Greg Pattridge hosts Marvelous Middle Grade Monday (MMGM) on his Always in the Middle website each week. Check it out for more great kidlit! This is the first time I’ve participated in MMGM in a few years, and I picked a great book for my return. The premise grabbed me right away. I’ll post a […]
A FREE Self Publishing Short Course
As part of my new editing sideline business, I’ve put together a short course that covers the basic steps of self publishing: writing, editing, interior layout, cover design, publishing, marketing. I go into considerable detail for each topic and include insider pro tips as well as to-do lists, so anyone can make their dream of […]
Editing On the Side
Ever since I finished my Taylor Davis series back in late June, I’ve been putting together a sideline business editing manuscripts for fellow authors at affordable rates. This is something I’ve been doing freely (for swap, actually) with my inner circle of authors for ten years. I’ve also “taken a look” at many a new […]
Barskoon 2, a Medieval Silk Road Caravanserai
This is the final post in a 4-part series about the research that went into Taylor Davis and the Quest for the Immortal Blade, book three in my Taylor Davis trilogy. The Silk Road was a network of overland trade routes connecting Europe and the Middle East to the Orient. It flourished during the Middle Ages […]
The Nestorian Trading Community and the Start of the Black Death
This is the third in a 4-part series about the research that went into Taylor Davis and the Quest for the Immortal Blade, book three in the Taylor Davis trilogy. The Black Death outbreak of the fourteenth century features heavily in my final Taylor Davis book. Over a course of approximately 15-20 years, the pandemic followed […]
A Lost Armenian Monastery and the Bones of St. Matthew
This is the second in a 4-part series about the research that went into Taylor Davis and the Quest for the Immortal Blade, book three in the Taylor Davis trilogy. My research into my last Taylor Davis book carried me to Kyrgyzstan, where I found some fascinating history and legends concerning the coming of Christianity to […]
Taylor Davis: Lake Issyk-Kul
This is the first in a 4-part series about the research that went into Taylor Davis and the Quest for the Immortal Blade, book three in the Taylor Davis trilogy. Eight years ago, in 2013, I published Taylor Davis and the Flame of Findul. Book two, Taylor Davis and the Clash of Kingdoms followed the […]
Dracula, by Bram Stoker, 1897
I hear you. You’re all saying, “What? This is not Michelle’s usual fare.” And you’d be right. But this summer, I was camping with my sister, sitting around the fire talking books. Somehow, we worked our way around to Frankenstein, which she had never read. I had. (Here’s that review.) As a result, she decided […]
Grand Rapids-Kalamazoo Plank Road
In 1862, when Blood of Pioneers takes place, most of Michigan’s commercial centers were located along Lake Huron—within easy reach of Detroit by boat—or along the rail corridor that ran between Detroit and Chicago. Grand Rapids, you’ll note, was not close to either. The settlement began as a trading post and blacksmith shop on the […]
Second Baptist Church of Detroit
Second Baptist Church of Detroit is a historic and still-functioning church that features in my middle grade historical fiction novel, The Candle Star. Organized in 1836, a year before Michigan became a state, it claims the honor of being the oldest Black congregation in the midwest. The congregation moved to its present location in 1857, […]