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

I have a confession. I love television more than the movies. I never knew why until I started writing this blog tonight and realized that I also love reading a book series more than a stand alone. Sure, on occasion there is an amazing movie that transcends the plethora of so-so productions. THE DEPARTED, for example. Or INCEPTION. Or CASABLANCA, NORTH BY NORTHWEST, THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, and THE SIXTH SENSE. But more often than note, the movie is “good” but rarely “great.” (Had THE MATRIX or PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN ended after the first spectacular movie, I would have included… Read More

Ever have one of those days when you thought you did something, but didn’t, and it nagged you all night in your sleep until you wake up thinking, “What did I forget to do?” Well, for me it was posting this blog last night! Then the kids did NOT cooperate this morning and I didn’t have five minutes to sit down until now. BUT you are in for a treat, because I interviewed our own JENNIFER LYON! (cheers, whistles, applause.) Jennifer Lyon, aka Jennifer Apodaca, (hmm, that sounds like she’s a criminal and I’m about to put an APB out… Read More

On Tuesday, I spent the day with several SWAT teams as they went through medic training with the FBI. 🙂 SWAT–Special Weapons and Tactics- operatives specialize in hostage situations, high-risk warrant service operations, search-and-rescue operations, covert and undercover tactical operations and crowd control. Team members must complete advanced training and, while it is different from department to department, it’s rigorous and they must re-qualify continually. In the FBI, SWAT members must qualify monthly at the gun range, for example. But it’s not only firearms training–the physical training is just as demanding. SWAT teams know how to be cops–they can take… 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

Before I started seriously writing, I read a minimum of one book a week. Usually two or three books a week, in addition to school or work or raising the kids. When I was on maternity leave with my son in the summer of 2001, I read 77 books in four months. Two of those books — THE THIRD VICTIM by Lisa Gardner and THE SEARCH by Iris Johansen — jumpstarted my dormant writing. I’d put aside writing when I started having kids, because raising kids + working full time = no time for writing. I changed that in March… Read More

I spent Tuesday night with James Ellroy. Okay, not all night. Just a few hours with Mr. Ellroy and a group of reporters–plus the talented and extremely nice Stephen Schwartz from my alter-blog, Murderati. The bestselling novelist of 18 books, Mr. Ellroy is most famous for his bestselling novels THE BLACK DAHLIA and L.A. CONFIDENTIAL. He also has a tragic personal story, as he lost his mother in 1958 to murder. We all met at the Langham Hotel in Pasadena for a bus tour for Mr. Ellroy to promote his new television series, “James Ellroy’s LA: City of Demons” on… Read More