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When People Around You Keep Dying…
Mary Ann Cotton, an English woman who lived during the Mid 1800’s in County Durham, had a habit of marrying men and then collecting the insurance policy when they died.
Which they invariably did.
At 20, Mary Ann married her first husband, collier laborer, William Mowbry. Of the five children she bore him, four of them died and none of their deaths were registered as per British law. She bore four more but they passed of gastrointestinal issues. William also died from the same malady. Mary Ann collected insurance on all of them.
After William passed, Mary Ann and her surviving child, Isabella, moved to another part of the country where she met and married a sickly gentleman, George Ward. She sent Isabella to live with her mother and soon after, George died of cholera. Though George was never very well, the doctor on the case was surprised by his sudden passing. Perhaps Mary Ann was also surprised… or perhaps not as she also collected the insurance benefit for poor, invalid, George.
Her third husband, James Robinson turned to Mary Ann, (his housekeeper), after his wife died and she became pregnant. During this time, Mary Ann’s mother came down with hepatitis and Mary Ann went to nurse her back to health, though, perhaps that’s a stretch, as soon as her mother recovered from hepatitis, she came down with a mysterious stomach ailment that killed her. Back to James Mary Ann went, along with Isabella and the two were married. Unfortunately, James’ children all died at the same time as her daughter, Isabella. Luckily, Isabella was insured and Mary Ann was able to collect on her. They had a son, George. Soon James became suspicious when Mary Ann began to insist that he take out life insurance. When he discovered that she had run up debt behind his back and was having their son pawn the family valuables, he threw her out and retained custody of George, probably saving both their lives.
Desperate and homeless, Mary Ann turned to her friend, Margaret who introduced her to her brother, Frederick Cotton, who had recently lost his wife. Margaret was raising her nieces and nephews for her brother, but she soon passed from an indeterminate stomach issue and Mary Ann was there to comfort the bereaved Frederick, who as you may have guessed, soon passed away from gastric issues, leaving Mary Ann with the insurance money.
But wait, there’s more.
Mary Ann took on two lovers and one of them died after changing his will, leaving Mary Ann with everything. One of the Cotton boys was still with her and she tried to get a parish official to put him in a workhouse. He died five days after the attempt failed and the official went to the police to have them investigate. The local newspaper latched on to the story and soon discovered that Mary Ann had lost four husbands, 11 children, her mother and a lover. Mary Ann was soon arrested, but the trial was delayed because Mary Ann was pregnant. The lucky child was taken away soon after birth, Mary Ann was found guilty of one murder, though suspected of many more.
She was put to death on March 24th 1873.
Britians first female serial killer was immortalized in this film, Dark Angel. You can read more about her here.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Angel_(British_TV_series)
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mary-Ann-Cotton
Florence Maybrick: Murderer or Misunderstood?
This is perhaps the most interesting—and juiciest—entry in my murderous women series. Florence MayBrick was an eighteen-year-old American girl who married an Englishman, James Maybrick, many years her senior. At first, the couple seemed happy, despite their twenty-three–year age difference, and were the toast of Liverpool, regularly seen at the most important balls and social events. Soon, however, cracks began to emerge.
It turns out James had a penchant for both extramarital affairs and hypochondria, taking a large assortment of the most popular tonics and medicines of the day—many of which contained arsenic and other toxic chemicals. Young Florence was no saint either and carried on a number of affairs herself, including one with Maybrick’s own brother. After one particularly violent argument, James told Florence he intended to divorce her.
Florence allegedly responded by giving him a double dose of strychnine.
She then sent compromising letters to her current lover, which were intercepted by a nanny who hated her and passed along to Maybrick’s brother. Those letters were then given to yet another brother—the head of the family. (See? I told you it was juicy!)
James was treated several times for dyspepsia but continued to worsen. After his death, his suspicious brothers had his body examined and traces of arsenic were found. Soon after, Florence was arrested for his murder.
Victorian England was scandalized when she was sentenced to death, as the prosecution’s evidence didn’t seem to hold up. Many men took arsenic as an aphrodisiac, and a chemist testified that he had sold it to Maybrick regularly. Following a public outcry from those who believed Florence innocent, the judge commuted her sentence to life in prison.
Florence was released fourteen years later and returned to the United States, where she penned a memoir titled Mrs. Maybrick’s Own Story: My Fifteen Lost Years. She spent time on the lecture circuit advocating for prison reform and proclaiming her innocence, but ultimately died alone and penniless in 1941.
