Coming May 22, 2026 from Sibylline Press.
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Learn more at alohawanderwelltakesthewheel.com.
Welcome!
The second most exciting thing in life for me has always been learning something new. The first? Getting to share what I’ve learned with others. My life has given me so many opportunities to do both—as a professor (retired), as a historical novelist, and as a cruise lecturer.
My goal as a historical novelist is to provide you, the reader, with high-quality fiction about women and the forgotten and undervalued roles they played in their societies. Whether it’s the real-life physicist Emilie du Chatelet, the literary heroine Penelope, or women who have sprung entirely from my imagination, I offer you stories true to the facts of a time and place, to bring history alive for you and make you feel as much a part of other cultures as you do your own.
As a world-wide lecturer for several cruise lines, I use my career as a college professor of humanities to find the stories that make travel more exciting and memorable.
If you have either met me recently or been in my life since I was a teenager (or younger), you may know me by my birth name, Laurel Weeks. I have been using this name in my private life for several years.
Please check back from time to time for updates on my new projects and schedule, and drop me a line at laurelcoronabooks@gmail.com to let me know you’re out there reading and traveling!
From my diary
- Places I’ve Been, Part IIThis morning I started a post that I intended to be this one, but then it veered off in another direction. That happens a lot, and one of the most fun things about doing a blog is discovering what I actually want to write about. But now that one is posted, and I can get back to what caused me to sit down at my desk this morning. As I said, I’ve been to a lot of places over the years, but the other day–and I don’t know why it occurred to me to do this–I came up with a…
- Places I’ve Been, Part 1I travel so much that people often ask me about the places I’ve been, or more typically, if there’s any place I haven’t been after fourteen years of cruise lecturing. The answer to the second question is easy. I haven’t been to Antarctica. I haven’t been to Africa except on the Mediterranean side, and I’ve been down the Atlantic side no farther than Cape Verde. When people ask me about my bucket list, I point out that it doesn’t get smaller, because I add new things to the bottom. However, if I had to say what my bucket list…
- Not Just About a SandwichOne day about eight years ago, my son Ivan and I went into convenience store near my condo in San Diego. I knew he didn’t have much money, so I was surprised when he bought a sandwich, because he could have eaten for free when we got to my place in a few minutes. When we left the store he handed the sandwich to a man outside who had clearly been living on the street a long time. He told me he always tried to do that whenever he had any money to spare. He knew the distance between…