Dear Friends,
I am off this weekend for another Malice Domestic conference in Arlington, VA, so I am leaving you with this blog I wrote 2 years ago, after just such a weekend. Enjoy!
WHY I LOVE (and HATE) HOTELS
Having just returned from Malice Domestic, one of THE BEST annual mystery readers/writers conferences, and having spent half [...]

I’m continuing the topic of names today for two reasons:
1. Your answers were so interesting and revealing! Not too many people like the names they were given at birth, which their parents obviously did like. I find that fascinating.
2. I spent most of the day driving to and from and being in Niles, Michigan, for [...]

Cute article in MORE magazine last month on how names cycle in and out. According to the article’s author, Linda Yellin, if your name is Debbie, Sandra, Barbara, Nancy — or Linda, you are pegging yourself as being “of a certain age.” Likewise, if your name is Jennifer, Heather, Melissa, and Kimberly, it’s a bet [...]

When I was in second grade I wanted to be a teacher more than anything in the world. And I became one. When I was a teacher I wanted to be a mother more than anything in the world. And I became one. Twice. When I was home with my children I wanted to do [...]

A very wise internist in Chicago once told me that the body is a metaphor for our emotions. I believe it. Look at the sayings we use: I can’t stomach that. He’s a pain in the neck (or other regions). My heart breaks for her. That chokes me up. She’s shouldering the burden.
I was reminded [...]

When I was newly married and starting a household, I thought it would be fun to have a collection of something to display – you know, like those fancy glass paperweights or decorative kaleidoscopes (way too pricey for our budget)  – so on our first vacation, we purchased a lovely (and inexpensive) ceramic owl, a [...]

Are you a diet soda drinker or do you prefer regular? If you chose diet, do you consume several cans per day? Or does anyone in your family drink them? Let me tell you about Victoria Inness-Brown, a mom whose family was addicted to diet soda.
Victoria was afraid that the artificial sweetener aspartame used in [...]

She’s stubborn, self-centered, driven, beautiful, willful, Irish by heritage, a Southern Belle by birth, and let’s nothing stop her from getting her man until she finally has him….and realizes she really loves someone else. Who is she?
He’s scruffy, witty, egotistical, fiercely independent, highly intellectual, addicted to Vicodin, and brilliant as a medical Sherlock Holmes.
I’m sure [...]

Did you read about the man found unconscious in a hotel room, with two vials of the poison ricin in his possession?
That sounds like the first line of a very bad joke, but that news story really caught my attention because I used that very poison in one of my Flower Shop mysteries. (I won’t [...]

This is an informal poll conducted by a nosy, er, curious writer who used to get flu shots but gave them up two years ago. And no, I didn’t catch the flu – yet. Hopefully not at all. However, I know several people who got the shot and who now have the Lisbon 12 strain [...]