tips for biographical historical fiction writers at SheWrites!

Hi there! I recently realized that a few of my recent posts, articles and lists from around the web slipped through the blogging cracks. Totally an error on my part. The great news is there’s no bad time to, for example, learn about three big mistakes to avoid if you’re writing biographical historical fiction.

So here’s a piece I put together for SheWrites on what NOT to do in that genre! Like:

Don’t let your subject have the final say. My latest subject, Aimee Crocker, was widely quoted in newspapers during her life and even wrote her own memoir, which she titled — in classic Aimee fashion — And I’d Do It Again. But her memoir says very little about some of the things that interested me most, like the very public custody battle with her first husband that resulted in both of them losing custody of their daughter, who was then adopted by Aimee’s mother (yes, really).

Read the whole thing here.

THE THIRTEENTH HUSBAND spotlighted at BookBub!

The number of books that come out any given day, week or month is truly staggering. So I’m always glad when one of mine gets highlighted. And BookBub has done just that, naming The Thirteenth Husband to their list of Books We Can’t Wait To Read This Month!

(Lots of great stuff on this list — I added a few more to my TBR myself.)

Read the list on BookBub here.

ARCA buzz in Paste Magazine!

Ooh, here’s another fun one! Paste Magazine did a roundup of the most anticipated fantasy books coming in 2023, and guess who’s there? ARCA, by yours truly!

Couldn’t agree with this more:

“Too many people slept on Scorpica, the first installment in G.R. McAllister’s sweeping Five Queendoms series, an epic tale about a matriarchal society in which a decade passes without a single daughter being born. Time to fix your life with sequel Arca, which deals with the political fallout, as multiple powerful women scheme and maneuver against each other.”

Check out the whole list here.

SCORPICA on Kate Quinn's list of recommendations at BookBub!

If you’ve read the blurbs on the cover of Scorpica you know superstar author Kate Quinn was kind enough to put her stamp of approval on the book, for which I will always be grateful. (The woman gives amaaaazing blurbs.) And this week, her list of recent recommendations appeared at BookBub, with Scorpica high on the list!

Click to read the full list of 11 Beautifully Written Books Recommended By Kate Quinn. Scorpica’s in fabulous company.

celebrating some of my favorite fictional queens!

March 1 kicks off Women’s History Month, yay! And SCORPICA has also been out exactly a week. Many thanks for all the support so far — it’s been a real blast to see this book out in the world at last.

Lots of fun things to share still happening, and here’s today’s: I list my Top 10 Fictional Queens for Culturefly.

In fiction, some of the best queens are the worst. What makes a fictional ruler memorable isn’t always what we like to see from real-world monarchs—in fact, the opposite is often true. But it takes more than just an appetite for evil to keep any particular queen from fiction on our minds.

Read about Queen Lucy, Galadriel, Julia Wicker and more here.