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 rises in the air. “I’ll do it. I’ll do it. Let me.” I’m incredulous...
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 or night creature, which annoys the spit out of me by making a...
I took a break away from the hard work of writing another police procedural mystery when I’d finished the third in the series called On Behalf of the Family. At that point I was waiting for the proofreader to finish up. I couldn’t look at the manuscript one more time....
Damn, it’s hard to reconnect with your story having taken three days off to be a tourist in downtown Los Angeles. It’s hard to reconnect with your story—or whatever you’re working on—after taking any time off. You lose your momentum. So many excuses are available. I...
What is Bouchercon? http://www.bouchercon2014.com/programming.php For both authors and readers, it’s the meeting place to rub shoulders with the famous, near famous, and soon to be famous—all mystery writers. It’s the grand lalapalooza mystery conference held every...
Clark Lohr, one of my favorite Southwest action mystery writers, introduces us to his protagonist, Manny Aguilar. I tagged Clark Lohr as part of a blog hop tour. Manuel “Manny” Aguilar makes a second appearance in The Devil on Eighty-five, having debuted as the...
Sheila Lowe, my fellow mystery writer and friend, tagged me in this blog hop tour to craft a 500-word blog about the main character in my Dave Mason police procedural series. Check out Sheila Lowe and her series of mysteries featuring forensic handwriting specialist...
I write crime fiction about a cop and his world, a homicide detective in the Santa Monica Police Department. Detective Dave Mason has his faults, of course, but try as I might, I do not have the imagination to fit him into being a member of the Ferguson Police...
At the direction of my good friend, Judith Cassis, who is a professional writer and marketer, I have just finished three eBooks of about 10,000 words on the topic of writing your first mystery. Have I revealed secrets known only to a few bestselling crime novelists?...
Foolishly I thought it would never happen to me because I was careful. Now that it has happened and been corrected, I see the yawning holes I left wide open for hackers. I hope that with the application of money and effort, I’m not so defenseless. For the...
