Merry Christmas from Vermont!

Christmas is fast approaching. Lively, busy days for so many of us!

We just bought our Vermont-grown tree and plan to decorate it on Sunday. Off to Christmas afternoon tea tomorrow at the Inn on Boltwood in Amherst, MA, an annual event with my mother, my youngest sister (I have three sisters!), my daughter and my two young granddaughters.

Be sure to take a moment to enter my holiday contest. (US only). I chose the calendar on a recent trip to Ireland. It features watercolor illustrations of Irish hedgerows and farmland. Aren’t they beautiful?

The winner will also receive signed hardcove… Read More

Ireland writing getaway

Just popping in with a few photos from my “hideaway cottage” on the southwest Irish coast. I’m here with Joe for a few weeks to hike, read by the fire, enjoy the wonderful people and surroundings and write. Rain, wind, sun, whiskey, cows, stone walls, great food, great scenery…and Halloween. We’ll see what comes of all this creative inspiration!

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Winding Irish Country Roads

Exploring country roads is one of my favorite activities on our visits to Ireland. We love seeing the sights–we’ve toured museums, distilleries, historic houses and castles–but there’s nothing quite like taking off down a twisting lane, wondering where it goes and what we’ll see along the way.

Maybe my love of twisting country roads goes back to my rural New England childhood. My folks would pile all seven of us kids into the car and go for a drive, often to the nearby Quabbin Reservoir. It’d be harder to pull off these days with so many people needing se… Read More

For a perfect getaway…books!

I love to write on getaways to hotels, inns and cottages, but reading? A must, and a special pleasure. I always have a print book with me (as well as my e-reader) on the road, but what fun it is to discover books on my various stays. Bedside Reading pairs luxury hotels with up-and-coming books. Oh, my. How perfect! Rival’s Break is a featured novel this summer, and I couldn’t be more honored and thrilled. Here it is in the gorgeous Mandarin Oriental New York.Quite a reading spot! Thank you!

When signing at Turn the Page Bookstore in picturesque Boonsboro, MD, authors are invited to sig… Read More

Visiting the English Cotswolds

Whatever time of year, rain or shine, Joe and I have enjoyed our visits to the Cotswolds west of London. Now we need to visit when it snows! Or just go again, anytime. The rolling hills of this beautiful part of the English countryside are crisscrossed with marked trails. I bought a big map–yes, paper–to guide us. We did go astray a few times, but that’s half the fun. Well. Except for that time when I got into nettle. I hadn’t done that since I was a kid and it stung. Our inn was very helpful in providing baking soda, not to mention a terrific gin-and-tonic, and I was back on th… Read More

Beautiful Scotland

Scotland captured my imagination long before I ever traveled there. We went back in June, for two wonderful weeks before the busy-ness of summer set in at home. We had some cool, showery days that would feel good right now!

That’s me below, in the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh. The gardens are a fantastic place to walk off an overnight flight across the Atlantic. Joe and I had scones and tea overlooking the gardens. His brother and sister and their spouses arrived the next day and the six of us dived in to our Scotland adventures.

From Edinburgh we drove to Pitlochry, where we did the Lin of … Read More

Summer in Boston

Does summer in the city appeal to you? I spent my first summer in Boston after my junior year in college and had a great time. Long walks in the evening, 4th of July fireworks, ice cream shops, harbor dinner cruises (well, one), Beacon Hill window boxes and countless other bonuses of a city summer. We love our hilltop house in Vermont and our excursions to Ireland and Maine, but our July, August and September visits to Boston are special, and not just because our grandchildren live there! Not something I thought much about that first summer in the city…

Some of my books set entirely or partiall… Read More

Happy Summer!

Happy summer! We’re in summer mode here on our hilltop. We’re just back from a couple of weeks in beautiful Scotland and long, long June days. We were joined by Joe’s brother and sister and their spouses for a fun get-together. Memorable walks, dinners, laughs and sightseeing. The weather was sometimes rainy, sometimes sunny (Scotland, right?) but we loved every minute. Below are photos of Isle of Skye.

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Beautiful Maine

Last weekend I scooted over to Portland for the Maine Writers’ Retreat, an annual gathering of about 40 writers at all stages of their careers. Great fun! I’ve spent a lot of time in Maine, especially along the coast (“down east” of Acadia) but also inland, with friends who have a “camp” on Rangely Lake. Maine has served as a setting for a number of my romantic suspense novels:

On Fire

The Harbor

The Widow

Rival’s Break (releases August 27)

Southern Maine is FBI agents Emma Sharpe and Colin Donovan’s home base in the Sharpe & Donovan series, which launched in 2011 with Saint’s Ga… Read More

Loving winter, dreaming of spring

We’re deep into our Vermont winter, with snow and a frigid temperatures in the forecast. I do love New England winters (except when they drag into April!), but I find myself dreaming of spring at the moment. I spent most of the day writing by the woodstove and now I’m thinking about what I want to plant this spring, and where we want to go.

Joe and I love to travel in early spring. It’s an amazing time to take long walks on Irish lanes, with lambs prancing through grassy fields and colorful wildflowers popping up everywhere. The photo with me in my orange Irish raincoat was taken on a … Read More