It’s an annual event. Publishers Weekly announces what they consider to be the best 100 books of the year. What was fun was to see that out of the 100 books of all kinds, romance got 5 slots. What was astonishing, at least to me, was that my first historical romance, BARELY A LADY, was… Read More

Probably the most frequent question I’m asked. And wish I could give people a better answer than “everywhere.” But I’m afraid that’s the truth. Maybe if I tell you about how my latest idea is forming, you might get a better idea. I’m working on a series of historical romance set at the end of… Read More

I have always wanted to travel to Italy, specifically Pompeii and Venice. I know. It makes no sense, but there you are. For different reasons, both places drew me. So when I agreed to plan the family trip to Italy, the stipulation was that we include Pompeii and Venice. Pompeii was everything I thought it… Read More

I love to plan trips. I love to research them, to find out the interesting places I want to see, the history I want to search out, the unique and the out of the way places that simply need to be visited. On the trip we’re taking now, to Italy, I planned eight days worth… Read More

Everybody in America knows what old is. Old is before television. Old is before computers and microwaves. Really old involves either Pilgrims or Native Americans, who fought nature to tame a wild and often unforgiving land. That is old. We in America are infants. I just spent three days in Rome. Yeah, I can see… Read More

When you travel to a new place, it’s inevitable you’re going to cross paths with every other tourist in the country, at least once or twice. We did it in the Vatican yesterday, and Amalfi two days before that. The cool places have already been found, and they’ve been found by the companies with the… Read More

The first thing you need to know about Italian meals is that they are an event. Because I was speaking at the Women’s Fiction Festival, I got vouchers for every meal at about a dozen of the restaurants in Matera. And they kept apologizing when I presented my voucher. Until I got a bit more… Read More

I probably could have learned this stuff if I’d just read Joseph Campbell. Sadly, I just can’t get through non-fiction. I’m blaming it on my ADD. I don’t know. What I do know is that I’ve had a lot more fun learning the same lessons by visiting different places in the world. And that is… Read More

I said it before. I swear I’m never doing this again. I sound suspiciously like Robert Downey Jr. to a judge. But I really, really mean it. Okay. I love to travel. I think we’ve established that. I love to plan trips. Half the fun for me is finding that interesting little place on a… Read More

Too often eating is a chore. I’m not one of those people who considers food fuel. I consider it art, inspiration, passion. It is, at its best, a sensual marriage of sight, scent and taste. I don’t eat bread. First I inhale its scent—ah, wheat, rye, honey, maybe asiago cheese–(you can imagine how delighted my… Read More