Five years ago TODAY, Linda Ulleseit, Kathryn Pritchett, and I attended the HISTORICAL AUTHORS UNITE! ALL ABOUT AUTHOR MARKETING COLLECTIVES session at the Historical Novel Conference in Baltimore. It was heady stuff…hearing authors of the Tall Poppy Writers collective discuss how they amped up their individual book promotion efforts by combining their social media reach.

As soon as the session ended, Linda leapt up from her chair, looked at me, and said, “when we get back to California, we’re doing this!”

And that was the beginning of what became the Paper Lantern Writers Historical Fiction Collective.

This year Paper Lantern Writers is celebrating five years of working together to share our historical fiction with readers around the world, and over the next months, we’ll be sharing memories of our journey with you.

But right now…thanks to the organizers of the 2019 Historical Novel Society conference and to Tall Poppy Writers for the inspiration! And thanks to the thousands of readers who have read our books and short stories, blog posts and social media, and newsletters and panel talks over the past five years!