Gratitude in the Port of Destiny

As I sit in my cool office, away from the waves of heat emanating from the ground outside, I’m so grateful. With Port of Destiny: A Victorian History, Mystery, & Romance I’m realizing a lifelong dream. When I was fifteen years old, I learned a secret about my grandfather. I never told anyone, because I thought it belonged in a book, and I would be the perfect person to write it.
I started the research in the 1970s, the manuscript in the early 1980s. I purchased my first computer, a Macintosh. I was working full-time then as an English teacher… […]

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When Culinary Traditions Become Literary Gold

Thank you for the opportunity to spend some time here on Booklover’s Bench! I’m here today to talk about what happened when I combined my love of Virgin Islands cuisine and my passion for writing mysteries. Trust me, we all have one—a culinary tradition that instantly comes to mind whenever the topic of home comes up. Maybe it’s a dish from the region where you were born. Maybe it’s an annual food-related festival centered in the town where you went to college, or where you lived and worked for a while. Maybe it’s a cooking technique or culinary habit that’s prevalent in the area where you live now. No matter what “home” means to you, chances are… […]

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