of these newsletters with “When I was a kid…” I am about to do it again. I am...

Hello friends,    When I was a kid (relax, this isn’t going to be a back-in-my-day rant), school started after Labor Day and it ended...

Hello Friends,    Before I sit down to write the next book in my series, I revisit the source material. Sure, I’ve read all of Jane...

Hello friends,    Every writer approaches the craft differently. What does a good “first draft” look like and how different is that from...

Hello Friends,  While I know it is only mid-May, not early July, I've been thinking a lot about the phrase “the point of no return.” I am...

Hello friends, Someone asked me not that long ago if I thought The Austen Chronicles were essentially fan fiction. My answer was that I...

Hello friends, George Eliot is reportedly the first person to use the phrase, “Don’t judge a book by its cover” in her 1860 book The Mill...

Hello friends, I hope this February finds you well. I just had the pleasure of spending several days with Manga writer and artist, Misako...

Hello friends, I hope this new year has been treating you well.   I’m not by nature a fan of national holidays. I find them to be...

Hello friends, It’s the most wonderful time of the year. I am not a huge fan of holidays in general, but I totally get it. I do believe...

Hello Friends,  There is an often-misquoted line about those who don’t study history being doomed to repeat it. It is attributed to...

Hello Friends,  I originally was going to write about horror books this month. Halloween and all of that, but then, as unluck would have...

Hello friends, Do me a favor and think about all the important things in your wallet. Do you remember getting your driver’s license?  A...

Hello friends, As I started the third book in The Austen Chronicles recently, and while I’ve been out promoting Welcome to Mansfield...