The other day one of my dear reader friends on Facebook said she gets a kick out of my nickname for my house. It’s called the Money Pit, after that old eponymous movie about a guy who buys a house that is falling apart.  My husband and I bought this house on the spur of the moment when we moved here eight years ago. Our house out of state fell victim to the 2008 recession and sat on the market for nine months. When it finally sold, we had 30 days to make a cross country move and this house was the best we could do on short notice.

Since moving here, we have replaced the fencing, the carpets, the AC and heating system, the garbage disposal, several light fixtures, the water heater, the microwave, a set of French doors, and the kitchen faucet. Then last month the rains came and the sun room roof which we had just finished repairing leaked again. Happy to say it has since been repaired again, and in the last rain, the sun room stayed dry.  I’m hopeful we are finished with repairs for a while.

On the writing front, I’m gearing up for the June 14th release of my first biographical novel, Mrs Lee and Mrs Gray. Writing it required a different creative process and a host of decisions about what to put in and what to leave out. I’m sure there will be some critics who will question those choices, which were guided by my reasons for writing the book ( you can’t please everyone)  but the pre-publication reviews from the major review journals have been lovely and RT Reviews has chosen it as a Top Pick.  I’m looking forward to sharing the story of Mary and Selina with my readers.

I’ve been working on some new novels and planning a couple of short summer breaks to decompress. The weather here in my little corner of the world has been delightful so far and I’m taking advantage of it to spend time outside playing with Jake and catching up on my reading. I recently finished reading three contemporary novels, ( I know–shocking!)  Sisterland by Curtis Sittenfeld, Inside the O’Briens by Lisa Genova, and The One and Only by Emily Griffin. I enjoyed them very much indeed but now I am back to historical fiction, reading Ellen Marie Wiseman’s Coal River.

What have you been reading lately? Leave a comment and share your favorites.