While some authors of series mysteries prefer for their sleuths to remain the same person in each different situation, I’m in the camp that enjoys having my sleuth grow in every story....
When you’ve written a number of books, people always ask you, “Where on earth do you get all your ideas?” Agatha Christie, the grande dame of mystery fiction, was once asked the...
Stepping out of your comfort zone isn’t an easy thing to do for us or for fictional characters. In THE CORPSE WHO KNEW TOO MUCH, Hope Early does something that is way...
Between the looniness of its residents and the beauty of its beaches and River of Grass, South Florida seems to be the ideal setting for a murder mystery. Witness the man-eating alligators...
You might think, with the warm weather approaching, that the time for cozy is over. Rest assured, the time for cozy is seasonless, meaning that any time you are ready for that...
Consuelo was a "Dollar Princess," the nickname coined for heiresses in the late 20th century who possessed multi-million dollar dowries and married cash-poor British and French aristocrats.
The Gilded Age occurred after the...
I think about perseverance a lot. A whole lot.
Writing a novel tests your perseverance every time. That blank page, the squirrely idea that won’t meld into a coherent story. You stick it...
When I started writing in 2009 as a humor columnist, I wrote in 800-word sound bites that wrapped up neatly and made people laugh, but made them think, too. It was a...
Readers often ask me when a book that I’m writing becomes real to me. I find that question fascinating because it inhabits a space at the intersection of the creative process and...
I get this question a lot. Why am I writing a cozy mystery series with a dog bakery? Actually, most people that ask seem sort of excited that I’m writing about a...
I love Paris. What is it about this beautiful, historic city that pulls at the heart and the imagination? What is it that can make you want to explore time and again this...
I had terrible timing on Arrowed. Here I am writing a cozy mystery set in Santa Fe, only a few hours drive from me and one of my favorite places to visit,...