Over the years I’ve had a fascination with haunted places and have stayed in a few. The Queen Mary is supposed to be haunted–and has a tour with some special effects added. However, I once was there for a conference and many of the photographs taken during the awards ceremony showed that we’d been visited […]
Recently I participated in the Central Coast Book and Author Festival held at Pismo Beach. I so looked forward to the cooler weather of the beach since it had been in the upper 90s where I live in the foothills. Guess what? We arrived to the hottest day they’d had all summer–and it was even […]
With my latest Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery, I did something I’d only done once before–and this time with much more trepidation. I sent Tempe and her husband to Morro Bay. Usually, the mystery Tempe has to solve is set in or around Bear Creek–a fictitious mountain community. Though it has a strong resemblance to the […]
by Sparkle Abbey It is finished! We turned in book 8, Raiders of the Lost Bark. Yay! Once we turn in a book, the question we get asked most often is, “What’s next?” Besides getting more than five hours of sleep a night? We refill the creative well. Writing is exhausting and primarily a solitary […]
The characters in my books do some quirky things, and strangers often ask, “Where on earth do you come up those insane ideas?” Friends never ask. They know. I spend most of my days sitting at my computer and making up stories, interacting with imaginary people. I shop on the Internet. I visit with friends […]
Hanging Up My Stilettos By Laura Bradford It’s amazing how fast time flies, isn’t it? Sometimes, it seems like just yesterday that Maggie Barbieri and Susan McBride asked me to join them here at the Stiletto Gang. In reality though, it’s been four years–four very busy years. When I first posted here, Dangerous Alterations […]
Many mystery authors attribute reading Nancy Drew mysteries for the writing they do now. I also read Nancy Drew, but looking back, I believe many other things from my childhood had a greater influence on what I do today. Most of you know I’m much older than all the rest of the contributors to this […]
by Sparkle Abbey We had a conversation recently with a reader who asked about some of the fashions mentioned in our books. She wondered where we got the ideas for what Caro and Mel wear. Though this reader confessed she didn’t know many of the designers, she still loved reading the descriptions of the fashions. […]
Yep, I forgot and thought I better check if I had my blog post ready, and I didn’t. It’s not the first time I’ve forgotten, but guess I can chalk it up to my age. I do that a lot now, blaming things on my age. However, I don’t think it’s any different than when […]
We have lots of family events to celebrate in August. First one of come up is my eldest daughter’s wedding anniversary. She married her high school sweetheart who was going into the Army right away. (As it turned out, the Army discharged him honorable after discovering all his old motorcycle racing injuries.) They were married […]