I came home today to find the package containing the proposed cover for CALLING MR LONELY HEARTS in my kitchen, waiting for me. There was a brief moment when I didn’t think I could bear to open it. What if I didn’t like it? What if I thought it should be changed? Would I be …Read More

I find name-dropping incredibly embarrassing. I’ve never felt the undying need that some folks have to rub elbows with the rich and famous. Money and fame don’t make people nice or generous or good or bad. Seriously, everybody puts their shoes and/or stockings on the same way—sometimes those shoes just happen to cost over $600. …Read More

So, what’s up with the spider? I was looking for images from Bowling Green, Kentucky as I spent some time there this weekend for the Southern Kentucky Bookfest. Horses in pictures of Kentucky are so overdone–and Bowling Green is stunning and rural, but not particularly horsey. While searching the Internet for something appropriate, I came …Read More

Revisions on CALLING MR. LONELY HEARTS continue apace–I wrote an entire chapter yesterday, which may be a record for me. When it was finished, I realized it had filled a large hole in the manuscript. But it put me a bit behind on the rest of the revision, which is due tomorrow. (Oh, Mr. Editor….) …Read More

I received a myspace friend request today from, Yu- Han Chao, a young Taiwanese woman living in California. She’s promoting her collection of stories, PASSPORT BABY, and she came up with this video book trailer. Here’s the quote she offers from the book: “You know what yuan zu socializing is, right? Like in Japan, the …Read More

Well, I think it’s now entirely obvious why I would make a terrible journalist! I had planned to blog each day of Left Coast Crime, but became distracted by MANY shiny objects. A few catch-up highlights: The debut author breakfast went swimmingly, and I even had five lovely new readers at my table. Afterwards, I …Read More

I took it as a good omen this morning that I turned the television on to see a shot from Hitchcock’s The Birds. I think it will be a fun day for mystery and crime writing fans in Denver! Yesterday’s panel with Peter May, Christine Jorgensen and Robert Greer went very well. The room was …Read More

Writers are supposed to know many interesting things. But this writer had no idea that Denver, Colorado (where I’m attending the Left Coast Crime Convention) is actually NOT in the middle of mountains. On the way from the airport to the downtown Adam’s Mark Hotel, the shuttle driver informed me that Denver is at the …Read More

THIS young man is not the audience for my newly completed novel, CALLING MR LONELY HEARTS! I’m pleased to say that I just today submitted the manuscript of CALLING MR LONELY HEARTS to Ballantine. The scheduled release is Spring 2009. It seems like a very long time to wait. When I finished writing ISABELLA MOON, …Read More

I traveled to London, once-upon-a-time, and did the whole tourist thing: the Tower of London, fish and chips, quaint hotel where the restaurant maitre d’ went charmingly apoplectic when we wandered in at 10 pm looking for dessert (we were accommodated in the bar), days and days in museums. We were there so my husband, …Read More