Check out the beautiful surfing conditions here in Cape Town, South Africa! Rated by Surfer magazine as one of the 10 best surf cities in the world , I would not surf anything as big as the photo shows, but I appreciate that others do. If I get the time to rent some gear and go out, I'll let you know. I’ve never written a steamy romance, but if I did, I’d set it here and create an awesome, sexy instructor (female!) and a wily, but gorgeous client. Anybody ever surfed there? #

I grew up in a middle class Midwestern family doing family road trips in our Chevrolet station wagon. From Chicago, we went to all the way to Florida one year to visit my aunt and her family. Another year we traveled to California to visit neighbors who'd moved there. My dad, who I write about in BLISS ROAD , loved to travel and saw every outing as a learning opportunity. If he knew how much my sisters and I now travel, he'd be pleased. Our current trip begins here in Cape To

Buy NOW! April is Autism Awareness Month, so on my author page I’ll be posting about BLISS ROAD and my experience of growing up the daughter of an undiagnosed autistic dad. I wanted to post generally, though, to continue promoting the idea that all members of a neurodiverse family are affected by the neurodiversity. While some of the challenges are rough and cause trouble, there are also amazing outcomes. While my dad’s undiagnosed condition definitely caused challenges, he a

You’ve got time to purchase a book for your favorite teen! The above are my favorites. I'm including WINTER LIGHT because it's got a lot in common with the others — edgy YA — and I'd love for it to one day be among these classics. This special day takes place during a special week: National Library Week , which began in 1958 and is sponsored by the American Library Association. Who’s your favorite teen? And if you have one, and they’re not currently your favorite, they will

Buy NOW! I’ve been watching Ken Burns’ “ The American Revolution” series and I loved this quote by Abigail Adams , wife of John Adams , a statesman who heavily influenced the writing of the U.S. Constitution in 1787, having helped write the MA Constitution in 1770. And what did he and every other man involved in the process do? Forget the women. As in not one mention. The closest we get is in the 19th Amendment of 1920: "The right of citizens of the United States to vote sha

Are you an image-based thinker, or word-based? Though a writer, I’m most definitely image-based. And because of that, I need a steady dose of art to produce my art. Here are some images from my recent visit to the Yale University Art Gallery . Image-based (visual) thinkers — Thinks in pictures, spatial arrangements, and sensory details, often describing thought as a "movie" or a series of images — High creativity, spatial reasoning, and ability to visualize complex, 3D concep

Schedule of readings Congratulations to Jacque Gorelick , who will be joining me at the Truckee Lit Crawl on April 11 in the beautiful Lake Tahoe area! If you're in Truckee or the SF Bay Area of CA, check out the schedule for my reading of my newest novel, SCATTERED LIGHT . Here's the schedule of Jacque's reading from her brand new memoir, MAP OF THE HEART: A Memoir of Love, Loss and Finding the Way Home . I’ll send a reminder soon. ___ For updates about Martha’s forthcomi

I recently watched a documentary about the male influencers making money off of the “manosphere” on a message that women are no more than subservient body parts. The influencers are what Amanda Ripley of the book “High Conflict” call conflict entrepreneurs who gain money and power — especially via high subscriber rates — by saying outrageous, highly toxic things. The manosphere is the audience of men who are told their manhood is being stolen from them by society and that

As soon as I thought about one of my favorite women in history — there are so many! — the poet, Emily Dickinson , came to mind. She was born in 1830 in Amherst, MA, and had only 10 poems published, yet she wrote almost 1800. Nobody really knew about her passion until after she died and her sister found the poems. The sister had a collection published, but allowed the poems to be edited to fit popular fashion (bah humbug!). Only in 1955 did Thomas H. Johnson create The Comple

Women’s History Month has arrived! Every Monday I’ll post a question that’ll hopefully encourage you to think more deeply about the women who’ve been in your lives. My answer to this question: women who help, but if they need it, accept help, too. I’ve found that’s a necessary combo for every character I’ve ever created, and for myself, too, which I discovered while writing BLISS ROAD . I’ll be the first to admit that the second part of that combo is sometimes wicked hard. _

