SUBSTITUTE ANGEL TO BE A FEATURED AT AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION EVENT.

I’m pleased to announce that my otherworldly novel, Substitute Angel, will be one of the titles in the “Hot Indie Author Guide” at the upcoming American Library Association’s Conference & Exhibition being held in Orlando, FL, in June. I’m told that over 150,000 folks will attend and I’m very proud that Substitute Angel will be showcased at the event. So thank you to Jackie Velnoskey who made the invitation!

This was just the little boost I needed this past month because I’m not so sure my newest novel, A Farm In Pennsylvania, will be dropping in May as I previously announced. My publisher has informed me the cover art is still being developed. So, although the text is ready, the packaging isn’t. But rest assured, I’m sure it’ll be coming “sometime” in the near future. I’ll be sure to keep everyone posted.

Meantime, I want to give special thanks to Ashley Carlson of TouchPoint Press who was my editor on A Farm In Pennsylvania. She worked really hard on the book and helped me with not only the usual grammatical stuff, but also some of the historical aspects as well. Historical stories are always tricky things. On the one hand, you want to be as accurate as possible and capture the period in the reader’s mind. On the other hand, the more detail one goes into, the larger the risk of getting something wrong, not to mention weighing down the pace of the story with too much description. So, it’s a bit of tightrope, but Ashley helped me walk that rope really well.

Someone recently asked me what books inspired me to write A Farm In Pennsylvania. Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier had something to do with it. To a lesser degree, so did Stars In Their Courses, The Gettysburg Campaign, by Shelby Foote. There’s even a scene or two in the novel inspired by Tara from Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With The Wind. But what really inspired me was the LACK of stories set in Gettysburg after the battle and the almost anonymous presence of Hispanics in the north back in the 1860’s. As I’ve written before, I love that my heroine is ethnically diverse.

Anyway, see if you recognize these literary influences when A Farm In Pennsylvania finally debuts. Meantime, if you haven’t yet read Substitute Angel, please get yourself a copy. I always prefer a hard copy version over the digital. I want my stories to have weight to them. I want to enjoy the cover art. (Y’know—when its ready.) I want my shelves to be filled with books. They’re like old friends I can visit whenever I want.

And speaking of friends, as always, thanks so much for reading!