My Journey to Writing Historical Fiction

I write historical fiction to honor the lives of ordinary people who shaped extraordinary change. My stories are rooted in real movements, family legacy, and the belief that fiction can provoke empathy, inspire vigilance, and preserve truth.  Whether it’s a garment striker in 1912 or a modern woman trapped in the 12^th century fighting for justice for a rape victim, I write to give voice to the under trodden that history nearly forgot. I come from a long line of working-class immigrants whose resilience and quiet work ethic shaped my understanding of justice, sacrifice, and the cost of progress. I have woven in snippets of their stories throughout my books. 

For most of my career, I worked analyzing and evaluating social programs as I am a Ph.D. economist. My background as an economist has given me insights into trends regarding poverty, the standard of living, and most importantly the distribution of wealth.   Three threads run through the books I write:

• History holds urgent lessons for today.

I believe the past isn’t just prologue—it’s a mirror. My fiction invites readers to reflect on how far we’ve come, and how easily progress can be undone.        

• Personal stories belong in the broader historical narrative.

I weave my own family’s experiences into my work, not as memoir, but as testimony. These stories remind us that history is lived, not abstract.

• Heroines who speak for the voiceless can change the world.

My protagonists are often women who refuse to be silence. They fight, they fall, they rise—and they remind us that it takes great courage to speak out.

What I have been Working On

I’m currently launching Fighting for Crumbs, a novel about woman’s journey to becoming an activist for the rights of labor and women’s suffrage. Settling on the topic for this book has been the hardest writing task for me so far. I was seeking a period in our history that had parallels with our current situation. Although I am unaware of any period in the past in which we faced the variety of political challenges currently in play, there have been windows of time in which the power of the presidency expanded, corruption in government was high, immigrants were reviled, and wealth and power were in the hands of a very few. I considered writing about Reconstruction initially, but it was not quite working. Next, I did research on the robber barons and, although they are an interesting group, I could not envision what I would write about them. In contrast, when I finally read about the labor and women’s’ movements in the early 20th century, I felt there was a flood of sub stories relevant to today’s challenges.