A story that touches on anything Alzheimer’s might seem too heavy from the get-go, but PERFECT LITTLE WORLDS by Clifford Mae Henderson injects so much humor and humanity that I found myself alternately smiling and tearing up. In 1989, Lucy Mustin, a middle-aged lesbian cake baker from Portland, gets a call from her possibly autistic, and definitely neurodiverse sister, Alice, who says she needs help with their dementia-affected mother. Lucy reluctantly makes the long drive

Buy NOW! Valentine's Day has never seemed like a fair holiday: if you don't have a love interest, too bad for you. So Valentine’s Day has become, for me, a day about loving yourself. And if you're like Mary Donahue does in SCATTERED LIGHT , you might have to learn to love yourself. Because it’s hard to love others if we don’t love ourselves! ___ For updates about Martha’s forthcoming books, news and giveaways, subscribe to her website: MarthaEngber.com . SCATTERED LIGHT , a n

Jazz greats Ella Fitzgerald , Sarah Vaughan , John Coltrane , Miles Davis and Duke Ellington When I was a junior in college for broadcast journalism, I was hungry for all of the experience I could get, so I volunteered for a shift as a DJ for the school-owned, professionally run radio station at the University of Missouri - Columbia . The director made sure all students took a first shift for the classical music show, primarily because he had trouble filling that spot. I did

Do you know any Dungeons & Dragons fans? If so, share this post, because the creators of this new D&D module deserve a shoutout for their unique twist on a traditionally very male game. Specifically, my friend and fellow writer, Cathy Thrush, and her husband, Tom, have just published their FOURTH ROMANTIC MODULE FOR COUPLES! Yes, the Thrushes , who own Urban Realms , have created a series called Date Night Dungeons and this module is titled Heroes of the Henge . The descrip

Buy NOW! I started researching THE WIND THIEF in 1995, the story of Madina, a strange, young Sahara Desert woman who believes she can stop a forthcoming war of winds, and Ajay, the young male thief from Mumbai who tries to dissuade her. The concept of climate change had been a thing for some thirty years already. What inspired me more than any news reports about a warming globe and more severe weather, however, was experiencing nature while backpacking. Standing atop a snow-

FLOATING IN THE MIDDLE sings about nature like no other! Set on the gorgeous, but rough California coast north of San Francisco, seven friends unite for a weekend in a remote beach house. Rather than just fun and games, however, Tam, the protagonist, has come to find out if, after long separation from her husband, Jamie, he’s willing to try again. Because she is. Tension continues to build via the feisty dynamics of people who’ve known one another for a long time, and from n

Buy NOW! SCATTERED LIGHT is showing up in mailboxes and I’m loving the photos and reviews people are sending my way! Thank you, reader friends, for your support! ___ For updates about Martha’s forthcoming books, news and giveaways, subscribe to her website: MarthaEngber.com . SCATTERED LIGHT , a novel, sequel to WINTER LIGHT , (Nov. 2025) THE FALCON, THE WOLF AND THE HUMMINGBIRD  a historical novel BLISS ROAD ,  a memoir WINTER LIGHT , a novel, in paperback and audiobook THE

Buy NOW! Elaina Battista-Parsons’ CHOMP, PRESS, PULL fully immersed me into the life of someone whose senses go off like fireworks! The author talks about growing up in New Jersey with sensory dysfunction before anyone had a name for experiencing life in a hyper-vibrant sensory way. Though often not idyllic in a world where most people’s senses are calibrated toward the middle, her rich, often very funny descriptions left me wishing I could experience her dynamism of touch,

Buy NOW! I love strong, feisty, smart female protagonists. In THE MAESTRO'S DAUGHTER by Catherine Thrush (The Lady Blade Series Book 1), teen Francesca de DiCesare, daughter of the Maestro, a famous fencing master in 1716 Tuscany, Italy, is all that. A natural rebel, Francesca strongly objects to everything young ladies are supposed to learn in order to become the wives of nobles. Cooking, household management, gardening. No thanks! What she really wants to do is fence like

Read NOW! My thanks goes out to Barbara Bos of Women Writers, Women’s Books , which just published my essay, "Scattered Light": How Fiction Can Help Us Heal Our Own Past Trauma . I hope you take a read and let me know: Does fiction help you discover more about yourself, and in some cases, heal? ___ For updates about Martha’s forthcoming books, news and giveaways, subscribe to her website: MarthaEngber.com . SCATTERED LIGHT , a novel, sequel to WINTER LIGHT , (Nov. 2025) THE F