When Rags Go Bad: how rags can burst into flames and try to kill you

If you’ve ever done any refinishing (furniture, wood floors, etc.) you’ve likely heard the warnings—leave the rags you’ve used lying around and you could have a house fire. So what’s the deal? How do perfectly innocent rags (or newspapers for that matter) turn into incendiary bombs ready to burn down your garage or home? Simply…

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Announcing the FRIENDS OF FIRE Reader Promotion

Sometimes early birds don’t get worms . . . they get FABULOUS, fiery, BOOK SWAG 😉 Today I am launching my 🔥🔥🔥 Friends of Fire Reader Incentive 🔥🔥🔥 a swag extravaganza designed to celebrate reader enthusiasm for And by Fire. The Friends of Fire Incentive will reward up to fifty [yes, 50] readers who pre-order…

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No Tea No Shade . . . King Charles II’s Queen Did NOT Introduce Tea to England, But She Made It Fashionable

So, here’s the skinny: Catherine of Braganza (wife of England’s King Charles II) loved tea, but she cannot be credited for introducing tea to the British. Catherine did, however, almost single-handedly turn tea into widely consumed and very fashionable beverage. Where did Catherine’s penchant for tea come from? Portugal. After all she was a Portuguese…

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Point of Ignition: Where the Great Fire of London REALLY Started

For precisely 350 years, everyone in England believed that Pudding Lane was THE London hotspot—the place, on the property of Thomas Farriner’s bakery, that the Great Fire of London sparked. Then a historian and House of Commons Clerk said nope, not so. Yes, the Great Fire began—as generations of British school children had learned—on the…

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And By Fire Book Trailer Reveal

Thrilled to share the book trailer for my upcoming novel, And by Fire! I have goosebumps! How about you? And by Fire releases in  less than 2 months (May 10, 2022), but you can pre-order your copy now wherever books are sold—including SIGNED copies from my exclusive source, Bards Alley (a women owned Indie bookstore).…

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A Flat with a View: Ni’s place in Bankside

In And by Fire DI Nigella Parker enjoys a posh lifestyle. Not, to be clear, on her salary from the City Police of London (I am writing fiction, not fantasy), but because she comes from a wealthy, Oxbridge educated family. Central to her daily life is a flat in Bankside purchased with money inherited from…

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Pre-Order a SIGNED Copy of AND BY FIRE

✍️I like my books like I like my checks—SIGNED.✍️ Seriously, there is something extra special about a signed copy of a book, and my signed copies have pride of place in my personal library. If, like me, you get a thrill when you flip open the copy of a novel and see the author’s signature…

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Worst Beauty Product EVER

History is fascinating, frustrating, and occasionally downright gross.1 In And By Fire—while my modern-day police detectives are chasing a murderous arsonist creating sculptures from burnt flesh—a pair of 17th century amateur detectives search for a friend gone missing during London’s Great Fire. During that hunt, Margaret Dove (a lady-in-waiting to the queen) and Etienne Belland…

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