Blurting Out The Truth
A work of fiction has to be about something, doesn’t it? And really good books are about a lot of things, some of them heavy social issues. Raymond Chandler’s novels are about crime and corruption...
Santa Monica Shooting – A Tribute to Real Crime Victims
I've asked myself countless times why I’m fascinated enough with murder and mayhem to write three crime fiction novels about Santa Monica? Why do I feel such glee in learning the forensic details of...
The World Back in Chechnya
My second mystery novel, Rip-Off, is a whodunit about Chechen organized crime set in Santa Monica, not Boston. The news unfolding in Boston has me and the rest of the world gob-smacked, as the Brits...
When I am Picking Up Dead Squirrels
My friend Vicky Bingaman is a wildlife rehabber who takes in injured creatures, nurses them back to health, and pushes them back out into the wild. You can’t feed a Cooper’s hawk or a rat snake on...
Perils and Pitfalls in Writing About Your Home Town
I live in a mountain village in rural California and my third mystery suspense novel, Payback, is set in fictional Sierra Mountain Village, somewhat like the village where I live. But I assure you;...
Coming Back to Santa Monica
I spent this weekend as a Santa Monica resident for the first time in seven years. Interesting! Technically my new digs are across the street, the dividing line between Santa Monica and Mar Vista....
I write like a man? Really?
Men who read James Patterson won't buy my books. I don't write thrillers in which there’s a maniacal killer and a ticking clock, a lot of car chases, explosions, and everyone is tall, lean, and...
Ninety Seconds Stark Terror
The Pitch Slam—or Pitch Slap—is that moment in a writer’s life when you are for the first time across a table from a living, breathing literary agent. For the writer, this person is more important...
Sisters-in-Crime Ghoulies and Ghosties and Long-Legged Beasties
California Ghost Hunters shook up the audience at the October meeting of the LA Chapter of Sisters-in-Crime, October 7, 2012. I should explain that the whole paranormal thing has whooshed past me....
