Today (June 27, 2023) marks the publication of my sixth novel. Sixth novel!? It still surprises me when people say, “Oh, you’re a prolific writer!” or “You have a lot of books!” Of course there are writers who have many more books than I do, and writers who manage more than a book every couple of years, so I take these comments with a grain of salt. You see, I don’t think of myself as an established author. I am still learning, still striving to be better, still working on my brand and my marketing. I do believe I’ve managed to master enough to share tips with other writers, and I love doing so at various speaking engagements. So what makes the release of novel #6 different?

My first four novels are self published. They were released in 2012, 2013, and two in 2014. At that time, I had zero social media presence and no contacts in any reading or writing groups other than TheNextBigWriter.com. I published each book and sat there, imagining a drop of water in the ocean. It was all quite anticlimactic.

My fifth novel, The Aloha Spirit, was published by She Writes Press in August of 2020, right in the middle of the pandemic. Everything my publisher and I had planned for the launch had to be canceled. No one was familiar with Zoom yet, and no one had yet envisioned what a virtual launch looked like. This time, though, I was not alone on publication day, My fellow Paper Lantern Writers supported me, as well as hundreds of friends I’d made online.

Today for The River Remembers  in-person launch party, several of the Paper Lantern Writers will be there. I will also see neighborhood friends, book club friends, and online friends. Online celebrations will include blogs, reviews, book tours, and ads. If you’ve not seen any of those, you’re not hanging out in the right groups online!

The River Remembers is my third heritage novel. It is inspired by an ancestor of mine who lived at Fort Snelling in 1835. At that time, a lot of events tookplace that would affect the future of our country, happening around people who would become famous for leadership roles in the country. My novel is told in three points of view. The first, Samantha Lockwood, is my ancestor, a member of a prominent family in Wisconsin Territory at the time. The second is Day Sets, daughter of a Dakota chief who tried to figure out a future where his people could coexist with the white man. The last is Harriet Robinson, an enslaved woman who married Dred Scott at the fort the following year. The three women’s stories entwine like the cultures they represent.

See early reviews on my website

See buy links for paperback and ebook