The Fairness of Beasts is Published!

Today is the day! Book III in the Widow Walk Saga is now live on Amazon, and I am thrilled. The team at Solipsis Publishing and I have been working hard for months to get everything ready, and it’s exciting to release the book to the world. Click here to order The Fairness of Beasts…

Read More

The Fairness of Beasts Pre-Order Bundles Are Here

Hello everyone, I am thrilled to announce that pre-orders for The Fairness of Beasts, Book III of The Widow Walk Saga, are now available. We are very happy with this book, and reviews are already starting to come in. We are honored that The Midwest Review named it a Reviewer’s Choice as well as selecting it…

Read More

The Medallions of the Widow Walk Saga (so far)

Many people have asked about the beautiful medallions that adorn the covers of the first three books in the Widow Walk saga.   Who did them?  Why did you choose to use them?  How were they created?  What do they represent? Widow Walk The talented Randy Mott of Mott Graphics (MottGraphics.com) is the designer of…

Read More

2017 Artist Trust LaSalle Storyteller Award

I consider it an honor to support the arts, especially in Washington State where I live and work. When I developed this StoryTeller Award with Washington State’s Artist Trust, I wanted to be part of their work supporting regional artists. I named it the “StoryTeller Award” because I believe there is an unacknowledged responsibility of fiction…

Read More

Artist Chat: Representing Women in Literature

Earlier this summer I had the pleasure of being part of an artist’s chat with to award-winning author Karen Essex. Karen has written many books based on hidden stories behind famous women like Kleopatra, and it was fascinating to hear her insight into how women are represented across the media, and talk with her about…

Read More

When Britannia Ruled the Northwest: April Presentation at Folio

I am happy to announce that I am one of four presenters at an upcoming event at Folio: A Seattle Anthenaeum. For those who don’t know Folio, it’s part of a national community of 21 membership libraries in North America that provides a full schedule of programs and discussion groups, as well as library collections…

Read More

Help us choose the Book III cover

Designing a great book cover is an intricate project that requires time and craft, and I have always enjoyed the process. For the cover of The Fairness of Beasts, book III in the Widow Walk saga, I am delighted to be working with two of the artists who helped design my previous covers as well.…

Read More

Battling the Northerners: Stories that Shaped Widow Walk

During the summer of my second year in medical school, at the invitation of a classmate who also was a Pacific Northwest transplant, I had the opportunity to work with him as a salmon fisherman on a “reef net” boat.  That summer, I met several Lummi Tribe Native Americans who live in the area right on…

Read More

Who Were “The Northerners” of the Pacific Northwest?

Widow Walk

In 1844, a schooner called “Pigeon” was found adrift, empty and burned out, off of Maury Island in the south part of the Oregon Territory’s Puget Sound. The craft’s seven man crew was never found. Natives in the area attributed the disaster to an early morning attack by the “Northerners” who came on longboats. WHO…

Read More

Drums of the Castle – Timballo di LaCasella

The following is a recent variation on an ancient recipe, created originally in Valenzano á Bari, by the family of my grandfather, Alfonso. Because the people of his village did not use surnames the way we do now, and because his family had lived within the protected domain of the local castle in Valenzano, when he,…

Read More

Recipe: Italian Country Bread with Cannellini, Escarole and Olive Oil

Over the past few months it has been my treat to bring together in cooking classes a variety of friends, college, medical school and high school classmates, fellow writers, physicians and long-lost cousins. We remodeled an already beautiful home on Capitol Hill in Seattle by ripping out a small kitchen and creating a huge, modern…

Read More

13 Things to Remember When Writing Historical Fiction

Guest post by Avasta Press Kelsye Nelson, the founder of Avasta Press, hosted a webinar with historical fiction author Gar LaSalle. Gar talked about 13 things to remember when writing historical fiction. He answered questions from the audience at the end of the webinar. Our favorite tip is number 13: Villains abound. Gar writes villains…

Read More

Italian Translation of Widow Walk Now Available!

Guest post by Avasta team. [dropcap color=”” boxed=”no” boxed_radius=”8px” class=”” id=””]W[/dropcap]idow Walk is now available with side-by-side Italian translation. You may read the English on one side, and read the Italian version on the other. It is perfect for language learners! Italian description: A metà dell’Ottocento il Nordovest Pacifico, un vasto territorio fatto di foreste impenetrabili…

Read More

Creation of “FLOW”…Bronze Sculpture

We installed two bronze sculptures a few weeks ago. This short video shows the steps: including my original maquette model, the CAD scanning, the CNC-cut blow up into industrial (blue) foam, my undercutting the foam (because the CNC can’t do that), the clay coating of the foam, the texturing of the clay, the latex molding of…

Read More