It’s been a little stressful this last week or so in the Brennan house. A book due tomorrow that hasn’t wanted to cooperate, a new release last week, a couple sick kids, and a set of page proofs sitting on my table needed to be read, fixed, and back in NY by Wednesday. The kids miss me because I’ve been gone nearly every night writing at Starbucks until they close (at 10 or 11, depending on the day.) And my house is a mess, but that’s nothing new. Even with all this turmoil–not to mention the daily drama that is… Read More

No, I’m not in Australia (I wish! It’s summer there!) But I’m down under the weight of a deadline. In fact, I’m writing this on Sunday right before I go off to rework parts of the 40,000 words I do have written. Last night I was tweaking and editing PLAYING DEAD. No, it’s not done. Yes, it’s due really soon. No, I don’t know what’s going to happen. Yes, I realize this is really cutting it close. I’ve found that when I keep going back to edit it’s because something is wrong with the story. I’ve been pushing my characters… Read More

I’ll admit, I absolutely HATE the question, “Are your books character-driven or plot-driven?” A good book is both. I hate books where cool stuff happens but you don’t care about the characters–anyone with a gun could fill the bill. And I hate books that’s all about people and emotion and stuff happens, but we only see their reaction or feelings. They spend more time reacting than acting. I love thrillers, and I love romances, but the WORST thrillers are all about the coolness and the WORST romances are all about contrived conflict. We don’t live in a vacuum, and neither… Read More

I’m in the middle of reading CREATION IN DEATH, the latest JD Robb romantic suspense, and want to throw it against the wall. Not because the book sucks, but because after what? 24, 25, 26 books in this series this book is THE BEST. How in the world can she keep getting BETTER? Isn’t this like Seinfeld or The X-Files when you know the show is one of the best in history . . . but they just went a couple seasons too long? Well, take it from an IN DEATH fan, this series continues to get better and as… Read More

This one is for Jennifer . . . Over at my own blog the other day, I asked readers to post questions they want me to answer for my Q&A. Regular visitor Jennifer came up with one that is more appropriate to this forum. It’s something I’ve talked about in workshops I’ve given about romantic suspense, but really, this is relevant to ANY antagonist–even if they are not a serial killer. Jennifer asked if it was difficult to get into the mindset of my killers, who are decidedly creepy. My quick answer was: sometimes. But after I get to know… Read More

“Deliver Us From Evil” is my novella in the anthology WHAT YOU CAN’T SEE, on sale now from Pocket. I share the cover with two wonderful writers, our own murderous gal Karin Tabke, and MSW friend Roxanne St. Claire. We all delve into something a little new and different by incorporating supernatural elements into our romantic thrillers. In my story, historical architect and demonologist Anthony Zaccardi rushes to Santa Louisa, California after his best friend, Rafe Cooper, asks for his help. He’s too late to save the twelve troubled priests at the Santa Louisa Mission, and Rafe is in a… Read More

I don’t have a long, witty, fun or poignant post today. I’m getting over a cold, the two older kids had finals and final projects all week, and I’m not *quite* don’t with Christmas shopping. I haven’t yet showered today because I got up late because the youngest Brennan insisted on sleeping on the couch last night. So I was up half the night with him, hoping to get him back to bed without waking the rest of the kids. No such luck. We both slept on the couch. I started writing a post about depression during Christmas, and just… Read More

My friend Toni McGee Causey interviewed me over at Murderati. Come visit and comment for a chance to win free books! (Including the new paranormal I wrote with Karin and Roxanne.) Murderati is one of my favorite blogs to visit.

Continuing on my HEROES theme, did anyone watch the Volume Two finale on Monday night? They made up for all their problems (none of which kept me from watching the show–I think we tend to be more critical of shows we love, but that’s a topic for another blog.) To recap last weeks commentary, I felt that there was a pacing problem with the season–too slow at the beginning then too fast after FOUR MONTHS AGO. I loved the set-up–they just took a little too long. FOUR MONTHS AGO should have been episode 3 or 4, IMO. And then to… Read More

I’ve been thinking about pacing a lot lately. It started when I began revisions on TEMPTING EVIL. My editor liked the book, but felt the pacing in the first 100 pages was off–too slow, too much set-up. She had other comments and suggestions throughout, but the only MAJOR change was in the beginning. The thing is, you change the beginning and everything else changes. The last 350 pages could have been perfect, but by changing the beginning, most of the rest of the book had to completely go or be extensively rewritten. One editor once told me that there were… Read More