Questions and answers Archives

Old As The Hills displayed on a tablet, in a stone arch with a glowing purple night sky behind it. The cover of Old As The Hills has a man with a can and a woman silhouetted on a green ground with a map. She holds out her hand, he is putting something into it, forming a doorway between them. An astrological chart behind them shows the symbols for Venus, the Sun, Jupiter, and Saturn highlighted behind a splash of glowing stars.

Neurodiversity in my books

April 17, 2024 / In Character, Questions and answers

A guide to neurodiverse characters in my books, as of 2024. (Check out the grid early in the post for the current complete list.)

Ancient Trust, Best Foot Forward, Bound for Perdition, Casting Nasturtiums, Complementary, Eclipse, Illusion of a Boar, Old As The Hills, On The Bias, Pastiche, Perfect Accord, Seven Sisters, Shoemaker's Wife, The Fossil Door, The Magic of Four, Three Graces, Upon A Summer's Day

Four Walls and a Heart lying on a table with autumn gourds. The cover is a deep red, with a man in a wheelchair and a man standing, both in silhouette, in front of a large blue and glass door.

Age, characters, and time passing

January 24, 2024 / Questions and answers

A look at characters, age, and time passing. What it means to write across a range of time periods for me and my characters.

As The Ground Shifts, Mistress Of Birds, Seven Sisters, The Fossil Door

Cover of In The Cards displayed in a gleaming silver frame, with purple flowers on the right and a purple velvet high-heeled shoes.

Happily ever after, no kids

September 13, 2023 / Mysterious Arts, Mysterious Charm, Mysterious Powers, Questions and answers

Do people need to have kids to have their happily ever after. Some of my characters have kids, but not everyone does! Here’s more about those books.

Ancient Trust, Bound for Perdition, Complementary, Fool's Gold, Four Walls and a Heart, Illusion of a Boar, In The Cards, Mistress Of Birds, On The Bias, Point By Point, Seven Sisters, The Hare And The Oak

Copy of Pastiche on a white wood background, surrounded by golden yellow leaves that pick up on the yellow of the stained glass window on the cover.

Where to start

August 9, 2023 / Questions and answers, Writing and publishing

Thoughts about where to start with my books (and a link to a page all about that).

Ancient Trust, Best Foot Forward, Fool's Gold, Goblin Fruit, Old As The Hills, On The Bias, Pastiche, Seven Sisters, Shoemaker's Wife, Upon A Summer's Day

Cover of Eclipse displayed on a tablet, resting on a pine bough, surrounded by wood five-pointed stars.

Fanfic and me

July 19, 2023 / Announcements, Questions and answers, Writing and publishing

I love fanfic! I don’t want to see fanfic of my books. Read to learn more about why (and how to share art and other fun.)

Cover of Best Foot Forward displayed on a tablet, with a palm leaf, on a golden yellow background. The cover has a deep red background with map markings in a dull purple. Two men in silhouette stand, looking up at a point in the top left. An astrology chart with different symbols picked out takes up the left side of the image, with glowing stars curving up to the title.

What can you expect from this book?

July 12, 2023 / Questions and answers, Reading

A guide to finding more about what to expect from my books.

Cover of Fool's Gold displayed on a tablet, set on a desk with a pink rose, a fountain pen, a jar of ink, and paper.

All the information you might want

June 29, 2023 / Albion, Announcements, Questions and answers

A guide to where to find things on the website. (As of the update of June 2023.)

WorldAnvil

The cover of Old As The Hills displayed on a tablet in front of a pine forest, dotted with firefly light. The cover of Old As The Hills has a man with a can and a woman silhouetted on a green ground with a map. She holds out her hand, he is putting something into it, forming a doorway between them. An astrological chart behind them shows the symbols for Venus, the Sun, Jupiter, and Saturn highlighted behind a splash of glowing stars.

Reviews and how they help

May 3, 2023 / Questions and answers, Writing and publishing

Wondering about why reviews matter so much or some simple ways to share one? This post has more help.

Pastiche, Sailor's Jewel

The cover of Ancient Trust on a tablet, surrounded glasses, bottles of alcohol, and a man in a tailored suit. The cover shows a man with a monocle in silhouette, leaning on a table stacked with books.

Lords & Ladies: A guide to the land magic

September 30, 2022 / Albion, Novellas, Questions and answers

Are you curious about the land magic? Carillon’s background? What it means to be a Lord in Albion? Did you know there’s a new novella out? It’s my treat if you sign up for my newsletter. (Feel free to unsubscribe when you need to, of course. But I hope you’ll stick around, at least for an email or two that will let you get all the other treats I share with my newsletter subscribers.) Ancient Trust is all about what happens when Geoffrey Carillon inherits the title on his brother’s death. It has quite a lot about the land magic customs at Ytene. It also led to some interesting questions from a reader. (I love reader questions. Sometimes I haven’t settled on my final answer about something. But I’ll let you know if you ask something I can’t answer yet. Or if you ask something that’s too much of a spoiler for something that’s coming out in the future.) The questions: It got me thinking, how do the Lords of Albion engage with the House of Lords? Is attending Westminster an additional responsibility for Carillion? Do Albion peerages result in having the right to sit in the House? And what about the women? How does the Land Magic recognise women? These are great questions – and also some that I haven’t quite found the right place to get into text. Let’s take this one by one in an order that should help.

Ancient Trust, Goblin Fruit, Pastiche, The Hare And The Oak

Question answered! Character ages

April 28, 2022 / Questions and answers

I got an email from a reader (hi!) asking a couple of questions, including this one: “In your romantic couples, the women seem to be consistently a little older (or a lot older) than the men. Was this a conscious choice, and if so, is there a reason for it?”

Best Foot Forward, Fool's Gold, Goblin Fruit, In The Cards, Magician's Hoard, Outcrossing, Pastiche, Sailor's Jewel, Seven Sisters, The Fossil Door

Neurodiversity and recent history

October 13, 2021 / Mysterious Charm, Mysterious Powers, Novellas, Questions and answers

If you’ve read more than a couple of my books, chances are that you’ve noticed a number of them have characters who are what we’d now describe as neurodiverse. Neurodiversity is a term that encompasses a lot of conditions or experiences of how people think and interact with the world. They can include a wide range of things we have some names for, and plenty of things we don’t. Some you’ve probably heard of include autism, ADHD or ADD, dyslexia, dyscalculia, or dyspraxia Tourette’s Syndrome and some mental health conditions. Some estimates suggest that 30-40% of people fall into at least one of these categories (there can be overlaps, which make statistics harder…) There’s also a huge range of experiences and ways this shows up for people. Each and every person has a unique brain and set of life experiences. All sorts of factors like family support or expectations, educational support, professional support and guidance (if testing and/or medication is part of the picture) make a difference in what it means for an individual. We also know that while the term ‘neurodiversity’ is quite modern (it was coined in the late 1990s by Australian sociologist Judy Singer), that neurodiverse folks have been part of the world since, well, there were people. For example, John Donvan and Caren Zucker wrote In a Different Key: The Story of Autism, a history of autism. As part of their research they discovered records from the mid-1800s that pretty clearly describe what we’d call autism today,

Casting Nasturtiums, Complementary, Eclipse, On The Bias, Seven Sisters, The Fossil Door

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