THE THINGS THAT HAUNT MYSTERY WRITERS

Yesterday as I was doing the weekly shopping for my cats at their favorite pet food store, I couldn’t help noticing the older man perched on a bench outside the door. His hand was clutched around a paper coffee cup and he rocked back and forth, muttering, “The...

Why I Wrote a YA Book

Yes, my new book, Race with Danger, is a bit of a departure for this mystery and romance author. But here’s why I wrote it: It was fast to write, and these days, you have to publish a lot of books quickly to survive. Young adult books, while dealing with serious...

Dusting Myself Off from Bouchercon

I just returned from my first Bouchercon mystery fan conference in Albany, New York. This was only my second fan conference (I attended Left Coast Crime last March in Colorado.) Fan conferences are a bit different than writers conferences in that attendees are usually...

Are Books Really Worth Less Than Coffee?

As I was recently trying to explain the bookselling business to my sister, who has a marketing (but not a book marketing) background, I found myself wondering again just how the whole publishing business model got so screwed messed up. These days, many of us think...

Why I Don’t Write Cutesy Murder Mysteries

As a longtime lover of mysteries, I read all sorts of mystery books, and I’m fascinated by the idea of “murder mystery” parties and such. Castle is one of my favorite TV shows. But I have to say that while I enjoy all these things, they also bother...

This Land is Your Land, Americans

September 29 was National Public Lands Day in the U.S. You probably missed it, like millions of other Americans–it’s not promoted as a national holiday to celebrate. But it should be. We are unique among nations in that our government had the foresight to...