For an author, a new release is like your birthday and Christmas all rolled into one. I might even go so far as to add your wedding day and the birth of your first child . . . but maybe not. And it doesn’t matter if this is the first book or one of many.

My seventh full-length novel, “Cassie”, is now available in both paperback (Amazon) and ebook (Amazon and D2D), and I’m very excited. I’m often asked by readers at signings which of my books is my favorite. My answer is always my most recent.

Victim. Avenger. Murderess. In the span of four months, Cassie Jo Foster would be all these things.

Henry and Cassie Foster were working their dream panning for gold until the night a gang of four men raided their camp while they slept. By the time it was over, everything was gone. Cassie’s husband, son, and friends were dead, and Cassie’s face was scarred for life from the end of a whip. She knows Charlie Carson and his friends are responsible and vows to bring them to justice.

When Frank Waterston sees smoke on the horizon, he rides out to investigate. He finds the still smoldering ruins of the Mule Deer Creek mining camp. All the occupants murdered except the beautiful Cassie Foster, injured but alive. He promises her justice will be done. But promises are not always easily kept. Frank knows danger is everywhere in a town like Deadwood, where even the bad guys have friends.

Brought together in the face of tragedy, they find more than a shared desire for justice. Can Frank heal Cassie’s broken heart while she learns to navigate her new life?

Hygge (HOO-guh), the Scandinavian word for comfort and contemplation. The perfect word to describe a sunny but cold winter day. You stay in the house, make a cup of tea, bury yourself under an afghan, and open your favorite book. Quiet. Peaceful.

My original writing plans for this winter fell far short of the hygge ideal. Instead of completing one novel and one anthology piece, I planned on completing two novels and two anthology pieces. While goals are important, can lead to success, unreasonable goals will quickly drag a person down a stress-filled hole.

Lucky for me, goals are a fluid thing. Changeable. It didn’t take me long to realize I was not going to write two books by April. I’m not a fast writer, and that’s okay. I recently finished the rough draft of the first book, “Cassie”, and should have the edits completed and be ready for publication by April. After that, I can start on the second book, “Where Flowers Bloom”.

Then one of the anthologies I committed myself to was cancelled. This takes me right back to the place I was the last three years. One anthology piece due mid-June.

Is this a bad thing? Have I failed by admitting my goal was unattainable? No. Life is too short.

Hygge.

In my planning and researching for “Where Flowers Bloom”, I came across rules for teachers in 1872, which I shared here last week. There were also School Rules. (“Frontier Teachers: Stories of Heroic Women of the Old West” by Chris Enss.)

“Teachers on the frontier often used any facility available for a classroom: canvas tents, sod houses, barns, or abandoned mining shacks. Supplies were limited. Where readers were absent, Bibles and Sears, Roebuck Catalogs were used to teach children how to read and write. Depending on the size of the town or the mining camp, class size could be as little as three and as many as fifty. Pupils from grades one to eight congregated together in one room. Younger students sat in the front, and older ones were in the back. Girls were on one side, and boys were on the other. The curriculum focused on the basics: reading, spelling, penmanship, arithmetic, and history. Ten-to-fifteen-minute sessions were dedicated to each grade level.

“The length of the school terms was dictated by the farming families. The children of farmers needed to be available to help their parents with the planting and the harvest. A school year was generally twelve weeks long and ran from Thanksgiving to early spring.

“There were stiff penalties for pupils who talked out of turn or forgot to hand in a lesson. Disciplinary measures ranged from standing in the corner and staying after school, to spankings with rulers or hickory switches. Often times the most serious offenders were expelled before corporal punishment was initiated.

“At the end of the year it was customary for many frontier schools to invite parents and townspeople to join the students in a celebratory banquet. School patrons and mothers of students brought baskets filled with food. Before anyone could enjoy the meal [sic] the pupils would reiterate for the guests all they had learned during the term and share the kind thoughts they had about their long-suffering teachers.”

