Yesterday I met a former student for lunch.  I have not seen this young woman since I was her sixth grade Language Arts teacher. She’s now 20, driving, smoking cigarettes, and filled with an energy that can only be attributed to the young.  She informed me that her grandmother had always considered me “too hard” […]

No, it’s not the title of my next book. In fact, I may not finish my next book in time because of the woodpeckers that have been plaguing me since January.
Back then, a red-headed woodpecker with the charm of dear old Woody began pecking at the birch tree outside the window where my desk is […]

Is there such a creature? I would like with all my heart to believe that there is despite marketplace evidence to the contrary. And I’m not talking only about writing fiction. I mean all writing for profit.
Pause for hysterical laughter and myriad variations on […]

Friends, I have invited a few fellow female mystery writers (say that four times) to appear on our blog over the course of the spring including Nina Wright, Jess Lourey, Sue Ann Jaffarian, Felicia Donovan, G.M. Malliet and more! I thought this would be a nice time to introduce you to some lovely ladies and […]

Have you ever thought of starting your own book club? Spring is the perfect season to try something new. Why not send a feeler out to some friends and see if you can collect a group of four-ten readers, decide on a meeting place, and launch your club.
I started one […]

March is a tricky month. It can arrive like a lion, carrying an armload of snow and viruses, or it can blow down trees with a forceful rainstorm (we’ve got two down today), or it can tiptoe in on rays of sunshine and then blast the ground with a sudden freeze the day before Easter.
I […]

This past Tuesday was a big day for me. Why was it special? Because I had a date at our county jail.
Where I grew up, the county jail was a small affair and even though I’d never been inside the building, it didn’t seem threatening. Now I live in Richmond, Virginia. It’s not a small […]

I’m a little nervous and excited about an errand I have to run today. After almost six months, an antique music box that has been in my family for ages is ready to be picked up. I would consider this box my greatest […]

Last night I watched an unusual and captivating movie called Perfume: The Story of a Murderer. I love historical mysteries and as this movie was based on Patrick Suskind’s Das Parfum, I thought this might be right up my alley. With the exception of one scene I could have done without, it was. Try to […]

Writers are constantly scrambling to make sure they’ve done all they can to promote their latest release. The tough part of the balancing act is not to spend every penny (and they’re usually pennies, not dimes!) of our advances on promotion.
Lately, it seems that every author has a website and a blog. Those things are […]