Alison Joan Frances

What a difference a few months make! Like everyone else, I have been dealing with some major changes to adjust to this new pandemic. One good thing, however, has been my ability to write! I have published a new picture book during the pandemic, and I am working on another plus working on a novel. I wish everyone good health and a safe summer. We will get through this!

At the start of this decade, I knew my goal was to write and publish. It took me until the last year of the decade to get published, but I made it!

I have been writing all decade, admittedly, but the publishing journey finally began for me when I took up the reigns of self-publishing. In this year, I have published 4 picture books and one novel.

I am so grateful to finally be a published author, and my goal of the next d...

While I'm catching up on a LOT of summer reading (thanks to new Hoopla, Libby, and Overdrive apps in addition to the Kindle one!), I am also writing and publishing!

I am so excited to publish the second and third books in my Magic of Pets series for kids! In addition, I am doing a lot of promoting of my summer novel, Nautical Awakening!

What's next? More picture books and a novel series are in the works. I am so excited to be writing much, but also so excited to r...

It was finally my Super Kitty who inspired me to write and publish a picture book. She'd been battling cancer for nearly a year and died just before I got the book published. It's a bitter sweet publication, but I know my Super Kitty can still teach everyone what it means to be strong. She lost a limb but never let it slow her down. She went through chemo treatments like they were just a normal part of her day. The more she got sick, the more she coped. She was never thrown off...

Finally, after clinging to the last 80 degree days, it is time to embrace autumn. I accept it reluctantly, but the truth is, I do like fall. I love the colorful foliage and the pumpkin-spiced lattes, the apple picking and post-season baseball. I love Halloween, celebrating with spooky movies and costumes.

I guess autumn just gets a bad rap because it signals that winter is coming. The months get darker and colder, and we all know how bad a New England winter can be. I supp...

While thinking about hurricanes swirling around loved ones elsewhere, a bunch of writers got together at the Fiction Fest conference in Norwalk, Connecticut. I am back home, exhausted, and so glad to have been a part of this! The writers are awesome and inspiring and so willing to give advice and tips to anyone who asks. They are wells of helpful information. I wonder how they can do it all—work, family, taking care of the everyday house and cooking and health and ...

I hope everyone is having a spectacular summer! My best news is that I have finished writing the manuscript for my first novel! Meg Cabot recommends Jeff Herman's Guide to Bok Publishers, Editors & Literary Agents. I have this one, and I have also been scouring the internet in hot pursuit of just the right home for my book! 

I definitely recommend summer as a time for writing and reading, so relax, get your fe...