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A CURSE OF ASH AND IRON and The Cape May Diamond

During the course of CURSE, Ellie (the main character, if you haven’t read the book yet. And WHY NOT??) has to find a Cape May Diamond.

This is a real thing.

I’ve been a Jerseydelphian (someone who lives in Jersey, but whose ‘big city’ is Philadelphia) for my whole life. So when i went to write a steampunk Victorian fairy tale, it only made sense to put it in Philadelphia. I mean, the Centennial Exposition, which I already blogged about, was just one reason. I love where I live, it has SO muc...

Excerpt 1: A CURSE OF ASH AND IRON

I present you all, my lovelies, with the first excerpt of CURSE:

The roar of applause jolted Ben out of his reverie. The lights lowered, he raised the curtain, and the second act began. In between set changes, he dashed back to his place to look at Ellie. The performance ended, and Ben couldn’t let her go without one last look. He lowered the main curtain, apparently a bit too quickly for the lead actor.

“Excuse me, but I was not finished with my curtain call!” he shouted at Ben as he dashed...

Hasta la vista, Babies!

Well, we’re off! By now, we’re probably high in the air, Orlando-bound. Take care of each other, be nice, and I’ll see you when I get back. Enjoy the posts I’ve scheduled for your enjoyment.

I’ll probably post pics on the Twitter and FB feeds, if you’re interested!

More Vera Bradley Disney bags???

When Vera Bradley announced that it would be doing a Disney line in 2013, I was really excited! I love Disney, and I love Vera. My husband would say I have a bag addition. Well, maybe, but I need something to carry around my books in, right?

I actually got a Mousin’ Around hipster online to take on our vacation:

Which has since been retired, by the way, so I’m glad I got it. I went looking to see what else they have now. OMG, guys. There are NEW patterns!

Laser cut– not my thing, but very n...

This is what going on vacation looks like — A Family Disney Adventure

I’m giving you all a break from posts about CURSE — don’t worry, I have more scheduled. Since I am getting ready to go on vacation.

To Disney.

In July.

Being in education, there is really only one time to go on vacation. Summer. And my son earned his Disney vacation by getting Honor Roll every marking period for four straight years. He really did. And he’s leaving elementary school and starting middle school, so this is like a graduation present, too. When I started planning this expedition,...

A CURSE OF ASH AND IRON and THE ILLUSIONIST

Just as I did lots of research for A CURSE OF ASH AND IRON, I also used some other things for inspiration. If you know me, you know I LOVE movies. I have an extensive DVD collection, as well a Netflix and Amazon Prime memberships. Any good storytelling, and I’m there.

When I was writing the book, I knew I wanted Ben to be an inventor. I threw in his working at the theater, well, because of family history reasons. Combining the theater, and the ‘real’ magic in the book, with the ‘invented’ mag...

A CURSE OF ASH AND IRON and the Centennial Exposition

Happy Birthday America! Being the 4th of July, I have a little relevant post today :)

The book’s out now, and I think enough people have read it that I can do some posts about stuff IN the book. Don’t worry, no spoilers!

I did a lot of research for this book. A LOT. Because I like looking stuff up, first of all — hello, Librarian! Second, I needed something to connect to Ben’s love of building things. And the Centennial Exposition had all of that.

What was it? It was the FIRST World’s Fair he...

Escape room phenomenon comes to Lancaster – FlipSidePA.com

This sounds like a blast — especially the 19th century decor.

Escape room phenomenon comes to Lancaster – FlipSidePA.com.

The Story behind the Story — A CURSE OF ASH AND IRON

Okay, so now I have a chance to tell. I should have done before now, but yanno, as I explained, Murphy’s law was in full effect right around the time of the release and for the last week. It’s been so long since I released a book, since I WROTE this book, that I almost forgot what I was supposed to do after a book came out!

So here’s my story. Some ofyou will know some of this, those who have been following along at home.

CURSE began as an idea in Spring of 2008 (maybe? My memory is a mess a...

Murphy was here

So, about a week ago, I made this big blog post about why I had been so absent from the blog. And I swore I would be back with blogs related to CURSE, and all kinds of other stuff.

And then, I disappeared for a week.

Well, darling readers, life is a weird and often unbelievable thing. Last Tuesday was a HOT day. Like, really hot. And we were predicted to get some heavy thunderstorms in the evening when the cold front came through to break it all up. Tuesday evening, about 6pm, my family and I...