I shop like a woman on a mission. I walk in, usually clutching the postcard or coupon that has been mailed to me. Must get navy slacks! I find the navy slacks. I [...]

I know y’all think I spend more time at the grocery store than any other place…and you’d be right. I just can’t seem to organize my food menus enough to keep from going [...]

I’m one of those people who has a really tough time writing settings if I’m not looking at the setting I’m writing. This is why I acted like an insane tourist in Memphis [...]

Today I’m over at the Ink Spot for my recurring gig with fellow Midnight Ink authors. My topic du jour is “Public Speaking.” Hope you’ll pop over and say hi. [...]

Every six Sundays, I host a guest at the Berkley Prime Crime cooking blog, Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen. Today, I’m pleased to announce that my mystery writing friend Patricia Stoltey has prepared a delicious [...]

Today I’m part of a writers’ workshop, similar to this Waldenbooks event from last weekend (I’m at the far left. I’m with my Carolina Conspiracy promotional group…Jim and Joyce Lavene and Terry Hoover [...]

You’re probably the go-to writer for everyone you know. Aren’t you? If someone needs a resume cover letter, a complaint letter, a business letter, an admissions letter, they come to you. But here’s [...]

Tonight I’m talking to my daughter’s Brownie troop about writing. I usually talk to children and teens/preteens a quarter as much as I talk to adults. This does make sense—I don’t write books [...]

I’ve been an off and on follower of Fly Lady for years. I keep many of her general housekeeping principles each day (quick clean-up in the morning, devoting a particular day for different [...]

Like most people, I have random and vague memories from being very small. I remember being on an airplane at age two and being offered a Coke. I was amazed that my mother [...]

It was a big weekend for me, promotion-wise. Saturday I spoke at a writers’ workshop at the Gaston County Library in Gastonia, NC. There were around 75 people there, which is a good-sized [...]

Social Media for Writers Today I’m over at Jean Henry Mead’s blog, Writing Advice and Good Books, discussing social networking for writers. I wasn’t an easy convert to the applications (Facebook and Twitter), [...]

It’s that time again! Yes, revision season has hit my little writing world yet again. Wait, you say, you just finished doing revisions. Yes, but those were my revisions. Now I’m working on [...]

Today I’m over at Patti Abbott’s website, posting for her recurring segment, ‘Friday’s Forgotten Books.’ Hope you’ll pop over and say hi and read my review of Some Must Watch, also known as [...]

It’s Thursday! And I’m doing soup again because I was snarky about sick people last week and now I have sick people at my house. So being ugly doesn’t pay, just like Mama [...]

It started at the end of last week. I was driving the elementary school carpool and was sitting in the carpool line waiting the ten minutes for the school to open its doors. [...]

My notes on promoting seem really scattered. That might be because promoting can be overwhelming to me. There’s this huge ocean of books and my own recent release is just a bitty drop [...]

I had a signing yesterday at Barnes & Noble in Charlotte, NC. It ended up going well, although my plans for the event were completely hijacked. (Yes, that’s me in the corner of [...]

While I was writing in Mexico (Epcot’s Mexico, let me hasten to add), a very pleasant Hispanic Disney staffer came over to talk to me. He was curious about what I was doing. [...]

At first glance (and second and third glances, too) my writing process is chaotic. I pick up and put down the laptop, I write at stoplights, I grab my moments. All summer I [...]

I’m going to take a walk on the wild side this Friday morning. Here we go: what role does luck have in getting published? This is something of a controversial topic. I’ve heard [...]

Yes, it’s Thursday morning again. Today I’m sharing a bowl of chicken soup…with all the ailing passengers I encountered on my flights to Orlando and back. Enjoy! Yesterday I touched a little on [...]

Say what you will, Disney is one of the long-time masters at presentation and delivery. If you go to their parks with the mindset that you want to have fun, they’ll do their [...]

Driving my car to the airport, I was nearly blown off the road by a car on the highway. It flew by, then cut directly in front of me and sped off. As [...]

Today I’m over at the Midnight Ink blog, Inkspot. I’m sharing some thoughts on a movie about writing that I thought was interesting, and I’m sharing some regrets about having murdered a few [...]

The book signing yesterday went well and I sold about a dozen books.  The staff was great, the customers were nice, and I got to visit with my parents! So it was a [...]

Love them or hate them, book signings have become a necessary part of what it means to be a published writer. I think that even if you’re an extrovert (not that many writers [...]

With my Myrtle Clover series, I developed a protagonist who is a very dominant main character. The characters alongside her are far weaker in every way. Even when Myrtle is pitted against a [...]

It’s Thursday! Today’s Heart Attack on a Plate is sponsored by “Southern Apple Cobbler.” Want to know how much sugar is in this recipe? Pop on over and find out! :) Revision Notes: [...]

This week I’m going to be trying some new things. One thing I’m going to do is practice doing live interviews. I’m not a fan of live interviews, I have to admit. I [...]