Welcome to Pairings

I'm playing favorites with books while I count down the days to the Unspoken Book Club Launch July3. Catch three+ of my favorites.

Diving deep into the creative evolution of a seasoned art director turned full-time author on the Hill Country Authors Podcast.

Today in Texas Writers Month, we turn to the women. When you're reading Texas authors who write about Texas, and watching films set in Texas, having a woman's point of view is in itself a whole new genre. Here are nine Texas women writers to get to know.

With so many Texas authors to applaud and read in May during Texas Writers Month, are you wondering where to start?

Even the dystopian novels I'm reading these days aren't predicting that. Instead, they're showing us our history, and a way forward.

What Did It Take to Become America’s First Female Cabinet Member? The only woman in the room, and the only individual to serve in FDR’s cabinet for his entire term, arrived for her job interview on February 22, 1933 with a very ambitious list.

On This Day 90 Years Ago, the Biggest, Baddest, Blackest Dust Storm of Them All Struck the Texas Panhandle — and set the stage for the opening of my historical novel, Unspoken (A Dust Novel) ... on Black Sunday: April 14, 1935.

Nearly a century ago, the unthinkable happened: The U.S. was five years into the biggest ecological disaster we'd ever known.

When the fire broke out in a trash can on March 25, 1911, only one garment worker noticed. But soon the flames and smoke were inescapable.

UNSPOKEN shines a light on women driven apart by disaster who persevere, with themes of estrangement and upheaval that still resonate today.

In the 1930s, these women captured Texas on film—the good, the bad, and the truly ugly.

When First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt met a Texas dust storm in 1939, her encounter gave me an idea for my historical novel, Unspoken

For Women's History Month, we're reading the stories of women once marginalized or totally overlooked in historical fiction

All it took in 1885 to build Houston a city library was a book club, begun by women with a desire for "intellectual culture."

There's a Magic to Celebrating Milestones...and It Begins With Champagne (and Books About It)

It’s ironic many extra words writers have to cut once they hit the magic length historical novels are: 100,000 - 120,000. Cue the angst.

When you’re researching historical fiction, it would be so much easier to rev up the Time Machine. Here's how I did without time travel.

Whether you’re a Scrivener power user or a beginner, here are a few things Scrivener can do that you probably can’t do without.

The popularity of historical fiction with book clubs has soared. Read why in my conversation with historical author Janis Robinson Daly

Let's say you're not from Texas. (Cue Lyle Lovett) But you got here quick as you could. Now you want to learn how to be a Texan. Here's how.