Sisters in Crime – Bakersfield
Cherry Mattias, DVM and I have started a Bakersfield chapter of Sisters in Crime. We were thrilled last meeting to discover we’ve already we’ve grown out of our original meeting place at Marie...
Write a Day-in-the-Life of Your Killer Character – Mystery Fiction
In my current, and as yet untitled sixth mystery fiction, I changed the killer in the middle of the book. No one knew but me, until my editor commented that the killer was unconvincing. He just...
Finishing Your First Mystery
Chances are if you’re reading this, you’ve written a lot of words, some pages, some chapters, which are causing you a lot of pain. It feels like you’ve done a lot of thinking, a lot of typing, but...
Writers Police Academy 2015.
I don’t spend money on jewelry, fast cars, or lavish restaurant meals. I spend it on mystery conferences and bookselling jaunts. The Writers Police Academy in Wisconsin was expensive, the biggest...
Wrong again: Read Charlaine Harris
I thought I didn’t like cozies, especially those written by Charlaine Harris. To refresh your memory, cozies feature an amateur sleuth (who has some law enforcement connection.) Many sleuths are...
The Why Bother Finishing Your Book Syndrome
Chances are if you’re reading this, you’ve got written a lot of words, some pages, some chapters, which are causing you a lot of pain. It feels like you’ve done a lot of thinking, a lot of typing,...
A Very Private High School
I wish I felt more enthusiasm for the launch of my new Dave Mason mystery. For me, once I’m finished a book, that is, the revised revised final final version, I’m really done with it. And by then...
Stuck Holding the Poop Bags
I’m supposed to be a full-time writer. Yeah, right. My poor dead husband used to say I have a helium right hand. At every opportunity to give my time away to some good cause, my hand involuntarily...
Saint Lucia Stories
I am saying good-bye to Saint Lucia tonight, a small island in the Eastern Caribbean, where my brother and I are spending a holiday together. It's dark now. With darkness comes some insect, or gecko...
