Collyridians supposedly offered fresh-baked bread to Mary.Last week I wrote about the inspiration for the fringe religious order that plagues my main character, Tara, throughout The Awakening Series.Research and reading into traditional and controversial beliefs about the Virgin Mary also influenced The Awakening, though Tara's journey diverges widely from Mary's.(For one thing, Tara's not religious, and the series is not a religious series. Also, so far as I know, there are no ...

When I started The Awakening Series I had two “What Ifs” in mind:What if a (non-religious) young woman today claimed she was pregnant but had never had sex? What if a traditional religious group became convinced she would give birth to a messiah, but then learned the young woman's child would be a girl?While each of the four books in The Awakening Seriesfeatures a specific individual character as the antagonist, the real antagonist for the entire series is that religious group, the Brot...

We're not supposed to judge a book by its cover.All the same, I'm really pleased that the cover for The Illumination, the fourth and final book in my Awakening supernatural thriller series, was included in Kobo Writing Life's 10 Finalists for the Best Science Fiction and Fantasy covers of 2017. (Thank you to cover designer Chrissy from Damonza!)This poll also reminded me of a book I've been waiting for: Map of Shadows by J. F. Penn. I love Penn's London Crime Thriller se...

Please join me to celebrate releasing The Illumination, the finale of The Awakening series, and embracing life as a full-time author. We'll have an appetizer buffet, an Awakening trivia quiz, and a drawing.Prizes include an Amazon gift card and a chance to have a character named after you in my new Q.C. Davis mystery series.All four Awakening books will be available for sale.Where:  Sopraffina Market Cafe, 10 N. Dearborn Street, Chicago, IllinoisDate:   Thursday, September 21, 2017...

More than the other books in The Awakening Series, writing the fourth and final book, The Illumination, required pulling together many threads. It was like a giant puzzle as well as a novel.That made it fun. And challenging.It was also exciting because at last Tara Spencer comes face-to-face with the forces that caused her supernatural pregnancy. She learns the truth about her child's origin—and her own—and everything rests upon what she decides to do about it.Completing and launching the bo...

Did The Virgin Mary Influence The Supreme Court?In 2014, three corporations argued to the United States Supreme Court that paying premiums for health insurance made them a cause of abortions. Everyone - the Court, the government, and the corporations - agreed that the insurance didn't cover abortions. But it did, as the Affordable Care Act required, cover IUDs and emergency contraception.The shareholders of the corporations believed those methods of birth control were the same as abortions a...

My hallway being taken over by books.I've always loved books. But I have to admit, now that there are now so many television series that tell season-long stories, it sometimes cuts into my reading time. (Recent favorites: Agents of Shield and Jessica Jones.) I enjoy watching a good series almost as much as I do reading books.Why only almost? It has to do both with loving to read words on a page (or an ereader) and with how loud the world seems to have become.A cheap vacationReading a good st...

This past weekend, I attended Comic Con Chicago. The panels I made it to were fun and informative, including one with X-Files cast members, one by the creator of the Facebook Page Ladies Geeking Out on gender and geek culture, and another on the intersection between film, books, television, and video games.Seeing all the costumes reminded me of one of the big reasons I loved the new Ghostbusters movie. Not only did I laugh through all of it, I appreciated seeing women on screen dressed appropria...

My plan for this blog entry was to share with you my thoughts on the 2016 Ghostbusters movie, which I loved. I had notes sketched out on a yellow legal pad (because I really like writing on those). But then this morning I realized I was so close to finishing the first draft of The Illumination, the fourth and final book in my Awakening series. So here I am, typing this at 5:35 p.m. central time. I don't have a cool post, but I do have a first draft. A day ahead of schedule. I admit I ha...

Two posts ago, I shared my main goals for the rest of the year and included a timeline. As I write my first draft of the last book in my Awakening series, having that timeline out there for all to see has helped me return to the keyboard even when I'd really like to binge-watch the next three Agents of Shield episodes. (I decided to watch the series on the recommendation of two other participants in the creative retreat described in my last post.)Hattie Caraway, the first woman elected to th...