Writer as God Last week, I turned in the revisions of IF I SHOULD DIE, minus the ending. The last sixty pages just weren’t working. I’d attempted to write the ending a multitude of times, but as I got into it, something stopped me. The set-up was contrived. The characters were being stupid. I forgot a character over here. I killed the wrong guy. Nothing was coming together the way I thought it would. I suppose I should have realized this book would be the hardest book yet. More than five years ago, my first book was published and I… Read More

But she just rolled her eyes and said she needed her own blog. True, and that’s on the to do list for summer. I even had a topic for her. It started like this. We were sitting in the school parking lot yesterday after Kelly’s track practice (today is the big, final meet–wish her luck!) waiting for Starbucks. (No, Starbucks doesn’t deliver, but my oldest daughter does–especially when I’m paying.) I told her how inadequate I felt reading Murderati because we have a new blogger (David Corbett) who is just such a good writer–one of the all the words fit… Read More

Three times in two days I’ve been asked who would play my characters in a movie. I have a few I absolutely know–like Timothy Olyphant as Sheriff Nick Thomas in SPEAK NO EVIL. Or Timothy Olyphant as the sociopath Theodore Glenn in KILLING FEAR. Or Timothy Olyphant as Sheriff Tyler McBride in TEMPTING EVIL. Or . . . well, he can pretty much play any character he wants to 🙂 Yes, I’m a bit obsessed. Timothy Olyphant as hero: (BTW, JUSTIFIED is the best show out there today–just FYI if you haven’t seen it! It’s on F/X. Wednesdays at 10… Read More

Yesterday, an aspiring writer emailed me and asked if I had any advice. I told her: write every day, learn to discern advice from critique groups (or anyone who reads your work) to figure out if it makes your story stronger or not, be self-critical without being self-defeating, and edit ruthlessly. Few published authors sold their first completed manuscript–I sold my fifth. So if you love to write, and knew today that you would never be published, and yet you still wrote, you’re halfway to publication. That “I sold my fifth” means only one thing: I didn’t give up. Most… Read More

I’m sure most of you have seen the T-shirt with a mountain of books and the words, “So Many Books, So Little Time.” We all have our own towering TBR piles. I’ve decided that when you get unread books together, they procreate, because that’s the only explanation I have for my growing TBR piles. I wouldn’t actually buy any more books when I have so many unread, would I? (cough) But it’s not books I haven’t read that give me fits. It’s books I haven’t written. I will never say I have too many ideas for fear of jinxing my… Read More

Characters make the story, and nothing is more important to a successful series than good characters. This is doubly important for a romantic suspense series. There are very few out there where the hero and heroine have a growing relationship over the course of several books. JD Robb’s IN DEATH series is perhaps the best known example. 32 books in (which doesn’t include numerous short stories and novellas!) and Eve Dallas and Roarke are still interesting characters who are working through their conflicts without losing sight of the fact that they love, admire and respect each other. All while battling… Read More

ADDED 12.28: Whoops! the tinyurl in the TWITTER contest link comes here, when it should be going to a description of LOVE ME TO DEATH! Bad me. Here’s the correct link: http://tinyurl.com/2wel7a5 We usually take a break blogging over the Christmas season, so the MSW gals have graciously allowed me to pretty much take over the blog this week because my new book comes out tomorrow. And because it’s the first book of a series, it’s particularly important to spread the word. Even more so because this week is a heavy week in publishing–a lot of big books are coming… Read More

I may get in trouble for this blog, but Random House is closed until January 3rd, so who would I ask? I’ll invoke the “forgiveness” doctrine–it’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission 🙂 In five days, LOVE ME TO DEATH will be released. It’s also my anniversary as a published author. Five years ago to the day (almost) THE PREY was released. LOVE ME TO DEATH is my fifteenth novel. I’m as excited as I am nervous. The book market has changed dramatically between my last romantic suspense release (August 2009) and this book. More readers are buying e-books,… Read More

Or is it? This is the first year since I’ve been published that I don’t have a deadline in December. Deadlines can mean a lot of things. Turning in the manuscript, copyedits, page proofs, proposal — important things that need to be done, preferably on time. But this December, I don’t have a major deadlines. I have little things to do. Blogs to write–such as the Amazon Kindle piece I was working on yesterday for the release of LOVE IS MURDER, a novella to be released exclusively for the digital market. The blog I turned in last week for Borders… Read More

I love going to conference workshops, but unfortunately rarely have the time to do so. I went to two-and-a-half this year, other than presenting my own on “Rule Breaking.” I always learn something new, and this year was no exception. The workshop was Fire in Fiction presented by Donald Maass. I wasn’t planning on staying–I thought it was a rehash of the workshop he gave last year (which I had to leave at the midpoint)–but fortunately, the topic was “scenes” (last year was character.) Near the beginning, he said one thing that ignited the lightbulb in my brain about the… Read More