Last Friday, I was lucky enough to tour Folsom State Prison with alumni from the FBI Citizens Academy. At least, a small part of it. They call it the “Toughest Beat in the State” and after walking it, I would have to agree. Every cop puts his life on the line when he puts on a uniform, but putting on the uniform within the walls of a maximum security facility with 4,000 felons carries additional risks. The prison itself is huge, split between “new” (1986) and “old” (1880) Folsom. Both are still fully operational. We were at New Folsom Prison,… Read More

My first Lucy Kincaid book will be released in October of 2010 and I turned in the proposal three weeks ago. Lucy Kincaid is a character from my NO EVIL series. In FEAR NO EVIL, she was kidnapped before her high school graduation by a man she met on the Internet. She’d met him through a group she believed was only Georgetown students and prospective students as she prepared for college, thinking he was a freshman. He gave her a false name and false picture. She gave him a real name and real picture. Hence, he had no problem snatching… Read More

It’s a tough job, but somebody’s got to do it. That’s right: role play with SWAT. Sure, I know, it’s a day away from writing, a day away from the kids, a day away from email, but somebody has to make the sacrifice, and because I wouldn’t want to force this on anyone else, I stepped up to the plate. I volunteered to be a victim. Yes this is my foot. This was my second role playing adventure. About five weeks ago, I participated in a tactical training as a “bad guy”–or, more accurately, as the white trash wife of… Read More

It’s a tough job, but somebody’s got to do it. That’s right: role play with SWAT. Sure, I know, it’s a day away from writing, a day away from the kids, a day away from email, but somebody has to make the sacrifice, and because I wouldn’t want to force this on anyone else, I stepped up to the plate. I volunteered to be a victim. Yes this is my foot. This was my second role playing adventure. About five weeks ago, I participated in a tactical training as a “bad guy”–or, more accurately, as the white trash wife of… Read More

My good friend Alexandra Sokoloff, who blogged here the other week, commented once over at Murderati that everyone plotted to a certain degree, and that my first drafts were actually a detailed outline. Right. All 80,000 words of my first draft in a book that usually ends up around 105,000 words. At first, I was willing to concede the point, but recently I was struck by the fact that I really don’t plot my books. It’s not a method of writing I recommend or don’t recommend. It’s simply the way it is. I give a workshop called NO PLOTTERS ALLOWED… Read More

My good friend Alexandra Sokoloff, who blogged here the other week, commented once over at Murderati that everyone plotted to a certain degree, and that my first drafts were actually a detailed outline. Right. All 80,000 words of my first draft in a book that usually ends up around 105,000 words. At first, I was willing to concede the point, but recently I was struck by the fact that I really don’t plot my books. It’s not a method of writing I recommend or don’t recommend. It’s simply the way it is. I give a workshop called NO PLOTTERS ALLOWED… Read More

Yes, I’m addicted to books. No surprise coming from an author, right? I love books. I love the way the look sitting on my shelves, I love the way they smell when you first crack them open (and there’s nothing like an old but well-dusted library!), I love the way they feel sitting in my hand at the dinner table, in my comfy chair, and especially during my increasingly rare bubble baths. (There is NOTHING better — okay, very little better — than reading a good book in a hot bath with candles, bubbles, a premium red wine, and cheese… Read More