A few times this summer, we’ve gone out to eat with our son and he’s been dissatisfied with his meal. He was really excited about the food when he ordered it, but when [...]

I’ve basically trained myself to be creative on demand—and leave my muse out of the equation all together. Inspiration is too unpredictable—I seem to get better results from just old fashioned perseverance. But [...]

I was basically out traveling for almost two weeks. But—I still had writing to do. Actually, while I was gone, I had a call from my agent. I had revision requests on a [...]

It’s so good to be back and blogging again! I missed it more than I’d thought—and especially missed visiting with all of y’all! It’s been a busy couple of weeks, starting out with [...]

I’ve hesitated doing this, since I’m a creature of habit and I’ve blogged every day since May 1 2009. :) But looking at my schedule, where I’m coming back from the book tour [...]

Besides this blog, I’m on a few group blogs: Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen (Berkley Prime Crime mystery authors and our recipes), Inkspot (for Midnight Ink authors), Killer Characters (where cozy writers’ characters have taken [...]

Hope you’ll joining me in welcoming Wendy Lyn Watson to Mystery Writing is Murder today. Wendy is a fellow mystery writer and a friend of mine from the Killer Characters blog. Scoop to [...]

Here are writing links that I’ve posted to Twitter for the past week. If you’re looking for a particular topic, just plug in your keyword into the search box at the top left-hand [...]

Busy day on Friday, but we really covered some ground! First of all, actually, was the signing Avery and I did at Joseph Beth bookstore in the South Park area of Charlotte.  They [...]

One of the group blogs I’m on, A Good Blog is Hard to Find, is re-launching and asked its members to tell a little about themselves and how they started writing.  Mine is [...]

I usually like to go to independently owned coffee houses…but there come times when I really, really need a cup of coffee and Starbucks is the only thing around. I popped in last [...]

I’ve been in a promotion and writing haze lately, making sure Delicious and Suspicious stays on track, then quickly shifting back into creative mode to pen Memphis book three.  So it’s wonderful to [...]

How smart should your protagonist be?  And—how can you show, instead of tell, your protagonist’s intelligence? Hope you’ll come by Molly Weston’s blog, Meritorious Mysteries, to weigh in on the importance of IQ [...]

Okay, things are slow starting up today at the Mystery Writing is Murder blog!  :)  I’ll explain first of all that I hosted a sleepover party for my son’s friends and daughter’s friends….and [...]

We hear a lot of advice these days on hooking our readers and grabbing them on page one.  That’s easy enough—if we’ve written something fast-paced, like a thriller. But what if we’ve written [...]

Here are writing links that I’ve posted to Twitter for the past week. If you’re looking for a particular topic, just plug in your keyword into the search box at the top left-hand [...]

Book tours can get expensive and overwhelming, but they don’t have to be. And a tour doesn’t mean you have to cover a broad area of the country, either. You can limit it [...]

Sometimes it’s easy to get dragged into your day…and the day isn’t a very inspiring one. That was my day on Wednesday. I had what felt like an army of workmen at my [...]

Right now, even as I type, we’re having our upstairs and downstairs a/c systems replaced, along with our furnace. In my blissful ignorance, I thought this wasn’t that complex of a job. Actually, [...]

I’d reached one of those points in my current manuscript where I really wasn’t excited about moving forward with the plot. I wasn’t even really sure how I was going to move the [...]

I’ve gotten a few comments in the last couple of months, asking about Google Reader and how we can make it work for us. I thought I’d do a real quick overview of [...]

I know that it seems like I spend way too much time at the swimming pool. It’s just been such an incredibly hot summer (even for the Deep South), that whenever my children [...]

Here are writing links that I’ve posted to Twitter for the past week. If you’re looking for a particular topic, just plug in your keyword into the search box at the top left-hand [...]

Happy Saturday, everyone! This morning I’m over at mystery reader Babs Hightower’s blog, writing a little about pros and cons to writing small town settings…that are based on real towns.   Hope you’ll come [...]

Yes, I’m on the road again!  :)  But looking at my schedule, after tomorrow I think I’m going to be back at my home base for a while. Today I’m at fellow Midnight [...]

On Tuesday and Wednesday, I was in Atlanta, Georgia, with my daughter and friends at the American Girl doll store. If you’re not familiar with the American Girl line…you must not be an [...]

It’s a whole new world for writers—the world of marketing. It’s usually not an area that comes naturally to us, either…we’re creative people, not salesmen. Crime writer Martin Edwards asked if I could [...]

How can we convey a sense of place to our readers—help them feel like they’re actually visiting the region we’re writing about–without overdoing it? Hope you’ll join me on Margot Kinberg’s blog, Confessions [...]

People sometimes think of writers as being sensitive types. I have to snort when I hear that. Writers can’t be sensitive types. Oh, I think that we’re naturally pretty emotional people. But to [...]

Hi everyone! Hope you’ll pop by and join me today at Hey, There’s a Dead Guy in the Living Room where I talk a little about social media—how different forms of social media [...]