AmiMaxine

I Bought a Book

I realize fully that this title is not newsworthy. I’m a writer. I read voraciously. Ergo – I’m probably the type of person who buys books. Except, these days, I’m not. (Well, not really.) Growing up, all my money went to books and CDs because those were the things I cared most about (well, itContinue reading “I Bought a Book”

That Other Fire: Peshtigo

Growing up in a suburb of Chicago, I, of course, learned about the Great Chicago Fire. It’s a fire that many across the country learn about. After all, in just three days, 2,100 acres burned, leaving over 100,000 people homeless and taking the lives of over three hundred people. Historians still debate the impact ofContinue reading “That Other Fire: Peshtigo”

What does it mean to visit a place?

I have a couple of travel goals. The first is to visit every state in the U.S. Another was to visit every country in the world, which I’ll admit I made with the understanding that I would never reach this very unreachable goal. (I mean, aside from the places it’s just unsafe for me toContinue reading “What does it mean to visit a place?”

First Friday Rec: The Quiet Librarian

Title: The Quiet LibrarianAuthor: Allen EskensGenre: Historical FictionPages: 320Publication Date: Feb 3, 2026StoryGraph* Moods: dark, tense, emotionalHow I Stumbled Upon This Book: I honestly don’t remember – but I will read anything involving librarians and librariesOther Books by this author: The Life We Bury, The Stolen Hours, The Shadows We Hide, Nothing More Dangerous, SavingContinue reading “First Friday Rec: The Quiet Librarian”

Best Laid Plans

At the time of writing this, I have finished the manuscript for the murder mystery I had been writing and done one complete revision/edit of it. Then, I went through and created a reverse outline. This is a handy tool to see what you’ve got on the page in a manageable way – because 94KContinue reading “Best Laid Plans”

Comedy and Language

Well, here’s a post a bit out of left field for you today. 🙂 When I was a kid, my papa (maternal grandfather) would sometimes sit my sister and I down and play for us videos of his favorite comedian – a Danish-American man (who also acted and could play the piano beautifully). His nameContinue reading “Comedy and Language”

chah-muh-lee-on

I don’t remember when I first heard someone say never to judge someone for mispronouncing a word because they probably learned that word from reading. But it has stuck with me. Here’s the thing – English is hard. It’s, quite honestly, a mistake. It’s what happens when you take German people and French Latin peopleContinue reading “chah-muh-lee-on”

First Friday Rec: Fly Girl

Title: Fly GirlAuthor: Ann HoodGenre: MemoirPages: 288Publication Date: Apr 4, 2023StoryGraph* Moods: informative, adventurous, reflectiveHow I Stumbled Upon This Book: I honestly don’t remember where I first saw this book – I don’t think it was a verbal recommendation from anyone. But I read it as research for a story I’m working on.Other Books byContinue reading “First Friday Rec: Fly Girl”

AFT: Cover Reveal

They say don’t judge a book by its cover, but let’s be real, the cover is what gets us to pick the book off the shelf in the first place. The city of Chicago is practically a character in All Falling Things, becoming the wonderland in which my characters attempt to find themselves, so itContinue reading “AFT: Cover Reveal”

Tangible Goods

These days, the days of streaming TV shows and films and music, of ebooks, of endless scrolling on your social media platform of choice – it seems like there is very little in the way of tangible goods anymore (when it comes to the arts – there are still box stores full of…stuff). Which, whenContinue reading “Tangible Goods”