Hello Readers!

Are you a gardener? Gardening for me is work and pleasure in unequal amounts. No matter how hard I work at my various gardens, the pleasure I derive from gardening far surpasses the sweat equity put in. Call it the fruit of my labors.

This month, the peonies and climbing roses in my English garden are ready to pop, the hydrangeas in my woodland garden are forming dense flower pods, the foxglove, delphinium, and hollyhock in my front garden are knee high, and the salvia and lavender in my back garden are budding purple. By next month, it will be a riot of flowers! And then July! And August! Although the gardens need daily watering and weeding, the joy derived from just being in the garden feeds my soul.

So, too, I am cultivating the fruit of the spirit this month, being intentional in nurturing love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and discipline in myself and in all my relationships.

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Writing Update

In the author multi-tasking department, I’m waiting for final pages on The Irish Girl and I’m 10,000 words into my new manuscript. Thank you to Gretchen Cherington, Janis Robinson Daly, Tisha O’Neil Smith, Shelley Blanton-Stroud, Katie Buckley, and Debra Thomas for helping me form characters for the new book. All I’ll say for now is the new work is a triple narrative, the story told from three points of view. That in itself is a challenge and I look forward to adding another 10,000 words by next month.

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WFWA Anthology

Coming June 8! The long-awaited Women Fiction Writers Association anthology, Feisty Deeds: Historical Fictions of Daring Women, launches in time for WFWA’s annual Women’s Fiction Day.

Feisty women spanning six centuries…

Even when time periods and geographical locations vary greatly, women’s struggles as they confront adversity are often remarkably universal.

The twenty-three stories in this collection follow ordinary women from the 1470s to the 1960s as they rise to meet life’s challenges.

An unhappy housewife in 1950s California gathers the strength to escape an abusive marriage. When the local men are shipped off to fight in WWI, a young Yorkshire woman joins others to keep a munitions factory at peak operation. As her land and way of life are threatened, a nineteenth century Chickasaw wife and mother digs deep within to rekindle the strength of her ancestors. A midwife strives to protect mothers from accusations of witchcraft. A nineteenth century English portrait artist possesses a rare, sought after talent that dispatches unwanted relatives.

Foreign invasions, the outbreak of war, rigid domestic authority, strictures of society and religion, the supernatural, love, and family bonds all serve as catalysts for the feisty deeds of the women in these tales.

My entry, “Double Whammy,” is set in Maine in 1956 and 1972, drawn from the first—and still unpublished—novel I wrote in 2005-2007. This how the story begins:

I was idling in the parking lot of Lambert’s Grocery out on Route 1, motor running, listening to Roberta Flack croon “Killing Me Softly” on WBLM, and smoking a Parliament, saying over and over I can beat this, I can beat this—breast cancer, age 27, for eff’s sake—when I saw the boy . . .

To preorder Feisty Deeds, request at your favorite local bookstore or order online.

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Goodreads Giveaway

My second novel, Answer Creek, is up on a Goodreads giveaway this month.

From the award-winning author of Eliza Waite comes a gripping tale of adventure and survival based on the true story of the ill-fated Donner Party on their 2,200-mile trek on the Oregon–California Trail from 1846 to ’47.

Nineteen-year-old Ada Weeks confronts danger and calamity along the hazard-filled journey to California. After a fateful decision that delays the overlanders more than a month, she―along with eighty-one other members of the Donner Party―finds herself stranded at Truckee Lake on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, stuck there for the entirety of a despairing, blizzard-filled winter. Forced to eat shoe leather and blankets to survive, will Ada be able to battle the elements―and her own demons―as she envisions a new life in California?

Researched with impeccable detail and filled with imagery as wide as the western prairie, Answer Creek blends history and hearsay in an unforgettable story of challenging the limits of human endurance and experiencing the triumphant power of love.

For the giveaway, I’m offering 15 print copies (US only) . . . and so far there are more than 2,000 people requesting! If you’d like to try for a copy, go to Goodreads to put your name in the hat . . . and good luck!

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Answering Your Questions in One or Two Sentences

What type of research do you do for each novel?

Where do I begin? Once I’ve locked in on a story, I spend three months reading everything I can about the time period (books, newspaper articles, journals, menus, magazines, advertisements, deeds, etc.) before I start writing, although I continue researching (including on the ground where the novel takes place) until the last sentence.

How do you develop your plot? Your characters?

Although I’m not a traditional plotter, I know where my story will end before I write the first sentence; that said, there is a lot of wiggle room within the plot arc. Characters come to me fully formed, as if I’m seeing them on a screen.

How do you choose your settings?

Ah, settings. Settings are often a character in my books and they must match the mood of the story: for Eliza Waite, the San Juan Islands formed a moody, ethereal setting for a grieving mother; for Answer Creek, the Donner Party saga, the entirety of the Oregon-California Trail became the setting; for Hardland, the Sonoran Desert was a no-brainer setting for a rough tale of late 19th century Arizona Territory; for The Irish Girl, based on my great-grandmother’s story, the setting begins in Ireland and then moves on to New York City, Chicago, and Colorado Springs, all places I visited while writing.

 How do you decide on your titles?

That’s different for every book. For Eliza Waite, I believed the story was strong enough to bear Eliza’s name; for Answer Creek, I had the title before the story (that’s another story!); for Hardland, I needed a title that would convey the landscape of both the desert and the protagonist’s heart; for The Irish Girl, I wanted to use a line from a Yeats’s poem, To the Water and the Wild, but was overruled by the publishing team.

What is your writing schedule?

By nine a.m. I’m at my desk, Monday through Friday, and work until at least 1 p.m., and sometimes as late as 4 p.m. But even when I’m not writing, I am thinking about the plot/setting/characters all the time.

What are you working on now?

That’s a secret!

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No Contest Winner!

I stumped you all with Three Truths and Three Lies. No one guessed the answers correctly (not for lack of trying!)

Better luck next time ;-)

1 I’m claustrophobic — YES

2 I’m allergic to pollen — NO

3 I’ve been to Iceland — YES

4 I love sushi – NO

5 I’m blind in one eye – NO

6 I worked for Redbook Magazine in N.Y.C. – YES

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Bookshelf

My book club in Arizona, the El Con Bookies, has selected next year’s reads:

  • Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
  • North Woods by Daniel Mason
  • The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride
  • The Women by Kristen Hannah
  • At What Cost, Silence? by Karen Lynne Klink

In Closing

Next month, I’ll feature author friends from the Pacific Northwest in addition to my writing updates, book recommendations, summer schedule—and a new contest! I always love to hear from readers, so you can contact me here with favorite reads, questions, or comments.

Until next month, Happy Reading!

Ashley