First, happy spring equinox! The time of year when I try to balance writing with the realities of country living is fast approaching. I've been setting my alarm to try to train myself to wake up earlier. The quantity of outdoor chores multiply rapidly as the weather warms. If I want to keep up daily […]

It's not quite spring yet, but I can feel it coming in the air. When I go out to the barn to feed the goats, chickens and barn cats, there's an ease in the atmosphere that wasn't there before. I can see it, too. Chionodoxa (glory-in-the-snow) and tulips are emerging, and my earliest daffodils are […]

I feel as if I've come home from a different planet. Manhattan was so awesome, but I need this. Waking up to the rooster crowing. Birds peeping as they squabble over the suet feeder. Sunlight streaming through the leaves and blossoms of my orchids, my cat, Baby Sheldon, rubbing his nose over my chin on […]

So I spent three days in Manhattan. There was so much more to do. But! I got to go to a gorgeous library, some very fine museums, ate some incredible food, saw some sights, and enjoyed a light dusting of evening snow in Central Park. Here are a few highlights: The American Museum of Natural […]

No, I didn't get a crazy offer from a NY publisher. But I am going to Manhattan for a long weekend. Right now I'm in a really nice hotel room near PDX, listening to the fan in the bathroom whine like a vacuum cleaner outside our door. We've got winter weather coming in with a […]

So now it seems I've got two livejournal identities and they've gotten tangled somehow. This has resulted in my writing blog entries, posting them, and having them vanish. I'm a bit gunshy now, so I'm not going to spend a lot of time writing today, but I did want to at least try to say […]

I had so much fun at Radcon! Thank you, organizers, for the amazing party you put on. Here's what we talked about on one of the panels I sat on: Research and Writing You're writing along, when suddenly you need to know how a primitive firearm works, or what fabrics were available, or whether there's […]

I'm going to be places, doing stuff, in the future: Radcon! Feb12-14 in Pasco, WA I'm there as Kamila Miller but you'll know me by my crazy big hats. 😀 The Portland Spring Home & Garden Show Feb 25-28 in Portland, OR This goes to our Facebook page so you can look up author schedules […]

Here's another fabulous guest post by Shawna Reppert, author of Ravensblood: A/N I originally wrote this blog and its companion blog The Allure of the Dark Hero several years ago, so some of the references are a little dated. Where I could, I updated within the blog. On one crucial point, I added a note […]