So tell me, was Florence Maybrick a calculating poisoner—or a victim of a time when women were punished for stepping outside the norm?
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When You Like Money But Detest Men-Dating Advice Belle Gunness Style
Welcome to part two of my weird, creepy series called Five Women Who Should be as Notorious as Lizzie Borden. This one is a doozy and I’m shocked that I had never heard of Belle Gunness, a woman arguably considered one of the most prolific female serial killers of all time.
A Norwegian native, Belle moved to the United States in 1981 at the age of 22. Like many Norwegians of that period, she ended up in the Midwest. A strong believer in insurance policies, Belle had two taken out on both her first two children, who both died of intestine infections and two taken out on her husband who died of a brain hemorrhage. With the payouts, she bought a pig farm in LaPorte, Indiana. (She was a big, strong woman with deep agricultural roots.)
She remarried and after her husband skull was crushed by a meat grinder, (he was reaching up on a shelf to get something down and the meat-grinder fell on his head. TOTAL ACCIDENT, I’m sure), Belle collected $3000 from insurance.
Anyhoooooo, Belle must have discovered that she liked money but disliked men because she started placing adds in newspapers searching for a husband. Belle would correspond with each potential suiter, no doubt to discern how well to do they were. They were then instructed to come to her farm with their money and tell no one. (Like that’s not suspicious? No alarm bells, guys?)
The crazy thing is… THEY DID. *blinks rapidly*
After a fire burned the Gunness farm to the ground, inspectors found the remains of a headless women, they assumed to be Belle, as well as the remains of her three children. Upon further inspection, the inspectors found so many bodies buried around the farm that they lost count. Her on again off again lover and farm hand confessed that he had burned the house with the children in it as instructed by Belle. The headless women was actually a murder victim.
Wait, what?
The farm became a tourist attraction where you could buy souvenirs because people are apparently weird and macabre, and several movies and songs were written about her. So definitely almost as notorious than Lizzie Borden and honestly sort of makes Lizzie’s alleged crime seem like nothing.
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More on the Gunness Murders
Link
Dealing with a Cranky Boss, Kate Webster Style…
Welcome to the start of a new blog series that was so much fun to research and write. And by fun, I mean I discovered things that totally creeped me out and kept me up at night. See, fun! And don’t get me wrong, As much as I love scary books, I do NOT like scary movies and refuse to watch them. But books that make my skin crawl? Now that’s my jam. I love both reading and writing them.
First women who deserves to be as notorious as Lizzie Borden is Kate Webster, a cheeky lass who hated her employer so much she killed her, dismembered her and boiled her before tossing the rest of the poor women in a trunk and ditching it in the River Thames.
Thirty-year-old Kate had a history of moving from job to prison to job. Her victim, 54-Year-old Julia Martha Thomas, was a twice widowed former schoolteacher, who was very invested in being viewed as posh as possible. To enhance that image (and get out of doing the dishes?) she hired live in help, but had trouble keeping them because she was notoriously exacting and mean spirited. (I wonder what kind of teacher she was?!!!) Most of her maids simply left, but not Kate Webster. After one particularly heated argument, Kate threw Julia down the stairs and then choked her to death to keep her from causing her any more trouble. Of course, Kate then had the problem of the body. But our Kate was a real problem solver, as is evidence by this quote from her eventual confession:
“I determined to do away with the body as best I could. I chopped the head from the body with the assistance of a razor which I used to cut through the flesh afterwards. I also used the meat saw and the carving knife to cut the body up with. I prepared the copper with water to boil the body to prevent identity; and as soon as I had succeeded in cutting it up I placed it in the copper and boiled it. I opened the stomach with the carving knife, and burned up as much of the parts as I could.”
Unable to burn or boil everything, she ended up stuffing as much as she could into a bag. The head and a foot didn’t fit so she simply tossed the foot into a garbage in Twickenham and buried the head in a garden which wasn’t discovered until 131 years later! (In Sir David Attenborough’s garden, no less!) Kate posed as Julia for two weeks while she was trying to dispose of the body, but neighbors became suspicious and Kate fled to Liverpool. When the police finally arrived at Julia’s cottage, they discover blood stains, finger bones and fatty deposits in the kitchen. Clearly, Julia had a point when chastising Kate about her cleanliness and a maid that doesn’t clean, is no maid at all…
Victorian England was as scandalized as it was titillated by the crime and the trial. At any rate, after a grisly and well publicized trial, Kate Webster was put to death for her crime.
