I planned to write a Malice Domestic recap, filled with insights from a Malice newbie. But the sad truth is I have a cold that leaves me with a tissue permanently clasped in my hand and a cough that makes typos likely. Instead, I offer you a quick peek at Clouds in my Coffee which […]
Most authors have a book—or part of a book—that they don’t talk about much. The project that refused to take wings. The practice manuscript. The story that wrote itself into a corner. The manuscript lurking under the bed with the dust lions. I have two failures to launch. The first is set in the 1920s […]
It’s been a just over a year since The Deep End released. One year. Three hundred and sixty-five plus lessons about publishing. Here are six of them. The first lesson: I woke up on February 17, 2015 expecting confetti cannons and champagne. I traipsed down the stairs, poured my morning coffee, and waited for something marvelous to […]
Of late, I’ve been trolling advertising from the 1970s. Call it research. Call it the human tendency to slow down and gape at a disaster. Seventies advertising, Mikie and his Life cereal excluded, was not a high-point for Madison Avenue. Women were objectified and belittled. Girls were sexualized. The ads followed attitudes. It was not […]
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 class fish? And why? Had it embezzled? Stolen fish flakes? […]
One night, very soon, I will escape to the living room with a glass of wine. The lights on the Christmas tree will glimmer and I will turn on the CD player. No music. At least not music as my teenagers understand it. I will listen to Dylan Thomas recite A Child’s Christmas in Wales. […]
Every so often when my husband and I are watching Dateline, I’ll look over at him and say, “If you get tired of me, divorce me. Don’t…” You may fill in the blank with whatever gruesome manner the featured spouse has used to off their partner. On Dateline, there is always an insurance policy in […]
Tomorrow is my third book release this year. You’d think by now I’d be used to that queasy, what-if-everyone-hates-it feeling in my stomach. That feeling alternates with spikes of what-if-everyone-loves it euphoria. Every so often, a tiny rational part of my brain says, “Deadlines.” Please note the “s” at the end of that word. The […]
Recently, I visited The Girl with Book Lungs and told her about the detours I take when writing a book. They are many–just today they included seventies bands, Pet Rocks and a trip back to a previous book because I’d forgotten Mother’s housekeeper’s name. When I was a child, every August my parents would pile my […]
Is it research or inspiration? Things I’ve found ‘researching’ the seventies for the Country Club Murders: This quote: A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle – attributed to both Gloria Steinem and Irina Dunn. Because my books are set in the United States, if I use it (when I use it) […]