I just finished Mark Chesnut’s Prepare for Departure, a travel writer’s humorous, warm memoir of journeying with his mother to the end of her life, due out in July. Absolutely delightful! You can read my Goodreads review or find it below. This would definitely constitute a lovely summer read! ___ Prepare for Departure is a memoir as real, heartwarming and humorous as Mitch Albom’s Tuesdays With Morrie. Mark Chesnut offers a tour of life with his mother, a quirky, down-to-eart

In celebration of the publication of my memoir, Bliss Road, next June by Vine Leaves Press, I'm starting to countdown the many reasons I have to be blissful. The first is that today is the my daughter’s birthday! She threatened to be born three weeks early, then decided to wait another 10 days. She’s been up to mischief ever since. We named her Ariela, which means “lioness of God.” The lioness has proved out! She’s a go-getter who loves her husband, dog and tackling challenge

A friend of mine, Jayne Martin, is a master of flash writing, which is the art of depicting an entire story from start to finish in 100 words or less. A writer has to be on her game to pack an emotional punch within that word limit. It’s not surprising, then, that when she decided to write her own story, she chose do to so via flash writing. Her book, The Daddy Chronicles: Memoir of a Fatherless Daughter, was just published by Whiskey Tit Press. I just got my copy in the mail

Today is Mary Donahue’s birthday! That’s right, born April 13, 1963, Mary — the protagonist in Winter Light — turns 59 today. She’s appalled! And deep down delighted, because as a teen, she never expected to live this long or have such an interesting life. She still isn’t sporty, but walks daily to keep her cholesterol down. She’s disgusted beer now gives her indigestion. She’s become a voracious reader, though mostly of nonfiction revolving around history and current events,

When I was a kid, I loved reading Scott O’Dell’s 1960 Newbery Medal Award-winning novel Island of the Blue Dophins. Forever after, the story remained in my head, of the indigenous girl left behind with her brother when her people abandoned the island on which they lived. Not long after, her brother died, leaving her alone. Recently when driving along the coast in the Santa Barbara area, my friend pointed toward the Channel Islands offshore, and mentioned the book was based on

All right, so the “must read” in this list featured on Bookglow — “all about books, all of the time” — is probably an exaggeration. But there have to be at least some you might like. If, that is, you like books set in Hawaii, which I do. And if you go to the web page, you’ll note the title actually states “11” books. I’m adding the book, Careless Love by Steve Zettler because of how well he captured Hawaii in the 1980s, which is when I first visited. That and the story and di

Today I’m recommending My Year of Magical Thinking and Joan Didion’s other works today in honor of her death on Dec. 22 at the age of 87. Joan is probably not someone I would have been friends with. She was at the top of high-end 1960s hipster scene. She “knew people” and had the literary chops to talk boldly about culture and celebrities in a way meant to grind down our illusion of humanity as anything but opportunistic. Because she came from the generation before me, I didn

I never tire of memoirs. I love learning about people and experiences that are vastly different than my own. That and there are so many types of memoirs: humorous; scientific; political; inspirational, etc. If you enjoy memoirs, check out Memoir Magazine for new reads. I learned about it recently when Melanie Faith (@writer_faith), one of my fellow authors Vine Leaves Press authors, posted about the publication. Dedicated to small presses, the pub sponsors the Memoir Prize fo

There are so many books on the market, it’s hard to know what to read. That’s why I tend to look for lists that are curated. Judges take the time to read the books and decide what to recommend, rather than being paid placements. In case you’re looking for recommendations, Goodreads has just published its 13th Choice Awards where the judges are readers. Where do you look for help in choosing books? ___ For updates about Martha’s books, news and giveaways, check out her website

As a writer, I do so much research on such a wide variety of topics that I wonder if I’m on any national security organization’s watch list for suspicious internet activity. While a mostly facetious statement, I’m partly seriously. Consider recent topics I researched: the FBI, kidnappings, criminal rings, gun descriptions, dictators, and even “how to write an assassin’s contract,” which ironically brought up a discussion regarding a World of Warcraft action. So far I haven’t

5TH BOOK TO BE PUBLISHED! THURSDAY I’m stoked to announce my fifth book, a historical novel titled The Falcon, the Wolf and the Hummingbird, will be published by Histria Books in 2023! Here’s the summary: A consummate warrior and brilliant strategist, Pino, is a young Native American woman who must fight against fierce invaders to save her tribe from annihilation in precolonial southern New England. Aided by her best warrior and forbidden love, Tow, Pino unknowingly fights fo

by Wren Godfrey Chapman NOTE: You can also find this review on Goodreads. I love memoirs where adventurous women grab life by the horns, and Pirate Girl Falls Through Beaver Dam is just that story! In the late 1960s, 18-year-old Wren Godfrey Chapman is a spirited young North Carolinian who catches her two-timing man in the act only a few weeks before they’re set to wed. Attempting to outrun heartache, she quits college and hauls off to Key West for adventures at sea. Possessi

While doing research, I happened upon a really wild event that occurred during my youth, but that I never heard of, the Chowchilla kidnapping of 1976. Three assailants kidnapped a bus filled with 26 school children, ages 5 to 14, from the small town of Chowchilla, CA. I was 12 at the time, living in the Chicago area, and apparently oblivious to this crazy story. The kidnappers transferred the kids to two vans, then imprisoned them in a tractor trailer truck the assailants bur

Yesterday I sent out a newsletter offering a Kindle copy of these two fantastic new memoirs. Recommend your favorite memoir(s) below and I’ll add your name! I know so many great authors who write great stories that I often offer giveaways via my newsletter, so consider subscribing! Read my Goodreads review of Gina Troisi’s memoir, The Angle of Flickering Light, and my Goodreads review of Scott Gould’s Things That Crash, Things That Fly. ___ Now available via Amazon and all ot