I’ve made several references to Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn in talking about my Red Slaves series, so it seemed only fair to dedicate a post to this man. He was a dissident born in December 1918 and was the first to expose the western world to the Soviet system of gulags, or forced labor camps, through … #AtoZChallenge – S is for Solzhenitsyn

Although there is a significant rescue scene in Blood to Fire, and there are thematic elements about rescuing abused individuals throughout the Red Slaves series, they all constitute spoilers. So I’m going to talk about a different kind of rescue near and dear to my heart: Animal rescue. We rescued our second and third Siberian … #AtoZChallenge – R is for Rescue

I saw this image on Facebook over a year ago, and I’m not sure where it originated… but it is a fantastic visual for where things stand in book 2 of the Red Slaves series. Anne is holding on to the last vestiges of her human life with her obsession with reading, research, and scientific … #AtoZChallenge – Q is for Queen

I mentioned this word last year in my Cold War post, but figured this would be a good opportunity to revisit the topic. Perestroika literally means reorganization in Russian, and was introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev in the 1980s to try to reform the command economy in place in the Soviet Union at that time. It … #AtoZChallenge – P is for Perestroika

The occult is strictly defined as “supernatural, mystical, or magical beliefs, practices, or phenomena.” The word comes to us from a Latin word meaning “hidden from view, covered up, concealed.” For some reason, though, the word has taken on a darker overtone–you can talk of magic all you want without being accused of anything nefarious. … #AtoZChallenge – O is for Occult

I’ve spent several novels, now, naming characters, but book 2 of Red Slaves presented me with a new opportunity: To build fake words in to the world as a representation of the culture and expectations of those beings. As I mentioned earlier in this challenge, Anne meets ghilen in book 2. While I was able … #AtoZChallenge – N is for Niu Wen

One of the fun sub-themes of my Red Slaves series is the escape to the banya to relax and enjoy women-only time between Olga and Anne. In book 2, this expands to include the possibility that Anne’s new home can accommodate her desire to find inner tranquility and balance. When I saw the picture at … #AtoZChallenge – M is for Mineral Springs

For all that I’ve been happily married and deeply in love for more than 15 years, now, this was the first I considered what, specifically, it means to love and be loved. My father decided to divorce my mother after 42 years, despite her objection. It’s been a challenge to understand why, and even more … #AtoZChallenge – L is for Love

The Central Asian Republics have held a certain fascination for me since I was a little girl and my dad came back from what we joked was a “literal field trip.” He worked for the Foreign Agriculture Service, and we were posted to Moscow in 1978. Since he was trained as an agricultural economist, it … #AtoZChallenge – K is for Kazakhstan

Last year I had a problem with this letter, and stretched to make JAM fit. This year, Anne’s adventures took her into the Himalayan mountains. One of the first ways she tries to identify where she is is by taking a deep breath, whereupon she remarks at the scent of juniper. Once again, I’d let … #AtoZChallenge – J is for Juniper