I’m excited to be participating in Women’s Fiction Day, sponsored by the Women’s Fiction Writers Association (WFWA). To celebrate the occasion, I’m sponsoring a drawing for a giveaway of a Kindle copy of my fourth book in the Barton Family Series, Rising Above It: A Novel of Love, Loss, and Survival.  You can enter the drawing by leaving your email address in the sign-up section of my blog, For the Love of Writing. I’ll contact the winner by email, including a link to the free Kindle copy of my women’s fiction novel. I encourage you to explore the WFWA website at www.w ..read more

I’ve always had trouble identifying the precise genre of my Barton Family Series. With the help of the Women’s Fiction Writers Association, I have finally nailed it! The post Women’s Fiction appeared first on KATHERINE P. STILLERMAN ..read more

I’ve been focusing my reading on the World War II era, since the novel I’m currently working on is set during that time. But I frequently get side-tracked when I come upon a title that looks interesting. Here are a few not-to-be missed books.   News of the World by Paulette Jiles Set in 1870 Texas, in the turbulent Reconstruction Era, this is a beautifully written work of literary fiction that combines the elements of setting, plot, character, and theme into one deeply satisfying whole. For an author seeking to grow as a writer, the book is both inspiring and intimidating. For a review o ..read more

I keep a log of character descriptions that make the novels I read come alive to me. Here are a few that I’ve collected that either reveal the character’s personality or philosophy. I know people like this. Don’t you? From Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón (See book review.) Years of teaching had left him with that firm and didactic tone of someone used to being heard, but not certain of being listened to. One, Mrs. Aldaya has the mental age of a twelve-year-old; two, she suffers from a chronic narcissism that makes it impossible for her to see or understand anything that is not what s ..read more

The Best Cook in the World by Rick Bragg This is a delightful book that is as much about blue-collar Southern culture as it is about cooking. As Rick Brag collects and records his mama’s recipes, he also weaves tales about how the best cooks in the family taught them to her. It all began in 1924, when Rick’s grandfather, Charlie Bundrum, mounted his mule and went in search of his father, Jimmy Jim Bundrum. After killing another man in a drunken knife fight in 1919, Jimmy Jim fled into the North Georgia mountains, leaving behind his sickly wife and family. Despite the fact that his father was ..read more

AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE It’s 1913. Hattie Robinson has married the widowed Charles Barton and left teaching to raise Charles’s sons and manage the Barton estate. Now she must reconcile her role as mother and wife with her passion for women’s suffrage. As Hattie struggles for acceptance in the community and Barton family, Will Kendrick, her first love, appears. Feelings resurface, threatening Hattie’s marriage and casting doubts on Charles’s loyalty. South Carolina’s reactionary politicians Ben Tillman and “Cotton Ed” Smith thwart suffrage efforts in the state. Even the progressive preside ..read more

  Hattie’s Place is a story about a young Southern girl, Hattie Robinson, as she comes into womanhood and seeks to find her place and purpose as a teacher in rural Pickens County, South Carolina, in the early 1900’s. Spirited and independent-minded, she is confronted at every turn with constraints imposed by the male-dominated politics and practices of a state, lagging behind in adopting the progressive reforms of women’s suffrage, child labor laws, compulsory school attendance, and child custody laws. In her determination to beat the odds and make a difference, she relies on her mama’s ..read more

Ordinary Women/Extraordinary Acts Reading and writing stories about ordinary women who do extraordinary things is a favorite past time of mine, and the World War II era is rife with fiction in this area. I especially like fiction based on little-known events wrapped around a good story.  Beantown Girls by Jane Healy is just that kind of novel. Beantown Girls by Jane Healy This is an engaging story about Fiona Denning and her two best friends from Boston, who join up as Red Cross “Clubmobile girls,” serving on the front lines of World War II by providing soldiers with coffee, doughnuts, a ..read more

The Cigar Factory by Michele Moore The Cigar Factory is the story of two devout Catholic families living in Charleston during the world wars. The white McGonegals and the African American Ravenels work on segregated floors of the Charleston cigar factory where Cassie McGonegal and her niece Brigid work upstairs, rolling cigars by hand, and Meliah Amey Ravenel works in the basement stemming tobacco. All suffer harsh working conditions and endure sexual harassment by the foremen. But each is unaware of their common plight until the Tobacco Workers Strike of 1945 when they meet on the picket lin ..read more

Love and War A love story, A Long Petal of the Sea, begins during the Spanish Civil War and spans a half-century and two continents. Among the refugees who flee to France when Franco’s fascists defeat the Republican army are Roser, a young pianist, widowed and pregnant with her first child, and Victor, the brother of Roser’s dead husband. Though neither of them wants to, they marry to improve their chances of survival and to secure the legacy of the man they both loved. The couple secures passage from France on the SS Winnipeg, a rescue ship that takes them to Chile. As they live in exile and ..read more