Now that summer is done and autumn has begun, I’ve returned to my desk. This winter I’m challenging myself to write two books. At the request of my readers, one is the sequel to my most recent novel, “Under The Endless Sky”. In my planning and researching for “Where Flowers Bloom”, I came across these rules for teachers in 1872. (“Frontier Teachers: Stories of Heroic Women of the Old West” by Chris Enss.)

1. Teachers each day will fill lamps, clean chimneys.
2. Each teacher will bring a bucket of water and a scuttle of coal for the day’s session.
3. Make your pens carefully. You may whittle nibs to the individual taste of the pupils.
4. Men teachers may take one evening each week for courting purposes, or two evenings a week if they go to church regularly.
5. After ten hours in school, the teachers may spend the remaining time reading the Bible or other good books.
6. Women teachers who marry or engage in unseemly conduct will be dismissed.
7. Every teacher should lay aside from each pay a goodly sum of his earnings for his benefit during his declining years so that he will not become a burden on society.
8. Any teacher who smokes, uses liquor in any form, frequents pool or public halls, or gets shaved in a barber shop will give good reason to suspect his worth, intention, integrity and honesty.
9. The teacher who performs his labor faithfully and without fault for five years will be given an increase of twenty-five cents per week in his pay, providing the Board of Education approves.

In other lists, I’ve seen the additional rule that female teachers were not allowed to go to ice cream parlors. Figure that one out! I guess it falls under rules #6 or #8, although, I’ve seen nothing saying male teachers can’t enjoy an ice cream.

See Frontier Teachers part 2 next month for School Rules.

The Fourth of July is over, county and state fair season is in full swing, and the dog days of summer are upon us. Have you ever wondered what that means? Why are they “dog days”? And when did the saying originate?

The etymology dictionary website, etymonline.com, defines it as a “period of dry, hot weather at the height of summer,” traced back to the 1530s and from the Latin dies caniculares. They occur during the time of the rising of Sirius, the Dog Star.

I fondly remember those August days before a new school year began. Afternoons at the town swimming pool and sucking on a popsicle (root beer the preferred flavor) on the walk home. Cicadas loudly buzzing, the grass brown and crunchy under my feet. Riding my bicycle downhill was the best way to catch a breeze. After dinner it was back outside for a game of kick-the-can with friends until the sun inevitably slipped below the horizon, streetlights blinked on, and our mothers appeared at the front door calling us home. Then off to bed exhausted and looking forward to doing it all over again the next day.

No cell phones, social media, video games, endless streaming services keeping us alone in our bedrooms all day. Only one television and Dad had first call on what was watched. Remote control? We were his remote control.

We were leading the best life. Kids today have no idea what they missed. Perhaps parents can show them by putting their own phones down, unplugging all the electronics, and going outside to play with their children the way they once played with their friends. Teach them kick-the-can. All you need is an empty soup can. You don’t even have to wait for Amazon to deliver one.

The final reward after all the time spent writing a book, is publication day. When you finally get to see your work reach fruition. It’s like your wedding day, the birth of a child, Christmas, and your birthday all rolled into one. That day has come for me once more. My sixth full-length novel, “Under The Endless Sky”, is now available in paperback at Amazon, and ebook at online stores, including Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Apple.

A story of South Dakota ‘girl homesteaders’ in the late 19^th century, it’s about friendship as well as hardship on the prairie for women pursuing the dream of owning land in their own name. And, of course, there’s a touch of romance mixed in.

So, what do I do now? I start work on the next book, of course.

Starting a new WIP is very exciting. Plot lines, characters, who falls in love with who and how, all battle for my attention. This often begins even before I finish my current WIP. That’s a trap I have to be very careful to avoid because chances are good that if I fall for it, the old work will never be finished. Then, neither will the new one since an even newer one is liable to start whispering in my ear. I’ve been fighting this temptation recently by taking notes when the thoughts strike me.

The excitement goes steadily downhill from there, through the middle of the book slog, until I get to type those two wonderful words, “The End.” I celebrated this thrill with wine two weeks ago.

