The school year isn’t fresh and new everywhere at the beginning of September, but it’s a good excuse to bring you some books with peeks inside the classroom. These stories also share the theme of communities facing conflicts of values and culture: In Merry Farmer’s historical In Your Arms, a ... more >
Samuel Johnson observed, “A writer only begins a book. The reader finishes it.” With an audiobook, a voice is added to that mix, one that can profoundly affect the reader’s experience of the story. Audiobook narration is an art and craft that’s long fascinated me, and June Is Audiobook Month, ... more >
Filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock popularized the term “MacGuffin,” using it as shorthand for whatever object put the characters (and the story) in motion. For Hitchcock, the MacGuffin mattered mainly because the characters cared about it enough to go after it–whether the audience precisely understood it was a secondary concern. Today’s novels ... more >
In honor of Edgar Allan Poe’s 204th approaching birthday (January 19th), a trio of novels that pay him homage: Poe’s wistful, haunting “Annabel Lee” provides between-the-lines clues in Jill Winters’ romantic mystery Kingdom by the Sea as Nicole Sheffield realizes the Cape Cod house she’s inherited holds a secret that ... more >
Maybe not exactly Lois Lane, but each book in today’s DA³ Interview features a heroine who works at a newspaper. Here, in order by chronological setting, are the books: In Seducing Mr. Knightly, Maya Rodale concludes the Regency-set Writing ... more >
I didn’t think I’d be doing this interview. A few chapters into The Taker, I knew it wasn’t exactly romance, and doubted it was right for Dear Author. But the story of Puritan-born Lanore McIlvrae and the gift she’s cursed with kept calling me back, and months after the last ... more >