A reprise because Mother’s Day was just too much fun! On Friday I got a text from my youngest daughter. “Mom, we owe my math teacher a fish.” That didn’t sound good. “What?” was my witty response. “I killed the class fish.” “How?” I waited for an answer. And waited. Just how had my daughter murdered the […]
I am thrilled to welcome Abby L Vandiver back to the Stiletto Gang! Abby’s new book releases June 12th. Don’t you love the cover??? Romaine Wilder, big city medical examiner with a small town past, has been downsized and evicted. In steps her “Auntie Zanne,” with a plan to save her. But that plan involves […]
At the end of January, I quit my day-job to write full-time. A dream come true. My last day of official employment was on a Friday. I gave myself the weekend to relax and on Monday I plunked my hiney in a chair, stretched my fingers above the keyboard, and wrote. 250 words. Not good […]
For years, I dreamed about what writing full-time would be like. Now I know. Two weeks ago I became a full-time writer. The dream and the reality are different. I dreamed fluffy sweaters, astronomical word counts, and unfettered creativity. Reality is the decision to do something hard—create a new series. When I began The Deep […]
Someone should have told me. I didn’t realize that if I did the same thing for a few years in a row, I was beginning an unbreakable tradition. But I did. And now, the Mulherns have the same thing for breakfast every Christmas morning. Not that I’m complaining. The recipes are easy and delicious (unlike […]
We’re thrilled to welcome USA TODAY bestselling author Ellen Byron to the Stiletto Gang! Ellen shares her passion for purple and a thought or two about her fabulous Cajun Country Mystery Series. My relationship with the color purple – the actual color, not the book – has a history. When I was a kid growing […]
There is an Irish writer I adore. Her name is Marian Keyes and she doesn’t write mysteries (her book, The Mystery of Mercy Close, isn’t a mystery—not really). True confession: with few exceptions I read only mysteries and biographies. And Marian Keyes. I read Marian Keyes. Some might say she writes women’s fiction. […]
A bit more than a long weekend, a bit less than a full-fledged vacation. We recently took off for Bentonville, Arkansas—an easy drive from Kansas City. My plan, carefully thought out, was to leave at two and miss the afternoon traffic. With two teenage daughters, that plan was a pipe dream. We left at four […]
Independence Day has come and gone. Summer is half over. I hate that. I haven’t had time to sit by the pool or catch fireflies or sip wine on a night when the air is like velvet and the stars are so close I could pick them from the sky if only I could find […]
Every so often, I run across a picture of Angela Lansbury as Jessica Fletcher. She’s sitting at her kitchen table in front of a typewriter. There’s a coffee cup to her left, a coffee pot to her right, and a sweater casually draped around her shoulders. She’s wearing make-up. She’s also wearing a satisfied smile—as […]