I no longer have to look behind me before I move my writing chair, because my life companion, my dog Lily, died on Friday. Most of us with a human heart know what it is to love an animal, and the heartsick loss you live with when they die. She was 14 after all, and I...
A contrast in what I took home from two writers’ conferences I attended recently: the Public Safety Writers Association (PSWA) conference in July 2016 in Las Vegas; And, Bouchercon 2016 the worldwide mystery conference in New Orleans in 2016....
Liking a book–or not–is subjective. It may be something as simple as the setting is a place where a reader may have broken up with an old girlfriend. Your reader picks up your book and the first five pages remind him of heartbreak. That is not a judgment...
Last night I witnessed the Perseid Meteor showers from a nearby peak in the Central California mountains. A huge, yellow half moon hung in the sky overhead and the stars were bright. Of course my friends and I were not the only people excited about seeing the best...
The hard work of writing my crime fiction novels has brought me joy, some success, and even enjoyment, this setting down of dark crime fiction for others to read. But once in a while the passion fades. And it becomes plain work that I just don’t want to do. I learned...
Though it’s fast fading into the past—it happened in July 2016—I’m still thinking about this terrific group of law enforcement types, firefighters, and EMTs I met in Las Vegas. Here it is, the Public Safety Writers Association conference in July 2016 in Las Vegas....
