Today is my deadline for the second Memphis Barbeque book. I’m emailing it to my editor this morning. I’m getting better with deadlines. I’ve always met them, but I’ve felt very reticent about [...]

I’m taking a couple of days off from blogging to celebrate the Easter weekend with my family. I hope you’ll enjoy this older post, which originally ran last June. Hansel and Gretel, Cinderella, [...]

I’m taking a couple of days off from blogging to celebrate the Easter weekend with my family. I hope you’ll enjoy this older post, which originally ran last July. :) I wasn’t cool [...]

Today is the first day of spring break for my children. This week of spring break is also the time to celebrate four close family birthdays, observe Easter, send off my taxes, and [...]

I’d like to welcome guest blogger Amy Dawson Robertson to Mystery Writing is Murder today. Amy is a native Virginian and graduated from St. John’s College in Annapolis. She lives in the Washington [...]

I’m doing my best to eliminate paper from my writing process. At this point, the only paper that’s still around are the notebooks (and Post It notes) for my car and purse. I [...]

When it comes to writing, we all tackle things different ways.  We outline or don’t outline.  We focus mainly on plot or mainly on character.  We revise as we go or wait till [...]

My mother is, right now, my only first reader.  I think only a mom will put up with being asked to drop everything and read a book from start to finish because the [...]

I’ve had a few people ask me to run more writing links here—and for some reason I keep forgetting!  I post probably 25 or more writing links a day on Twitter, but that [...]

What is it about writing that makes us reluctant to admit to doing it? You’d think I could easily explain that I’m a writer by now. But usually a couple of times a [...]

Today I’d like to welcome author Stephen D. Rogers to the blog. Stephen is the author of SHOT TO DEATH and more than six hundred stories and poems. He’s the head writer at [...]

A couple of days ago, I was busily clearing out the weeds and grass that encroached on the kids’ sandbox in the backyard. “What are you doing?” asked my son. I frowned at [...]

Y’all have caught me at a bad time—I’m really feeling the need to do some spring cleaning (it’s very springy here now in North Carolina), but I’m smack dab up against a huge [...]

My children are both in Scouts. It’s been a great experience for them—they get to try new things and build self-confidence and self-reliance. The only thing I dislike about it? The selling. I’m [...]

My husband is a computer whiz. He does something so complicated at work that I don’t even understand it enough to explain it. I’m pretty good on computers. I’m much better than many [...]

I’m sure that everyone reading this blog has been affected in some way by the hobbled global economy. Whether it’s a friend or family member who’s lost a job, benefit cutbacks due to [...]

Last Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, I took a trip to the North Carolina mountains with my father. My sister and her husband were in Blowing Rock part of the time, too. Taking trips [...]

I’d like to welcome L. Diane Wolfe to the blog today. As a professional speaker, Diane travels extensively for media interviews and speaking engagements, maintains a dozen websites & blogs, manages an online [...]

I thought I’d do a short post on chapter breaks today—because I’m currently going through my manuscript and sticking them in, so they’re on my brain! As I’ve mentioned a couple of times, [...]

I love doing small things to recognize holidays—even St. Patrick’s Day. But I went too far when my daughter was in kindergarten. Remembering the tradition that involved the leprechaun playing harmless pranks on [...]

My husband and I had a rare night with no kids last weekend…our son was camping and our daughter was spending the night with a friend. We didn’t exactly know what to do [...]

For some reason, it took me a long time to figure out what worked for me and what didn’t with my writing. I kept trying to use techniques that other writers I knew [...]

“A midlist author is one whose books are well received but have failed to make a commercial breakthrough; whose work sells solidly but unspectacularly, who’s well known within the writing community but the [...]

This is a meme that’s made the rounds but I thought it made a good point about character perspective—and maybe getting another character’s second opinion on our protagonist’s point of view. In an [...]

Thanks Elizabeth, for hosting me on your (terrific) blog. I’ll try not to alienate any of your regular readers. Every writer has his or her own unique style/method/routine. There’s not a right way [...]

Surprises are one of the fun things about having kids. You just never know what they’re going to do next. And you sure as heck don’t know what they’re going to grow up [...]

With the different deadlines I face, writing every day is a necessity. But even before I had deadlines, I wrote every day—just a smidgeon. If I didn’t, then it was even harder the [...]

Hi everybody! I somehow double-booked myself today with guest posts. :) I’m both at Deb’s Powered by Books blog where I’m posting on the pros and cons of our characters coming to life, [...]

So y’all know my philosophy toward writing a first draft—get the thing thrown on paper. Don’t stop to edit. Don’t stop to research. Don’t stop to think up last names for these characters, [...]

I’ve gotten to the crazy point in my association with Twitter that I think everybody is on Twitter. It’s amazing how quickly the application messes with your mind. I thought I’d post some [...]