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More information about the Kate Webster murder:
My 2025 Reading List
It was hard for me to make out this list of my favorite books of 2025. Not because I read so many but because this is the sum total of all the fiction I managed to read last year. I did read about five or six non fiction books, but as a life long reader, this list is pathetic, not in content, of course, but in volume!
Of course, to give myself a break, I was reading a lot for school, working on my writing and working a full time job, however, I still believe that the slim four or five inch device that is always on hand, also has a lot to do with. I plan on changing that this year!
Without further ado, my list! (Please keep in mind that I am not a book reviewer and if I never have to analyze another book under the dictates of Literary Criticism, it will be too soon!)
Sula by Toni Morrison
This one was so powerful and insightful and of course, reading Morrison’s writing is like a master class in tightly woven plotting and characterization.
Remote Control by Nnedi Okorafor
This strange little book blew my mind. Deeply odd and beautifully written, this book was absolutely heartbreaking and strangely empowering.
Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich
Another beautifully written book that I actually listened to while traveling. Part science fiction, part environmental catastrophe and all gorgeous… except the end. I wanted a happy ending so bad!
Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Canas
Absolutely stunning and everything I love in a book-scary, inventive, historical and wildly romantic. This may be my favorite new book of the year.
Lone Women by Victor Lavalle
Another scary one, also brilliant. Historical Horror on the Western Plains. I loved this book. It also makes me happy that maybe western horror is a thing because Fall River definitely has that vibe.
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
Sweet, nostalgic and sad. I can understand why this was an instant classic.
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
Speaking of classics… I re-read this one every few years because I just love everything about it. I care not about the head hopping or the minor inaccuracies. Francie will always be my girl.
Seven Questions Authors Should Ask Themselves Before Making their 2026 Writing Goals
As I look ahead to 2026, I reflect on my intentions of past—what worked and what didn’t? it’s from that place of reflection that I craft my writing goals for the next year. Here are seven questions authors should ask themselves before making those writing goals.
1. What is your reason for writing?
Ask yourself, “what is my why? Your why is the foundation. It’ll sustain you through rejections, poor sales, sudden successes and those creatively dry periods. My why is what keeps me going through the good times and the bad times—through the six figure deals, the trips to NYC, getting dumped by my agent, the disappointment. I have been an author for years and as I look ahead to my new chapter, I have to keep my why at the forefront of my mind.
2. Is this a practical goal or a delusional goal?
It’s okay to have both. In fact, it’s preferable to have both! Practical goals are “safe”. They keep you grounded in a consistent, workhorse kind of way. They feel good. Attainable.
Delusional goals are exciting, risky and emotionally uplifting. When you daydream about your delusional goals, don’t think, “I’ll never achieve that.” Instead, think, “Wouldn’t it be so fun if XYZ happened?” The energy is completely different and, well, energizing! Consider astronauts—only form a place of safety, (science backed technology), were they able to reach for the stars.
The key is to create both practical and delusional goals.
3. How will you make sitting down to write FEEL good?
Writing is hard, people. Sometimes I am excited to sit with my hands on the key board, creating words, sentences and stories. Other times, I’d rather have wisdom teeth extracted. So it’s important for me to romanticize my writing time. How I do this depends on the book , how much I need to write, and even the time of day. The goal is to shift my energy into excitement and expectation. When I wrote Born of Illusion, I played a lot of 1920’s era jazz. For my Lizzy Borden book, Fall River, I liked the room to be candle lit, and darker classical music softly in the background. The point is to consider how you are going to make writing fun even on those days when it doesn’t feel fun.
4. Are your goals you dependent?
Make sure your goals are dependent on you, not anyone else. I once made the mistake of making one of my goals to score a publishing deal. At the end of the year, I realized my error. It was a goal that neither myself nor my agent had any control over. We both worked as hard as we could, but we couldn’t control the market or the industry. Financial goals are similar. Not that I don’t make them, but they are similarly risky because we can’t control sales or the economy.
5. How are you going to refill the well?
In Julia Cameron’s book, The Artists Way, she writes extensively about a concept called the artist’s date. Do something that inspires creativity. This can be as simple as walking in the woods or heading to a coffee shop with a cool, creative vibe to fill up on caffeine and people watch. Or it might be as involved as heading to the museum or experiencing something new. For me, doing something completely out of the ordinary energizes me. I have gone to a sound bath and soaked in a float tank just to fill that creative well.
