October 13, 2021
It’s less than three weeks until Halloween. A perfect time to read a romance that’s also a suspense. I’ve just lowered the price on the e-book for HAUNTED to .99 cents. This is one of my older romances. I wrote it after O.J. Simpson was acquitted of murdering his wife. Of course the hero in […]
June 23, 2021
Where do I get my ideas? Well, with THE CROWS, it was the murder of two hunters (that took place close to where I lived) that triggered the idea for that book. When I started thinking about writing a sequel to THE CROWS, three reports on TV triggered the idea for AS THE CROW FLIES. […]
June 16, 2021
For three (3) days—June 18, June 19, and June 20—the ebook edition of SOMETHING TO CROW ABOUT will be free. (https://rb.gy/7ae33z ) Check it out! What’s the story about? Being nine months pregnant doesn’t stop P.J. Benson from trying to discover why her friend was killed. But someone thinks she has crucial evidence, and they’ll […]
September 12, 2018
How do you get your villain to confess? How do you know if a witness is telling the truth? Paul Bishop, who is a nationally recognized behaviorist interrogation expert and veteran LAPD detective, conducted this session at the Writers’ Police Academy. (He’s also a writer. Check out his books.) Paul Bishop’s Books While Bishop was a […]
April 19, 2017
I’m continuing my summaries of sessions I attended during Sleuthfest 2017 with the Saturday afternoon session titled “Different Paths to Publication.” This panel included Lynnette Hallberg, Sharon Potts, John Keyse-Walker, and Dan Ames with Gregg Brickman moderating. Dan Ames started the conversation by comparing the three common ways of being published today: traditional (large publishing […]
April 12, 2017
David Baldacci was the Saturday keynote luncheon speaker at Sleuthfest 2017. He began his talk by relaying a humorous story about why he won’t go up to anyone reading his book. He said he saw a man reading one of his books and offered to sign it for the man. The man told him, “No […]
April 5, 2017
Saturday morning (February 25), I had a meeting so I didn’t get to “Shooting Solutions, Part 1,” presented by Sharon Plotkin, until it was more than halfway over; nevertheless, I still picked up some interesting information to add to my mysteries. For one thing, Sharon said, “Use gloves to pick up a gun at a […]
February 15, 2017
For the last week I’ve been reading cozy mysteries. For anyone who doesn’t know what a cozy is, think of Agatha Christie’s books or the TV series, “Murder She Wrote.” The books usually involve a small town or community, an off-stage murder, some quirky characters, and an animal—a dog, cat, or whatever the author chooses […]
October 28, 2015
Tomorrow I’m flying to Nashville to attend a writers’ conference (Killer Nashville). I’ve been attending writing conferences for more than thirty years, and I always come home having learned something. On Saturday morning I’ll be on a “Romantic Suspense” panel. I’m feeling a bit unprepared. Although, in the past, I’ve written what I (me, myself) […]
April 15, 2015
I think I’ve always loved mysteries. Mysteries, adventure stories, and horses. Of course, most books have a mystery of some sort: Will the girl get the guy? Will the hero save the girl/find the treasure/catch the bad guys? Will the “gang” escape the monster/save the princess/topple the evil monarch? Will Dorothy make it back to […]
September 26, 2014
I’ve been tagged by Terry Odell to participate in the Sisters in Crime Blog Hop (#SinCBlogHop). The rules are simple. I’m to choose one or more questions that were posted on the SinC Website and write the answer(s) in a blog. I can then tag someone else to continue this blog hop (or not). I joined Sisters in […]
January 15, 2014
Today I’m pleased to introduce Ellen Larson. I met Ellen last spring at MWA’s one-day conference, “Sleuthfest in Sarasota,” and discovered she is also a Five Star/Gale/Cengage mystery writer. Her first book with Five Star, In Retrospect, was released December, 2013. When the two of us are in Florida (escaping the cold winters up north), we […]
July 31, 2013
We often hear that it’s bad to use backstory. It doesn’t hook the reader. Stops the forward movement of the story. Readers skip it; editors reject it. But wait! Don’t you want to let the reader know what happened in your character’s past that’s causing him/her to act this way? Yes…no…maybe. The problem is backstory […]
October 19, 2011
Saturday morning I’ll be in Grand Rapids giving a talk on writing the mystery. (If you’re at the Grand Rapids Region Writers Conference: I’ve Always Wanted to Write a Book do say hello.) Later that morning, award winning author Lisa Childs will be speaking on writing the romance. Two separate genres that, in my opinion, […]