A Writer Afoot

A dahlia for Friday

Barbara Samuel — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 02:21:18 +0000

In HOW TO BAKE A PERFECT LIFE, there is a young girl who falls madly in love with dahlias. Somehow, I am in love with dahlias, too, and this one is growing in my front yard. It makes me want to go [...]

Book review: MAYBE THIS TIME, by Jennifer Crusie

Barbara Samuel — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 11:00:31 +0000

MAYBE THIS TIME Jennifer Crusie St Martin’s Press ISBN 978-0-312-30378-5

It has been six years since Jennifer Crusie has written a solo novel. Friends, it was worth the wait. Maybe This Time, published by St. Martin’s Press on August 30th, is her best book yet. It’s also another step in her long, interesting career, [...]

Elsewhere, a blog on walking

Barbara Samuel — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 14:59:04 +0000

No one here will be surprised at this post that I wrote for Writer Unboxed. I knew some of you would enjoy reading it, but keep forgetting to post a link here.

The Writer’s Toolbox: Walking

One of the number one requirements of a commercial fiction career is that you must reliably produce [...]

A Bed of Spices now available in ebook format

Barbara Samuel — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 20:04:03 +0000

A BED OF SPICES is a wildly romantic tale of forbidden love set in the turbulent middle ages. Solomon and Rica meet by chance at the herbalist’s cottage and fall deeply in love despite the divisions of religion, class, and expectations — but how can they possibly find a happy ending with so [...]

The damp, dewy beginning

Barbara Samuel — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 21:32:13 +0000

I’m at the beginning of a new book. This is probably my favorite part of writing—every possibility exists. There is a freshness to the material, a scent of dew and dawn filling my work hours. There is always the chance that this time I will have matured enough, learned enough, that I will be [...]

The Reward in Going Away

Barbara Samuel — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 21:54:25 +0000

When I was a child, I loved going to summer camp. Girl Scout camp in canvas tents with wooden floors, or much more often church camp (probably because it was very inexpensive and my parents had four kids) in cabins housing 20 girls. It was the highlight of the summer—getting ready, gathering shampoo and [...]

New! Online Voice Class available this fall

Barbara Samuel — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 22:53:39 +0000

Finally! I have a couple of months that are a little less demanding so I can offer the voice class again this fall. It’s been almost two years! I love teaching this, and believe deeply in the power of voice, so I’ve missed it a LOT.

What it is:

A six week writing [...]

RITA AWARD FOR THE LOST RECIPE FOR HAPPINESS!!!

Barbara Samuel — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 01:14:42 +0000

I thought you might like to see the sisters.

More when I can actually sit up straight. After 6 days of conferencing and three of Walt Disney World, I don’t trust myself to cross the room, much less post about the [...]

In The Midnight Rain now in ebook

Barbara Samuel — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 01:11:59 +0000

Good news! We’ve been working behind the scenes to get old books into ebook format, and the first one, In The Midnight Rain, is ready.

Only $3.99!

Download for Kindle

Download at B&N

Download at Smashwords

IN THE MIDNIGHT RAIN was my first mainstream novel, a book that was published under my romance pseudonym, Ruth [...]

An afternoon in Madrid and other surprises

Barbara Samuel — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 20:56:13 +0000

There are always ideas that unnerve me when I consider taking a trip. A number of things cropped up on this one, and I spent a lot of time thinking about the challenges ahead of time, trying to plan how to manage them. One was the trains, which I would be taking on my [...]