I was invited to be a part of Lisette Brodey’s Writer’s Chateau this week! We talked about Braha and some of the methods to my madness when it comes to writing. I even revealed a few secrets. I hope you will stop by a visit us. If you have other questions I haven’t answered yet, you can always post them here. Click…
Photos from the Past
Fresh from our family archives is a photo of the village of Grimm, Russia, taken from the side view of a typical home. I suspect the home belongs to a relative of ours, although I cannot confirm that detail. In the foreground, the roof of the home is in disrepair, with part of it actually missing. A small mud and…
Harmony Grove
It’s no secret that the fictional town of Somerville in Braha is based on the town of Escondido, California. I have a strong connection to Escondido, for I spent much time there as a child at my grandparents’ ranch. My grandparents named their farm Ranchito Vida Nueva, or the ranch of new life. For them, it represented the new life they would live…
Kirkus Reviews: Wicked Family Secrets
In Mangano’s debut mystery, a writer [sic] returns to her hometown to investigate the death of her grandfather and ends up uncovering wicked family secrets. Linden St. Clair returns to her hometown of Somerville, Calif., after the death of her beloved grandfather, who raised her after the deaths of her parents. The mystery surrounding his death only intensifies when Linden realizes her grandfather left…
Braha Given 4 Stars by Foreword Reviews
We are celebrating my 4-star review from Foreword Reviews! I posted a snippet on my home page, and the full review is shown below. Two narrators bring two tones to this mystery and weave together a strong whole Alternating between a present-day mystery in America and a glimpse of a Russia gone by, Braha: A Tale of Innocence & Intrigue is…
Mood Music
Music has always been one of my true loves. When I was younger, I thought I perhaps would become a songwriter one day, maybe even a singer, but the world had different plans for me. Despite a different artistic calling, music still deeply influences me. When I was writing Braha, I listened to songs that helped me feel the mood of…
The Baker’s Daughter on NYT Best Seller List
It comes as no surprise that The Baker’s Daughter by Sarah McCoy is now on The New York Times Best Seller list, both as a print and e-book. It is such a well-deserved reward for a book so rich in details about a woman’s painful memories of life in Germany during World War II. It only seemed fitting that I…
Braha’s Name Secrets
One of the hardest things for me to do as an author is naming people and places in my work. Sometimes I become so obsessed with names that I can’t focus on writing my story until the names are perfect. A perfect name sounds right and has the appropriate connotations when spoken aloud or read silently. Believe it or not,…
A New Beginning
It doesn’t sound possible, to begin anew, but that’s what I’m doing with my blog. As many of you may know, my blog has been down for several months now, as I switched the hosting to a new server. I encountered a multitude of problems that I just couldn’t deal with, since I was in the final stages of editing,…
Finding Leena
Mumu spoke the language of children. Accompanied with a smile and a hug, it has no verbal barriers. After writing about my childhood friend Leena, I became very curious about tracking her down. I’ve never done something like that, so I was feeling rather Nancy Drew-ish. Thanks to my raging insomnia, I had the opportunity to do a little searching…