I'm home from this year's Malice Domestic where a secret I've been bursting to tell everyone was revealed.  I'm going to be next year's Malice Domestic Guest of Honor! I have known since early March, but wasn't at liberty to say anything until it was officially announced at the end of this year's Agatha Awards Banquet. This is an amazing honor. When I look back over my collection of programs from past years and see the other authors who have held this title, I'm humbled. And gobsmacked.  Adding to my excitement was learning that my good pal and fellow Agatha nominee (although she's actually brought the teapot home a few times), Ellen Byron, will be Toastmaster! It promises to be a fun weekend!  I have a lot more news coming in the next days and weeks, but this is enough for one post. 

How many times have I sworn I was going to post here more regularly? I've lost count. And yet, here we are, more than two months since I last wrote something for you.  After 16+ books, I still find myself going down the same internal dialogue rabbit hole as I hear newbie, unpublished writers doing. I don't have anything interesting to say. What could I possibly write that anyone would want to read? My life is BORING. For over ten years, I've had a new release coming out at least once a year, so there's been something to share. Cover releases, pre-order links, behind the scenes of a coming-soon novel. I recently realized, this is the longest I've gone without a new book since I started this journey. And I'm not happy about it.  In my defense, my publisher has TWO of my manuscripts and is sitting on them. Meanwhile, I'm writing every day, so it's not like I've retired.  In case you're wondering about my previous post, yes, I finished the synopsis a...

For close to 20 years, anytime I've been asked to provide advice to aspiring writers, one of my bits of wisdom has been "Finish the book." So many newbie authors get wrapped up in perfecting the first chapter. Or the first three chapters. They tweak and rewrite and fiddle and fix ... and never get beyond those opening pages. Then they get a newer, better idea and start a new project, where they work to perfect those opening pages yet again.  Wash, rinse, repeat.  Which is why I strongly advise powering on and finishing the book. Honestly, those perfected first chapters will very likely end up needing drastic revisions once you get the entire story down. So, don't worry about perfection. Write the shitty first draft. Don't edit until you have a completed manuscript to work from. This has been my advice.  And now I'm defying it. I'm working on a proposal for a new book that's been inside my brain for the better part of a year. In the last few months, I...

We are solidly in the DEAD of winter. Every year, I reach a point where I proclaim (or mutter or yell, depending), "I'm sick of winter." Surprisingly, it hasn't happened yet this year. All I need to do is look at the news about what the rest of the country is going through--California is burning, snow blankets New Orleans, the southern Atlantic coast is freezing--and then I look out my frosted windows at a mere few inches of snow, which is pretty mild by Pennsylvania standards. Yes, it hit -11 yesterday morning, but I didn't have to go anywhere. Neither did my semi-retired husband. Our furnace kept the house comfy.  I have nothing worth complaining about.  Granted, that rarely stops me.  Today, I do need to set foot outside. I have kitchen scraps that need to go to the compost heap. I have a bag of trash that needs to go out to the can. I haven't made the stroll to the mailbox yet this week. But it's supposed to go "up" to 27 degrees, which will ...

There’s a lot up in the air for the coming year. I have two books (#3 and #4 in the Detective Honeywell series) coming out, but I have no titles, no covers, no release dates. I blogged last week on Writers Who Kill about how the only thing we authors have control over is writing the next book. While I will be writing #5 in the series this year, it’s not due to my editor until December, which leaves me with some wiggle room. As I teased in yesterday’s post, I have a plan. I’ve been outlining and starting to draft a standalone novel. I’m calling it a domestic suspense wrapped up in a police procedural. My intention is to have opening chapters and a synopsis ready to hand over to my agent in March, so she can start shopping it around. Then, in April, I can jump back into Matthias and Emma’s world for the rest of the year. I don’t have a lot on my “events” schedule yet. In February, I’m doing a reading with my friend Bill Gormley in Pittsburgh, but I don’t have any real details yet. In A...

For the last few years, I’ve been saying I want—no, NEED—to slow down. I’ve been pumping out books as fast as I could. Two or three a year. Now, I know writers who write even more than that, and I’m in awe. But for me, the old cliché “all work and no play” was wearing on me. Back on January 1 of 2024, I announced that I was taking measures to let me slow down. And I am. I’ve cut back on travel, although to be honest, a big part of that has to do with Kensi’s heart issues and the twice-a-day pill she gets. But the key measure I’ve taken involved turning down a three-book contract to continue the Zoe Chambers series. Okay, don’t cry or send threatening letters. I turned it down FOR NOW. I did not burn bridges. I simply need a break from multiple deadlines one after the other. Also back on January 1, 2024, I mentioned a book deal sitting on my desk. As you probably already have heard, that was another three-book offer, this one for the Detective Honeywell series. I’ve already written ...