A Brand New Release with Eight Other Historical Fiction Authors

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for voting for Seven Noble Knights in the TaleFlick Discovery Contest. The week was packed with meeting new people and feeling supported, something that is all too rare for an author. Seven Noble Knights finished in 14th place. It's not a win, but it's not bad, either, considering the competition! I couldn't have done it without your support, so THANK YOU.

I don't have much to show my gratitude aside from some interesting little medieval stories for free:

Get "Trout Riot," a one-act play, in three different formats for free here.















And now for the great cover reveal!

We All Fall Down: Stories of Plague and Resilience is the result of a unique collaboration between nine bestselling and award-winning historical fiction authors: yours truly, Kristin Gleeson, Lisa Yarde, David Blixt, Deborah Swift, Jean Gill, Katherine Pym, Laura Morelli, and Melodie Winawer.

Plague has no favorites.

In this anthology, USA Today, international bestselling, and award-winning authors imagine a world where anyone—rich, poor, young, old—might be well in the morning and dead by sundown.

Readers will follow in the footsteps of those who fought to rebuild shattered lives as the plague left desolation in its wake.

* An Irish woman tends her dying father while the Normans threaten her life and property—

* A Hispano-Muslim doctor fights the authorities to stem the spread of the deadly pestilence at great personal cost—

* A Tuscan street hawker and a fresco painter watch citizens perish all around them even as they paint a better future—

* A Spanish noblewoman lives at the mercy of a jealous queen after plague kills the king—

* The Black Death leaves an uncertain legacy to Dante’s son—

* In Venice, the artist Titian agonizes over a death in obscurity—

* A Scottish thief loses everything to plague and repents in the hope of preventing more losses—

* Two teenagers from 2020 time-travel to plague-stricken London and are forever changed—

* And when death rules in Ottoman-occupied Greece, a Turk decides his own fate.

Nine tales bound together by humanity’s fortitude in the face of despair: a powerful collection of stories for our own time.

In dark and deadly times, love and courage shine bright.

My story immerses the reader in the harrowing final years of Leonor Núñez de Guzmán y Ponce de León, the true love of Alfonso XI of Castile. Alfonso XI was the only monarch to succumb to the Black Death. Though his jealous queen stripped Leonor of all her power, she has gone down in history as the mother of Enrique II of Castile, the first king of the Trastámara line.

We All Fall Down will be available for ebook purchase on March 1! Preorder it at many venues here.

Goodreads | Amazon.com | Amazon.es | Amazon.com.mx | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.ca | Barnes and Noble | Apple iBooks | Kobo | 24 Symbols | Smashwords | Indigo | Angus & Robertson | Mondadori

Find new authors, locales, and time periods to love in this slim volume packed with substance. Softcover to follow very soon.


¡Grandes noticias para mis lectores en español! Por fin está disponible Mundos impredecibles en las tiendas Amazon: Amazon.com, Amazon.es y Amazon.com.mx.

Subscribers to my newsletter saw the amazing cover of We All Fall Down last night and found out about the magical science fantasy I'm currently working on. Just sayin'.

Can You Help Seven Noble Knights Take a Trip to a Movie Studio?

2020 is shaping up to be the year of Seven Noble Knights, with tons of great news.

First and foremost, the search for a new home that started in mid-2018 is over. Medieval masterpiece Seven Noble Knights will be re-released in December 2020. You can delve into the rich tapestry of romance, revenge, war, and adventure at the end of this year! The wonderful team at Encircle Publications is getting a new cover and spruced-up edition ready as we speak.

As if that weren't wonderful enough, Seven Noble Knights is also set to appear in December 2020 in Italian! The translation is already under way. Expect to hear more about this unexpected literary gift soon.

And most exciting news right now: Have you ever wanted to see your favorite actor get hit with a bloody cucumber while wearing medieval underpants? Now that long-awaited possibility is within your grasp!

Seven Noble Knights has been selected to compete in the TaleFlick Discovery contest. With your help, this epic of medieval Spain can win a chance at being optioned for a movie or series!

Voting takes place now through February 14 at 4 p.m. Pacific/ 7 p.m. Eastern/ 1 a.m. on February 15 Central European Time. Be sure to get your vote in before time's up!

To vote, go to TaleFlick.com and click off any pop-ups. You don't have to subscribe to anything in order to vote. Near the top of the page, you will see something like this:

If Seven Noble Knights is not on the first page, it needs your help even more! You can search for it by typing "Seven Noble Knights" into the bar circled above and clicking the magnifying glass.

Seven Noble Knights appears with its original cover.

