Hello! Thank you for visiting my website.

Yes, I’m working on that sequel.

Want a good story to help you escape the stressors of the real world?

Or… do you need a gift for someone else?

Get In Your Dreams!  in digital or paperback from Amazon and most bookstores, including Barnes & Noble, Waterstone’s, Target, or even Walmart.

Would you please post a review on Amazon, Goodreads or your favorite book seller’s site?

The eBook is only available on Amazon (worldwide), for now. Kindle Unlimited subscribers can read it FREE of charge!  If you think you wouldn’t like anything called “Romance,” give In Your Dreams! a try. It also makes a nice gift for someone who would enjoy a love story.

I’d really appreciate it if you would leave a REVIEW on the book’s Amazon page (or wherever you bought it). Long or short, the more current reviews a book has, the more likely it is to appear when people search for a book in its category or use the keywords associated with that title. Amazon’s algorithms don’t care whether reviews are positive or negative; they only care about the number of reviews a book has and how recent they are.  So leaving honest reviews of the books you read helps other readers find what they’re looking for. (And they help writers learn what readers do and don’t like in a book.) If you frequent Goodreads, BookBaby, or BookBub, a review there and on any other book-related sites would help my novel be seen by others, too.

Amazon categorizes my “Dreams” series as “Romance, Contemporary, Later in Life” and “Literature, Women’s Fiction.” I’ve even found In Your Dreams! in the Romantic Comedy category. One Amazon reviewer agrees, writing that it has “Lots of humor and snappy dialogue.”

The stories are all set in the contemporary British Isles and North America, and feature people older than 40 (because Love is Ageless). So, if you’d like to escape your own reality for a while, In Your Dreams! will take you to 2014 with two middle aged, never-married people who were unlikely to even meet.  ♥  Read how a few days in London and an attractive (younger) British actor turn a very independent American’s comfortable, solitary life upside down.

I’m working on the sequel, which I plan to publish next year. Eventually, you’ll find the whole series on my Amazon Author Page at https://www.amazon.com/author/Dana-Michaels. 

If, when you hear “Romance novel,” you think of bodice rippers—the 1970s paperbacks with Fabio holding a beautiful teenager on the cover—let me bring you up to date.

The Romance genre has expanded to include more than 24 subgenres, like historical and contemporary, romantic comedy, romantic mystery, suspense, thriller, sci-fi, fantasy, time travel, Scottish, Regency, horror, young adult, and more. And Romance novels now include all age groups, races, nationalities, personality types, religions, settings, etc.

Most now have strong, intelligent female protagonists, not helpless damsels in distress. Their “heat levels” run from sweet romance (chaste without even a hint of sex, like Hallmark movies) to erotica (explicit, X-rated), and everything in-between.  In Your Dreams! is in the mid-range. Sex takes a back seat to the emotional story, and those few scenes are moderate, not explicit.

Romance is the most profitable book category on Amazon, earning $1.44 billion in 2021 U.S. sales. Contemporary Romance is the best selling and most competitive subcategory, so I need all the help I can get.  If you’ve…

Never read a romance novel? (I was 60 when I read my first one.)

Wouldn’t be caught dead reading one? (I used to think that.)

Go on, try it. I’ll never tell. You might be surprised!  Start with In Your Dreams!  (…and please post a review. Thank you.)

November is National Native American Heritage Month

Any time is a good time to consider what good stewards of North America’s ecosystems and wildlife the Indigenous People have been.  This may be true throughout the western hemisphere, but I don’t have enough knowledge to discuss that.

What I CAN do is recommend we all learn more about these people, who have been and still are mistreated by American society and governments at all levels. Some interesting facts about Native Americans, courtesy of Mental Floss:

Nearly 4 million Americans identify exclusively as American Indian or Alaska Native, according to the 2020 U.S. Census. There are currently 324 American Indian reservations and 574 federally recognized tribes in the United States that have survived centuries of genocide and displacement. Did you know that these people, who lived here thousands of years before Europeans and others arrived, were not—according to U.S. laws—full birthright citizens of the United States until June 2, 1924? That’s when President Calvin Coolidge signed the Indian Citizenship Act into law. Geez, took ’em long enough! (as usual) So next June, there should be some BIG centennial celebrations.

Native American Heritage Month is a good time to learn about Indigenous history. According to Mental Floss, Native American history is preserved in government archives, ancestral places, museums, and by the people today. The National Park Service manages sites of cultural significance, such as Alabama’s Russell Cave, featuring 10,000 years of human habitation; and the Trail of Tears National Historical Trail, which traces the migration of tribes forcibly removed from their Southeast U.S. homelands in 1838 and 1839. The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian locations in Washington, D.C., and New York City also preserve Indigenous crafts and ways of living. So do state and local Indian Museums throughout the country.

The California State Indian Museum is one of our state historic parks, in midtown Sacramento. It’s full of basketry, bead work, and regalia as well as other exhibits about the ongoing traditions of various California Indian groups. Details are on the State Parks website.  As for the future…

The first Native American woman in space is a member of northern California’s Wailacki of the Round Valley Indian Tribes. Nicole Aunapu Mann is a U.S. Marine aviator and NASA astronaut who spent Oct. 5, 2022 to March 11, 2023 aboard the International Space Station—as its Commander!

We’ve come a long way, baby…