After wrapping up my copyedits on SUDDEN DEATH at 1:30 a.m., I moseyed on over to Murder She Writes to write my blog for this morning. I had a vague idea of writing about copy edits (no surprise there) but after reading Deborah’s post, I had a much better (I hope) idea. At least, it grabbed me enough and I no longer remember what I thought I’d write about! Deb talked about hating synopses. I hate them to. Who likes them? Well, I think there’s something wrong with you . . . ha ha, just kidding. I don’t write a… Read More

A couple years ago, NYT bestseller James Rollins spoke to my local RWA chapter on blending genres. His presentation was fantastic–not only is Jim a great writer, but he’s also a fun and informed speaker. He suggested that one way to break out, or to write that something “fresh and different” that editors say they want is to take an element from another genre and blend it with the “rules” of an established genre. JD Robb’s books are a perfect example of a blended genre–romantic suspense novels set in the future. They’re truly three genres–mysteries, romance, and light science fiction…. Read More

For even more prizes–some of my books, some of hers–meet the next newest blogger for MSW . . . 1) She is the mother of two and grandmother of one. 2) She has two published novels, a short story, a non-fiction antho, and a myriad of articles. 3) She has the same publisher as Natalie. 4) Because of Gustav, she has an incredible fondness for strangers bearing chainsaws. 5) She is very, very funny. And, because I can’t help myself, I hope you remember that PLAYING DEAD is on sale this week . . . pick up a copy for… Read More

Sunday night–late–I returned from the Levy Home Entertainment Read This! Author Bus Tour. That’s a mouthful. This was my second time on “the bus” and I can’t decide which trip I liked more! Both the 2006 Kmart tour and the 2008 Meijer tour had great authors and I’ve made good friends on each. This year, I had more people bringing in my backlist to sign, which always makes me happy. Oh–so I’m really sorry I missed Thursday. I really thought I could get a blog posted Wednesday night, but as it was I went to bed at 1 am and… Read More

Books that came in my last Amazon shipment: THE KEEPSAKE by Tess Gerritsen FORGOTTEN by Mariah Stewart (third copy–this one for a friend!) THE GARDEN OF EVIL by David Hewson (I bought this book for the cover, but I’ve also heard good things about the author so thought I’d read one of his books.) MYTHS FROM MESOPOTAMIA MYTHS is more research for my Deadly Sins series. I have a whole shelf of paranormal, supernatural and mythology books. Most are related to demons, exorcisms, and ancient religions. One I’m really intrigued by, but have only skimmed so far, is LILITH’S CAVE,… Read More

I don’t have my covers up on the walls yet, but I’m getting there . . . here’s my office and, while occasionally I still head over to Starbucks when I need a couple power hours, I’ve been doing very well writing in my office, especially at night. There’s hope for me yet! (I didn’t take pictures of the entertainment center in the corner, which matches the bookshelves, because I still have unpacked boxes next to it . . . and my kitchenette is a mess with books, papers, and kids art projects!) This is the main wall of bookshelves… Read More

On Tuesday I was up until 3 am writing; last night I fell to sleep at my computer at 130 am. Because I have kids to get up and out to school, I’m up at 6 every morning, but I slept until 7 today and we rushed. Now I’m indulging in Starbucks while waiting for my hair cut appointment. So the pictures of my office have to wait . . . I have to write the last chapter of this dang book that I keep thinking is over, but then my killer does something I don’t expect and it continues… Read More

Today I planned to post pictures from my new office. I even cleaned it this morning (somewhat), took a bunch of pictures, and figured out how to upload them to my iMac (very easy, wow!) What I can’t seem to do is resize them. All the pictures are huge and too big to upload into wordpress. And they would take forever to load on your computer, too. I don’t have a program on my Mac that is a photo editor. iPhoto doesn’t seem to want to resize anything for me (though I can edit the photos.) So I figured out… Read More

School starts Monday. Am I happy? Well, I put stars and happy faces on the family calendar around August 25th. The kids were not amused. True, my three little kids have had summer camp roughly the same hours as school. But because there’s no set time they have to be there, we were always late. School starts at 8:30. We weren’t getting to “camp” until 9:30, 10 . . . and then by the time I got my Starbucks and got home, it was 10:30 or 11. And my two older girls, they had activities up the wazoo. Volleyball practice… Read More

That’s me. Allison (yep, I forgot my password so I’m logged in as admin.) I’m the wayward daughter, the one who has neglected this blog (as well as my personal blog.) Last week I just forgot it was Thursday, until it was Friday. I haven’t visited or commented much at all in weeks. Between Thrillerfest, deleting (on purpose) my entire book and rewriting it in two weeks, RWA, and now revisions on said rewritten book, I’ve been a bit under the gun. And not to mention that it’s summer, the kids are out of school, and I have two teen-agers… Read More