Category Archive

I’m warming up for another novel to hit the shelves in June. Here’s the cover, which I think really captures Stella’s dynamic personality. And here’s the blurb:

Romulus White has tried for years to hire illustrator Stella West for his renowned scientific magazine. She is the missing piece he needs to propel his magazine to the forefront of the industry.

But Stella abruptly quit the art world and moved to Boston with a single purpose: to solve the mysterious death of her beloved sister. Romulus, a man with connections to high society and every important power circle in the city, could be her most valuable ally.

Sparks fly the instant Stella and Romulus join forces, and Romulus soon realizes the strong-willed and charismatic Stella could disrupt his hard-won independence. Can they continue to help each other when their efforts draw the wrong kind of attention from the powers-that-be and put all they’ve worked for at risk?

Until the Dawn is now available at all your favorite online or brick & mortar stores. I’m one of those writers who can’t judge their own work, so I never know how people will respond until the reviews come in.

I’m thrilled to see Until the Dawn collecting great reviews from all the major magazines, including the highest possible rating and a Top Pick designation from Romantic Times. They described it as ‘a timeless tale of a wounded hero and a sweet, wholesome heroine. With its setting and vibrant characters, the story evokes shades of both Jane Eyre and Beauty & the Beast.”

This was the first review I read, and what a relief! Jane Eyre was always a favorite of mine, and who doesn’t love a beauty & the beast story? This book means a lot to me, as I worked hard to follow the journey of a terribly wounded man out of darkness and into a world of radiant faith. I hope you enjoy it as much as I loved writing it!

A new book is on the way! It only seems like a few months ago that With Every Breath hit the shelves, but my wonderful publishers are ready to unleash my next book the first week of January. So, without further ado…..here is the cover and blurb for Beyond All Dreams!

Anna O’Brien has the perfect job at the Library of Congress until she stumbles across a baffling mystery of a ship that disappeared at sea. When forces conspire to prevent her from learning the truth, she turns to a dashing congressman for help.

Luke Callahan is one of the most powerful men in congress until his career begins collapsing amidst a political scandal of his own making. When he joins forces with Anna to solve the mystery of the lost ship, he is stunned to find himself falling in love with the down-to-earth librarian. Opposites in all things, Anna and Luke form an unusually powerful force as they unite in a common cause. Despite the attraction, strict rules forbid Anna from any romantic entanglement with a member of congress, and each meeting puts her career in jeopardy.

From the gilded halls of the Capitol where powerful men shape the future of the nation to the scholarly archives of the nation’s finest library, Anna and Luke will begin unraveling a mystery larger and more dangerous than ever imagined.

Look for it to hit the stores on January 6!

The release of With Every Breath is less than a month away!  I’ve put together a Pinterest page that provides a bit of a glimpse into the tone and topic of the book.

I’m thrilled to bits about the upcoming release. I think With Every Breath is my most heart-wrenching and romantic book to date.  Its about two childhood rivals who meet again as adults, and find to their mutual surprise that they are perfect for one another. Kate is a bright, brilliant, and funny statistician, while Trevor is a difficult, gloomy, but altogether heroic physician. Together they are unstoppable.

Look for it everywhere August 5 (although for some odd reason, the e-version releases on July 29.)

(The photo above is from a terrific BBC series called Casaualty 1900. I loved the Victorian hospital setting, and thought this guy really looks like how I envision the darkly tormented Dr. Trevor McDonough.)

My next novel is on the way!

So….with about four months until my next novel hits the stores, I’m thrilled to debut the cover!

Here is the blurb:

Washington D.C., 1891.

In the shadow of the nation’s capital, Kate Livingston has a respectable job as a government statistician when she encounters a rival from her past, the insufferable Trevor McDonough. A Harvard-trained physician, Trevor never showed the tiniest flicker of interest in Kate, so why did he track her down after more than ten years apart to recruit her onto his medical team? In a daring move, Kate agrees to Trevor’s risky proposal to work side-by-side in a quest to rid the world of tuberculosis, a disease so deadly it could kill anyone coming too close.

As Kate begins to unlock the mysteries of Trevor’s past, she begins falling in love with this fascinating man…but she soon learns his terrible secret. Meanwhile, a while a shadowy enemy lurks in the background, threatening to destroy everything they hold dear.

A story of courage and betrayal, triumph and redemption, Kate and Trevor will risk everything to overcome the barriers between them.

Look for it August 1.

Today I am sharing an image sent to me by Carol in Boynton Beach, Florida, whose great-grandmother survived the Chicago fire.

Carol reports that her great-grandmother completed this tapestry just a few months before the fire, and it was one of the things she chose to bring with her in the chaos of that night.  As my last blog post said, the fire came with no warning, and very few people were able to secure a wagon to transport their belongings.  For most people, the only things they were able to save had to be carried on their backs.
 

The people who survived the fire were able to salvage so little of their lives, that those few belongings carried immense emotional value for them.  When I wrote Into the Whirlwind, I included a scene where Mollie decides to keep her stained, cinder-marked scarf as a beautiful/terrible reminder of what she lived through.  Many accounts I read by the fire’s survivors mentioned how they treasured those few items they could salvage.

Carol reports that this tapestry has been passed down through the generations….a memento of that amazing, terrible night.  Many thanks to Carol for sending it along!

I did plenty of research for Into the Whirlwind, a novel of the Chicago fire. I tried to use as many stories from real life as possible to incorporate into the fabric of the novel, since they add a sense of authenticity and the stories were so profoundly moving.

There were many glimpses into the fire I was not able to weave into the book, but they were too moving to be forgotten. Here are a sampling:

In the days after the fire, thousands of telegrams flew in and out of the city. Here is one from a man telling his wife (who was visiting relatives in New York) that they have lost everything: “Store and contents, dwelling and everything lost. Insurance worthless. Buy all the coffee you can and ship this afternoon by express. Don’t cry.”

Oh….. somehow that “don’t cry” gets me every time.

Here’s another:

The streets were chaos and it was hard to breath. The owner of a hat shop stood on his front stoop, shouting at the moving mass of people to grab a hat for their journey. “They’ll all burn up anyway,” he shouted. “Make yourselves at home with a new hat free. No charge! Take what you want!”

Those hats surely came in handy. Survivors wrote that burning ashes swirled through the sky like falling snow, and it was better for a hat to catch fire than someone’s hair!

The story that moved me the most (because I’m a booklover,) was of the old man who was trying to save his set of beautifully bound Shakespeare plays….too many for him to carry. The streets were complete chaos, and the few people driving wagons had them stuffed to capacity as they fled the city. The bookman kept flagging down the wagons, offering people $50 if they would carry his books to safety. One driver after another refused. Finally, the old man said to a driver, “Will you take them if I make a present of them?” The driver agreed. “Take them then,” the owner said. He put them into the wagon, turned away, and burst into tears.”

There are literally hundreds of stories written by the survivors of the fire. You can find them online here.

Below is an artist’s rendering of the absolute chaos on the streets, as people made a mad dash for one of the few bridges to get across the river: