Women Writers

Old homes have always fascinated me. Maybe it’s because I grew up in a hundred-year old farmhouse hearing stories about those who lived there long before our family. I remember looking at the towering maples in the yard, thinking of the people who planted them a century ago, and marveling at how different their lives […]

“If the police show up, make sure you’re holding the package.” The fellow CIA officer prepping me to meet a deep cover agent wasn’t trying to scare me, although he sure succeeded. No, he was simply being practical. I was expendable. The source wasn’t. Meeting a CIA source in a foreign country involved a head-spinning

Today is the official release day for Elevator Ride- Book 1 of the Valkyrie Brothers Trilogy—an action-packed, age-gap, rom-com mystery! For me, “release day” always conjures visions of a novel in a cage with the barred door being slowly raised in a darkened Barnes & Noble. Slowly, the novel takes its first steps into its

It is an accomplishment to write the first draft of a book, but it is an even greater feat to polish that book into something that sparkles. This post is written by a mystery author, but elements of it can be applied in total or in part to other genre fiction. As I’ve published in

We live in interesting times. Then again, I suppose all times have been and always will be interesting in one way or another.  I’m someone who has always found plots and characters for my books in current events—from local to worldwide. Everything I read about, see on the news, and observe winds up parked in

I’m currently mentoring a gifted fourteen-year-old author who’s writing a novel. Each week, I share a quote with her from a writer that I’ve found either helpful or humorous. Some of my favorites include: “Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you

 It’s been said that San Francisco considers its opera only slightly less sacred than the Holy Grail. The city is totally an opera town. That’s one major reason why I chose to set Overture to Murder, Book 3 in my Julia Kogan Opera Mystery series, at San Francisco Opera. The City by the Bay and

From Lord Byron’s Don Juan (1823) “Tis strange—but true; for truth is always strange; Stranger than fiction.” In our quest to ‘get it right,’ authors are natural researchers and lifelong learners with a penchant for discovery, and as we satisfy our curiosity, the quest for truth builds and enhances our tales.  When I began writing

The classic answer to the perennial “Where do you get your ideas?” question is that ideas are everywhere. They truly are. The fun part is when the idea pops up when you least expect it and you know it’s good, and because of some very special event, the result of that idea is going to

My number one reminder when writing a cozy? Keep it cozy. It must have a comforting feeling, much like a cup of tea, a warm blanket, a good book, or a relaxing dinner with friends. In fact, one of the main reasons readers say they return to a series is because the characters feel like