6. What are your challenges and strengths?
Do you struggle with time management? Then maybe a daily word count isn’t the goal for you. And honestly, daily goals/habits are the most difficult to reach because they take a level of consistency that most of us can’t maintain. Then we have to deal with the sense of failure when we miss a day and it’s incredibly hard to get back on track. In this case if you start with a large goal, say a weekly word count, you are building flexibility into the goal. Maybe you are awesome at time management but have a serious inner editor problem that makes moving forward difficult. In that case, it may help to set a time and see how many words you can write in five minutes or so. Having an awareness of your strengths and challenges will help you create goals that build on your assets, as well as give you opportunities to strengthen the areas you struggle with.
7. What will make this a successful writing year even if nothing “big” happens?
Before the year begins, define what success actually looks like for you, separate from validation, sales, or industry milestones. Is it finishing a draft? Returning to the page after burnout? Rebuilding trust in your voice? Falling back in love with storytelling? If the year ends without a book deal, a viral moment, or a bestseller list—what would still make you proud of how you showed up as a writer? When you define success on your own terms, you give yourself something powerful: a way to win no matter what the industry does. And those quiet wins—the finished pages, the consistency, the courage to keep going—are often what lead to the “big” moments anyway.
26 by 26
So I follow this amazing behavior change doctor on Instagram and she made out her 26 by 26 list—a list of things that would give her an amazing start to the new year. She has some rules around them: they have to be one and done things… something that wouldn’t show back on the list the next day. For instance, an exercise program or meditation practice. And she was really clear about what happens if she doesn’t finish them.
Nothing. Nothing would happen.
I LOVE that. It takes the 26 by 26 from a to do list, (like I need more of those!) to something fun. A slap, a tickle, a lark. So being someone who loves lists and goals (blame the cap sun/virgo rising in me), I was in! I included fun stuff and stuff that, if completed, would actually CHANGE how I felt going into 2026. I wrote up this list back in November and have been steadily crossing stuff off as the weeks roll by. What is very telling is the stuff I have done and the stuff that is still lingering on the list. Without further ado, I give you my 26 by 26 list!
1. Organize bathroom drawer
2. Wash blinds
3. Ride on the Sumpter Christmas train through the Blue Mountains
4. Clean oven
5. Finish Studio Ceiling
6. Wash kitchen ceiling
7. Make comprehensive business plan for Powder House Publishing
8. Have a winter picnic
9. Hold a Teri birthday party/bonfire
10. Graduate (conferral day is 1/1/26, but I am counting the last day of term as the day cause I
will be done!)
11. Finish putting garden to bed
12. Clean out and wash fridge
13. Organize dresser drawers
14. Take two boxes to Goodwill
15. Purchase exercise bike
16. Write eight blogs (this one is number seven!)
17. Wash bathroom walls
18. Read 1 nonfiction book
19. Read 1 fiction book
20. Wash inside of car window
21. Wash car
22. Wash kitchen walls
23. Make doctor appointment
24. Make appointment with lawyer to talk about Living trust/will
25. Go to a sound bath
26. Clean out desk
I am on track to finish the majority of them. Some have been waiting for YEARS to get done, like wash the blinds. And oddly, enough, washing the inside of the window is almost an impossible task for me to do. I HATES it, precious, yes I do. Some take the cooperation of others, like finish the studio ceiling, but I WASHED THE KITCHEN WALLS!
So yes, I will be going into 2026 feeling much lighter and more spacious. Some of those things had been weighing on me for years and now I simply don’t have to think about them. Others, like having a winter’s picnic and riding on the Christmas train have been on my bucket list.
And that is the magic of making a list like this without expectations. Next year, you can bet I’ll be making a 27 by 27 list!
Almost live…
What a week!
I was so amazed by the marketing call I had with Olivia from Story Flow Solutions that I joined her Collective. From the call, I gained clarity, solid information and best of all, a long checklist that makes launching a book and planning this aspect of my career so much easier! Worth every penny and for what I recieved, so affordable!The collective has been a revelation. Within the very supportive community, Olivia shares valuable information freely and the other authors are so supportive! I really missed the author community I left in PDX and this has been so good for me.
In addition, I had a great call with my web person and she fixed the snafus I’d been having trying to offer my Summer’s End novella for free. I’m a bit technologically challenged, but I am relieved that i was almost there. I had integrated the two programs correctly, I was just not getting the code right. but now it is fixed and the free novella, the bonus end of my Summerset series is available for download after signing up for my newsletter! Whew! So what are you waiting for? Go sign up and download! Just hit the newsletter tab and there you go!