When you have Seven Noble Knights in your sights, you can expand the description using the white arrows at the center bottom, share the contest, or comment using the square speech balloon under the book cover, which is linked up to Facebook comments.

Or, just vote, clicking the upward arrow button on the right, which I have circled in the picture above. As I mentioned, you don't have to sign in or sign up for anything to vote, so you can help Seven Noble Knights with no commitment! The whole process takes all of five seconds with a good internet connection.

The page accepts one vote per IP address. So two people using the same wifi only get one vote, but say you have a tablet at home, a dinosaur desktop you use at work, and a phone you can hook up in a cafe--each of those could be a vote!

So please click away as you are able and tell everyone you know who loves medieval epics, Spain, or great movies based on exciting legends to vote for Seven Noble Knights at TaleFlick.com!

You will have a say in what actors get which roles when casting starts!

Thanks for reading. I'm so grateful for your help in making Seven Noble Knights a movie or series!

Treasure Quest: Discovery Lies Between The Covers: Mega Author Blog Hop Tour WINNERS

The winners have been chosen!

Grand Prize Winner of a signed paperback: Barbara (Babs) Hightower

First Prize Winners of digital copies: Avid book reviewer Saph of saphsbookblog and voracious reader Robin D

Congratulations! Enjoy your copies of Sail To Italy and Sail From Italy!

These are my two favorites out of all the wonderful suggestions I got for the coming year of my blog. (Thanks for the compliments! They make me feel like I have some idea what I'm doing!)

1. "I want to continue following your writing adventures!" Kay Springsteen. iluvkimi220 and Krystal Larson expressed similar (flattering!) desires.

2. "It's cool to put up stuff you like... what makes you you... whether it's hot guys or chocolate fantasy painting" Nikki. Robin D made a similar comment. Sorry to say, my interests outside of writing aren't that inherently exciting! But we'll see what we can do.

I'll address all the ideas I received either in an individual post in the coming weeks, or as a general modus operandi in the coming year. Thanks for the suggestions. I'm so glad I asked!

Happy blogoversary to me....

Trip Around the World Mega Author Blog Hop: Ticket to Paradise (Córdoba, Spain)

Interior of the Mezquita (former Mosque, now Cathedral). This part was under
construction during the time The Seven Noble Knights of Lara takes place.

Welcome to Córdoba, Spain! Gonzalo Gustioz, father of the Seven Noble Knights of Lara, travels to Córdoba carrying a very special letter for the de facto caliph of Andalusia, Almanzor, in my work-in-progress, The Seven Noble Knights of Lara. The book takes place in the year 974, and Gonzalo is completely gobsmacked by the beauty, technology, and culture of the capital of Andalusia, also a world capital of learning and science.

Exterior of the Mezquita with Christian Baroque bell tower built on the
site of the minaret.

Córdoba today is a delightful small city having finally regained the population it had in its ninth-century heyday, and the magical atmosphere is the result of being a true crossroads and melting pot more than one thousand years ago. Be sure to visit the Mezquita, an jewel of world architecture, built by Muslim artisans over the site of a Visigothic basilica; one of the very few medieval synagogues that survived the Spanish Middle Ages; the Palace of the Christian Kings, where Columbus first asked Queen Isabel to finance his transatlantic journey, and which is being restored to its former glory; and Medina Azahara, the archeological remains of the caliphs' palace complex, physical reminder of astounding splendor and turbulent politics.

The Roman Bridge links Córdoba's two sides over the Guadalquivir.

Check back at this blog for news about The Seven Noble Knights of Lara.


Leave a comment on this blog for a chance to win a free PDF, epub, or Kindle copy (reader's choice) of my bewilderingly wonderful Tree/House and magnificently silly YA series Sail To Italy and Sail From Italy. There will be two winners! 


This contest runs from May 16 to May 23, midnight to midnight.

Not sunburned enough yet? Are you ready for your next holiday at a super sunny destination? Natural wonders abound in Arizona with author Kim Bowman.


Here are the rules for the Trip Around the World Mega Author blog hop.


1) Have fun!

2) Invite all of your friends! Spread the word!

3) This tour starts Monday, May 16, at midnight (Arizona time) and it ends Monday, May 23, at midnight (Arizona time).

4) Meet and mingle with all the authors! Experience a new destination at every stop! Participate in every blog contest and be entered for chances to win multiple prizes! Every blog visited is another opportunity to win! 

5) Participation at every blog is not required, but is recommended. Remember, the more you hop, the more chances you have to win. Every author is waiting to meet and interact with you, so please be sure to show every author some love!

6) Did I mention to have fun? Whoo hoo! Here we gooooooooo!