Pre-Launch at Denver Women’s Press Club

Thanks for joining me on the 2012 MARA-thon! This includes a physical book tour through Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and California, and it includes a national blog tour. During the entire MARA-thon, please be sure to download your FREE prequel short story, When Whales Watch at www.MaraPurl.com/downloads. As of January 1, you’ll be able to find purchase links for all e-readers at https://marapurl.com/books/when-whales-watch.

This is posted from the road during my All-Indie-Bookstore book tour titled MAPPING THE JOURNEY OF YOUR HEART. Revisit the entire tour at any time by visiting www.MaraPurl.com/calendar where you’ll see event details, links to the bookstores, and soon, photo archives. Also join me on the ongoing Double Blog Tour, which will be archived at https://marapurl.com/fall-blog-tour-schedule.

Women’s rights, opportunities and access seem so much a matter of course in the twenty-first century. It’s hard to imagine there was a time when a woman could neither vote nor own property, when she enjoyed neither legal protection from domestic violence nor the legal right to make choices about her own body. When it comes to career opportunities, there’s still a glass ceiling, there are still areas of endeavor where a woman has to out perform a man just to stand even on the playing field. But at least women have long since proven their worth in the field of letters, as authors, writers, journalists, reporters, researchers and scholars.

The Denver Woman’s Press Club was founded in 1898, helping to forge the way for the opportunities and professions we now take almost for granted. The organization now boasts over 200 members of professional writers from journalists to novelists, from historians to corporate PR specialists.

Joining the DWPC comes about only from mentor to mentor, colleague to colleague, friend to friend. I’m fortunate in having Margaret Coel as mentor, colleague and friend. And I was honored to be invited to join this venerable organization. What a special delight it was to do my first event there, and to do it with Margaret! We both have new books this fall. Hers take readers back to the 16th novel in her beloved series. Set on Wyoming’s Wind River Reservation, her mysteries are jointly solved by the Arapahoe lawyer Vicki Holden and the Catholic Priest Father John O’Malley. They make an unlikely pair whose histories are inextricably intertwined with the rich history of the West.

My new book—which launches officially one week from today at the Tattered Cover in Highlands Ranch, Colorado—is book two of the Milford-Haven Novels, set on California’s Central Coast. Mine, too, contains the ongoing thread of a mystery that involves a journalist, and here Margaret’s and my stories cross-connect. She has a second series with two volumes thus far. They focus on a journalist who works in Denver.

So, here we were, two authors with journalist-protagonists who, because of their convictions and their commitment to getting “the story”, put themselves in harm’s way. During our talk, we shared a lot of information about the extensive research it takes to create the books we write. And—here, in the presence of many author and journalist colleagues—we wondered aloud just how far a journalist should go to “get the story.” From a collective perspective, given how long it look women to have the right to research and publish investigative journalism, do we still have to prove our courage and commitment? Or did Nellie Bly establish enough precedent that we can back off when we know we’re in danger? Margaret and I are both former journalists and have both, on occasion, been in harm’s way ourselves. So our work has the ring of authenticity.

It was a privilege to be in that venerable home, whose walls could no doubt tell as many stories as its members. It will be a joy to attend many more events in the future where I may listen to others’ writing tales. And it will always be special to be included in this sisterhood of writers.

For more information on the evolving world of The Milford Haven Novels, visit my new website www.MaraPurl.com where you can subscribe to my newsletter, follow me on social media, enjoy photos and videos, discover more special offers and more.