Still waiting for her to come up with a new logo design for the site and I will be set!
Also, my agent informed me that I have editor interest in a proposal we sent out! I just need to clarify a couple of points and the editor will take it to her team. Like, how exciting!???
Becoming a hybrid author is a steep learning curve and so much of it is finding the right people to support me, building the infrastructure to publish my books under my own imprint and continuing to create quality proposals for my agent.
And finally, look at the surprise my husband gifted me with! He is the best!! This is on my writing studio that will (hopefully), be done this spring.
Cover Reveal
I am so very proud of this cover… this is the first cover that I had a real voice in designing. I sat next to my amazing designer/fellow writer/friend, Debbie Schoeningh, and we tweaked it together. And tweaked, and tweaked and tweaked. Everytime we thought we had it done, I would change my mind or get input from my amazing marketing person or something… and we’d have to play with it some more. Here is the final product for Powder House Publishing’s First release, Fall River.
In case you don’t remember what this one is about…
What if the best Lizzie Borden story isn’t about Lizzie at all?
In the summer of 1878, Clara Lodge, a 15-year-old orphan, is sent to live with her cousin, Lizzie Borden in Fall River, Massachusetts. What begins as an uneasy stay inside the oppressive Borden household soon spirals into a season of dread that leaves Clara marked with secrets and scars that she will carry for the rest of her life.
Now married and far from Fall River, Clara has achieved a fragile peace of mind, but when Lizzie is accused of murdering her parents, Clara is drawn back to the city she fled. To heal, she must confront the cousin she fears, the memories she buried, and the truth she tried so hard to forget.
Told across three timelines in one woman’s life, Fall River is a chilling blend of history, psychological suspense, and gothic horror—a reimagining of the Borden legend that asks: how long can the past stay buried before it comes for you?
Perfect for fans of Simone St. James, Kate Morton, and Jennifer McMahon, Fall River is a frightening and unforgettable reimagining of the Borden story.
Brown’s deliciously eerie page-turner is as shocking and haunting as the murders upon which it’s based. A daring, enthralling journey into the darkest depths of the human mind, Fall River held me in its chilling grip from start to finish.
—Cat Winters, Bram Stoker Award nominee for In the Shadow of Blackbirds
Do you love? Because I love. And better yet, you can pre-order here!
I have more information coming soon about my newsletter and a free give away for you Downton Abbey fans, but that is after I figure out my tech issues. Or have someone else figure them out as the case may be! Now, go back and look at my cover!
Happy sigh!
Reflection, Gratitude and Looking Ahead
As I make the transition from a traditionally published author to hybrid author, I find myself reflecting back on the good, the bad and the ugly about my traditional publishing experience.
The Good: Getting multiple offers from agents on my first query go around and choosing one of the most powerful in NYC.
The Bad: Getting dumped by said agent three years later after one book sale.
The Ugly: Going through five agents during the course of my career (Got dumped by two, and left two).
The Good: Finding a critique group that helped immensely with my writing.
The Bad: Getting attacked by critique group because I was arguably the weakest writer in the group and yet the first to land an agent.
The Ugly: Learning to deal with real insults and perceived insults with critique partners and groups. Not easy.
The Good: Getting a six-figure publishing deal.
The Bad: Less than optimal sales on much hyped book.
The Ugly: Getting subsequently less money in advances.
The Good: Going to Book Expo of America in NYC and signing 200 books! Fancy agency party! Publisher party! Meeting R.L. Stein at a fancy children’s bookstore party in NYC! Visiting my editor, Lauren McKenna at her fancy corner office! (I’m from Alfalfa Oregon, everything about that trip felt fancy!)
The Bad: Not having enough photos of that optimal experience.
The Ugly: NYC taxi rides
A couple more peak moments include:
My daughter running into her mom’s book at Barnes and Noble circa 2013, and being featured at a tea party by the incomparable Jane Porter in 2014.
As I transition into this new venture, I am incredibly grateful for all of the experiences I’ve had as a traditionally published author. I am so very, very blessed. I’m also looking forward to all the adventures to come as I both publish my own books and continue to work with my agent on new opportunities in traditional publishing. What a wonderful time to be an author!
You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, and Good Reads.
You can also try to get in touch with me telepathically.
That would be pretty cool.
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