Category: About Reading & Writing
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Uncovering the Aloha Spirit
Part two in a series about writing family stories. Part one is Turning Family Stories Into Novels. My husband’s grandmother was an amazing woman. I can still hear her laugh. She loved her three daughters, seven grandchildren, and multitude of great-grandchildren, and I’m pleased that my own sons both have good memories of the woman…
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Turning Family Stories into Novels
This is the first in a series. In 2014, I published Under the Almond Trees, a novel featuring three of my female ancestors making their mark in pioneer California. Released in 2020, my novel The Aloha Spirit was inspired by my husband’s grandmother. My work in progress follows a female ancestor born at Fort Snelling…
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Indie Bookstores in San Jose
July is National Independent Retailer Month, so of course I want to celebrate indie bookstores. My hometown of San Jose, California, however, doesn’t have a lot of any kind of bookstores. San Jose is a city of over a million people, the third largest city in California. It bills itself as the cultural, financial, and…
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On Winning Awards
No author I’ve ever spoken to writes because they might win an award. I’ve also never heard a reader admit they choose books to read because of an award its won. Librarians and booksellers say, though, that award stickers on the cover do influence what books people pick up. I don’t know the truth of…
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Five Reasons for Adults to Read All Year
Summer reading is a thing because students have always been encouraged by teachers to read during that long school vacation. Libraries and bookstores even have special programs to encourage children to read all summer. Reading all summer should be a habit we all started when we were in school. Most adults, however, don’t have all…