Happy (?) Banned Books Week
Banned Books Week sheds light on this unwarranted censorship. It’s an opportunity for readers to voice censorship concerns and to celebrate freedom of expression.
SD Festival of Books 2023
What a difference a year makes. Last year, I attended the SD Festival of Books as a wanna-be author. This year, I’m attending the Festival in Deadwood as a published author with two Western romance novels to my name. Last year, I attended panel discussions and presentations by authors from all over the country. I connected with two authors […]
“On the Dakota Frontier” series continues
I wrote Proving Her Claim: On the Dakota Frontier 20 years before it was finally published. But my second book took only (only!) a year to research, write, polish, and bring to readers. I write “only” because more prolific writers publish three, six, or nine books a year. I can’t imagine the pressure, but I’m […]
September is National Literacy Month
During National Literacy Month, I’d like to thank the teachers and mentors dedicated to helping children and adults learn to read. Reading has always been one of my “favorite things.” As a child, my mother and father would read to my sister and me before bedtime. While my mother “stuck to the script,” my father would […]
Naming characters
A reader asked me, “How do you name your characters?” That’s a great question.
Writing (and Riding) the Dakotas
At this year’s Western Writers of America convention I was asked to participate and provide a South Dakotan’s take on Writing Dakota
The next book in the “Claim” series
I didn’t set out to be a multi-book author. I thought once I’d written Proving Her Claim, I’d have the writing bug out of my system. But then the Lone Tree Claim story waited to be told. Like Proving Her Claim, a fact or, more accurately, a museum exhibit inspired this book. Several years ago, the South Dakota Ag Heritage Museum presented […]
Researching the art of cheesemaking
When I give an Author Talk, I’ve found that audiences are very interested in the research involved in writing a historical novel. In Proving Her Claim, Anna Olson travels from Wisconsin, the #1 cheesemaking state in the country. She plans to start a dairy farm and make cheese. That meant I needed to learn how to […]
A writer’s life: book fairs, conferences and networking
It was my first taste of a “real writer’s life.” It started out with Wild Deadwood Reads. I can’t think of a more appropriate name to describe this event. WDR, held in Deadwood, South Dakota, began in 2017 to connect authors with readers. This was my first time attending the multi-genre book event. Wild Deadwood […]