I believe in having a happy, not a spooky Halloween.It was one of my favorite holidays as a child, because what’s not to like about candy, dressing up, and partying with your friends on a moonlit evening?
Warning — this is a rant about romance tropes that get under my skin and not in a good way. Plus recommendations for good romance reading. Did I get your attention when I mentioned billionaire? That category of fiction that’s blowing through old sales records, reinventing the romance genre, and — in my opinion — leading young readers astray.
“WELL, THAT WAS FUN!” – Editorial review from Readers’ Favorite. I can’t image a better book review than the one below. Reviews like this are what makes a writer keep on writing books. Reading the kind of pleasure someone had in my novel is my kind of fun! Reviewed by Jamie Michele for Readers’ Favorite. Here’s the whole book review: “In the novel Jane Austen, Time Traveler by Rachel Dacus, time traveler George St. James…
Why Art and Artists? My time travel novels often feature art and artists—you may wonder why. It’s because I grew up with an artist father who painted constantly and invited many artist friends to our home. He took us to working studios, local art exhibitions, and art museums in the Los Angeles area. The smell of oil paint and turpentine evokes childhood memories. Saturday afternoons, watching my father mix oil paints and dash paint onto…
I’ve been thinking about my heart condition and looking at poems I wrote shortly after having a heart attack. Contemplating my mortality is a new thing for me. I’ve had to adjust my thinking about time and the future. It’s a subtle shift but a profound one to consider that my time to be, to write, and to love is limited. It’s unsettling in the most interesting way to think of the body as having…
I’ve been re-reading Emily Dickinson’s poems lately, one or two a day. Although her early editors removed her original groupings — the “fsaciles” or small booklets in which she grouped them — I enjoy the section “Nature” that groups together a major focus of her writing. Emily doesn’t write about nature as pretty or ornamental, though she certainly finds beauty and delight in it. But she writes more like a Zen monk, or like my…
I can’t help it. I’m a poet intoxicated in springtime, renewal and faith. Step aside, war and riot, prejudice run amok, mass shootings and atmospheric rivers, ignorance abroad and becoming endemic. Step aside, the ruin of the world — it’s like the ruin of winter. And I am a fervent believer in humanity and spring. Evrywhere, I find evidence to back up my faith. To celebrate (before the next bomb cyclone drops on our heads…
People ask how I got the idea to send Jane Austen time traveling forward, rather than sending an Austen-adoring hero or heroine back to her era. Simple. I read a book called The Real Jane Austen, a Life in Small Things, and discovered a version of the author who would make an excellent main character. This Jane A. was not meek and sheltered, as history (and her family) liked to portray her. For one thing,…
Some authors interview their characters. I enjoy that idea, but I decided to put a spin on it, and have characters interview each other. This week: Jane Austen, 200 years in the future, interviews her host and superfan Will Fleming, while visiting his estate. JANE AUSTEN INTERVIEWS WILL FLEMING
Review of Jodi Taylor’s Time Travel Books If you could spend an hour in another century, where would you go? Would you time travel to watch a famous battle or attend a royal ball? Would you want to solve a mystery or observe daily life in another time? And if you time traveled in history and saw unexpected events, would you then try to set the historical record straight? That’s the premise of Jodi Taylor’s…