Bridal Shop Series Release–September 2018

A Novella—Book 1—The Bridal Shop Series

New York City dress designer to the stars, Amelia Pettipiece, cleared a unique path to fashion-glory. With her career soaring, grand penthouse apartment on Central Park, and handsome boyfriend who supports her ambitions, Amelia could not have dreamed of a better life when she left Pittsburgh after college.

But when Amelia’s signature design, the famous FiFi Hererra’s, wedding dress, disintegrates off the bride’s body as she walks down the aisle, every thread of Amelia’s charmed life unravels.

Amelia’s Instaglam life turns into an Instaslam. She runs back home to her gram’s place in Eagle Bend, Pennsylvania to hide until she can figure out what happened to the dress and how to weave her tattered life back together.

Though Amelia finds comfort in staying with Gram, she begins to see that she’s neglected the woman who raised her. Pettipiece Boutique is falling apart and a slew of hunky hangers-on are showing interest in the riverfront property and in Amelia.

Just when Amelia is at her lowest, a customer with a unique problem arrives at the boutique, distracting Amelia from her crumbled life. Can she and Gram create the dress of a lifetime for a desperate bride? Can Amelia trust herself to send another bride down the aisle after the FiFi debacle? Does any of it really matter if Amelia’s already lost it all?

Independent Publishing: Is it right for you?

I’m doing a workshop on self-publishing this weekend at the 2017 Pennwriters Annual Conference. So many questions, so much to talk about, and so little time! Did you know that one of the most important things for writers to do is to start the next book. Don’t lose all the momentum you’ve gained with the first book by never having a second or a third or a fourth…Copy of Copy of Your Book in Bloom-2There are tons of resources out there to help writers who want to start down that path. Stop in and see what I mean. May 20, 2017 at the Pittsburgh Airport Marriott.

Meet Martha Swiss!

Want to get to know Martha Swiss, garden whisperer cropped-cropped-003and co-coordinator of Dogwood & Basil: Tending Your Writing Life Retreat? Here’s your chance. As you’ll see, her botanic resume is long and rich… mine? Well, let’s just keep our eyes on Martha for today.

Martha Swiss is a garden writer, designer and teacher and has been a volunteer for the Pittsburgh Botanic Garden for 17 years. She is a regular contributor to Pennsylvania Gardener Magazine and her articles have appeared in The American Gardener, Fine Gardening and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. She writes haiku for fun.

A graduate of Chatham University’s landscape design program and a master gardener, Martha helps clients envision landscapes that are useful and easy to care for, while providing beauty and support for pollinators, birds and other wildlife. She previously worked for engineering societies for more than 30 years as a technical and marketing writer, website manager, book acquisitions editor and intellectual property manager.

Martha’s one-acre garden has been photographed for Organic Gardening, The Cottage Journal, Hobby Farms Magazine and Pennsylvania Gardener Magazine. She and her husband, the author Larry Ivkovich, live in Robinson Township with their two cats.

For more information visit Martha at plantsomejoy.com

Don’t forget to contact Kathleen and Martha at dogwoodandbasil@gmail.com 1for more information about the retreat on June 29, 2017 at the Pittsburgh Botanic Garden in Oakdale, PA.

#dogwoodandbasilretreat #retreat #pittsburgh #amwriting #pittsburghbotanicgarden

 

PennWriters Conference 2017

I’ll be presenting at the PennWriters Conference on Saturday, May 20, 2017. You can buy a ticket for one day of the conference or for all three. It goes from May 19-21 and is full of great speakers and generous authors who are always willing to share their expertise. I’ll be talking about self-publishing. self-pub covercard pennwr Several other writers who are regulars at Mindful Writing events are presenting as well. Madhu B. Wangu will be hosting a Sunday morning (May 21, 2017) meditation right out of the meditation collection that inspires each Mindful Writing Retreat. She will present a meditation from her new, soon-to-be for sale collection.

Ramona DeFelice Long will present two sessions. pennwriters card mindful wriOne is on Scene Writing the other is on Damsels NOT in Distress.

Larry “Rock ‘n Roll” Schardt will be talking about writers and the tools they need to succeed. Check out the link to the conference for exact times and dates!

#ampresenting #pennwritersconference #amwriting #mindfulwriters

Donora Stories–Lukasz, Mary and Stan Musial

I took some extra time before the tour of Donora’s historic Cement City to revisit the places that Stan Musial and his family lived and may have frequented when they were Donorans.

Preset Style = Vibrant Format = 6" (Medium) Format Margin = None Format Border = Straight Drawing = #2 Pencil Drawing Weight = Medium Drawing Detail = Medium Paint = Natural Paint Lightness = Auto Paint Intensity = More Water = Tap Water Water Edges = Medium Water Bleed = Average Brush = Natural Detail Brush Focus = Everything Brush Spacing = Narrow Paper = Watercolor Paper Texture = Medium Paper Shading = Light Options Faces = Enhance Faces

It’s hard to imagine that Lukasz Musial (Stan’s father) moved to America by himself and then immediately to Donora over 100 years ago (1910 on the SS President Grant). Mary Lancos Musial moved to Donora from New York with her family when she was a child just a few years after Donora was founded in 1901.

The home pictured here is on Sixth Street in Donora. It was where the Musials lived until Stan was about eight and they moved to Marelda St., into the home where Mary (Stan’s mother) grew up. Mary and Lukasz embodied the strength and many of the mythological qualities that we associate with immigrants and turn of the century, American, steel town citizens. History remembers them as ordinary when they’re remembered at all, but in reality their very survival and what they built for their children was heroic in many ways. Of course with sacrifice and survival comes choices and unintended outcomes, but their legacies, no matter what, are fascinating.
#stanmusial #lukaszmusial #marymusial #donorastories #am writing