Here There and Everywhere

I’ve been writing articles around the Net recently, to help promote The Girl in the Empty Dress, and to support people who have helped me. Here’s a wrap-up and where to read more.

Over at DV Berkom’s cool blog I discuss music and writing, how they inform each other.

Songwriters and literary writers have much in common, the creative use of words, imagery and emotion conveyed in a stylized manner, and often the subject matter itself. The love song and the love story have provided endless twists on the human need for affection and belonging. Whether a poet or a novelist, a folk singer or a classically trained violinist, a writer of haiku or 150,000-word novels, the muse flows through her, in word or song.

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At Janet Rudolph’s Mystery Fanfare we chat about the French setting of the new book. Is a setting a “character” in the book?

Does setting matter? Yes, very much to me as reader and writer. Although both books feature five American sisters, the novels rely as much on their setting as almost anything else. My “other” France, the Dordogne region of southwest France, originally called the Perigord, is a fertile region known for its foie gras, duck confit, and black truffles. 

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At Lois Winston’s blog, Killer Crafts and Crafty Killers, there’s more Frenchness.

History really comes alive in these old places where the ‘bastide’ walls are still solid after 800 years. But the delicacies of this area are the real delights. Black Perigord truffles are famous around the world. Difficult to harvest, they are becoming scarcer as climate change alters their natural habitat in these sunny hills and valleys.

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Thanks to all these bloggers for hosting me.

Reviews for The Girl in the Empty Dress are coming in!

Lots of intrigue, romance, French countryside, wine and cheese, and it is a real page turner.

Very fun read. Enjoyed the glimpses of rural France and the character development along with the mystery.

Have you read it? Please write a short review on the website where you bought it. Readers love to hear what you think!