But now the real work begins. After a read-through to see what problems I could spot and fix, “Under The Endless Sky” is with my editor. I know she will find more typos, questionable transitions, and confusing who-is-speaking-here dialogue. Don’t even get me started on whether or not to insert a comma.

Hopefully, the fixes will be minor enough that I don’t have to go through a second round, and can see it downloaded and published. A high point that allows me to move on to those notes I took for the next WIP.

Watch for “Under The Endless Sky” to be available in May 2025.

When you write historical fiction, you have to be diligent with your research. From the origin of a word, to finding an old map or clothing ideas, research is both necessary and fun. I know, I’m a nerd that way.

In working on “Under The Endless Sky”, about a girl homesteader in South Dakota, I found myself in need of a tutorial on how to swing a scythe. Thank you, YouTube.

I love small independent bookstores. Recently, I was in Galena, Illinois, for an annual book signing event (Romantic Galena Reads, next on 9/6/’25) and one of my obligatory stops was Galena Books & Paper at 306 S. Main Street. It’s not overly large, but it’s full of wonderful reads, both recent and older releases. Books for all ages. Cute notebooks and blank greeting cards. Not to mention, friendly owners and employees. I could spend hours browsing, but I’m afraid my credit card wouldn’t be able to handle the balance due. So, I limit myself, knowing I’ll be back again another day. This trip: one for me and two for my grandson.

Another small bookstore I look forward to checking out is Annette’s Book Nook in Santini Plaza, Fort Myers Beach. Annette’s store was destroyed during Hurricane Ian two years ago, but has been rebuilt and is currently being restocked. Annette’s another store owner who routinely supports local authors.

We’ve become so accustomed to the speed and convenience of the big online stores like Amazon, we have forgotten the joy of a leisurely browse through a brick-and-mortar storefront. Online you can quickly find a specific title and probably have it delivered direct to your door the next day. But you only see what you’re looking for, where in a storefront, you just might discover something new. Also, many of the small independents will give shelf space to local indie authors. Something big stores like Barnes & Noble, Walmart, and Target are unlikely to do.

Granted, online stores like Amazon have their place. I use them. Getting to a brick-and-mortar store isn’t always convenient, even possible for some. If you live in a rural area or small town far from a city, or perhaps have a health issue that prevents you from traveling, Amazon is a Godsend. But, when you do get the opportunity to go to a store where you can actually pick up the book, feel it in your hands, smell the freshly printed paper, peruse the neighboring titles, I suggest you take it. What a wonderful way to spend an afternoon.

When the afterglow of a new release has faded, there comes the inevitable decision of what to write next. It’s the time when you let go of all the questions and uncertainties of the previous book and begin planning your next. This is a time both exciting and frightening. Can I write another? What if that was my last? What if I have nothing left to tell?

What if this is the one where everyone realizes I’m a phony?

It’s called “imposter syndrome” and we all experience it at least once. Doesn’t matter if you have one published book behind you, or a hundred. I have five, and I feel that pit in my stomach every time.

Even the most experienced best seller, if honest, will admit they’ve felt that inkling of doubt. What can keep us typing might be the friends/readers/fans who repeatedly ask about the next one because they can’t wait. It’s reading the good reviews . . . and sometimes even the bad ones . . . that pokes us in the back to say: “sit down”, “start typing”, “show them you’ve got this”.

Some authors rarely look at their reviews, or refuse to read them at all. I’m one of those who check them fairly regularly. I recently saw that someone put a 3 out of 5-star rating on Amazon for my most recent release. No review, just 3 sad little stars. Instead of telling myself it means nothing, just one person’s opinion, I find myself worrying what it was that made them shave off those 2 stars. Everyone else gave me 5. But that’s just me. Instead, I’ll concentrate on all the good reviews, those readers who have told me in-person how much they enjoyed it.

Time to set aside the research for a while and start writing. “Under The Endless Sky” in 2025.