“If the police show up, make sure you’re holding the package.” The fellow CIA officer prepping me to meet a deep cover agent wasn’t trying to scare me, although he sure succeeded. No, he was simply being practical. I was expendable. The source wasn’t. Meeting a CIA source in a foreign country involved a head-spinning […]

Today is the official release day for Elevator Ride- Book 1 of the Valkyrie Brothers Trilogy-an action-packed, age-gap, rom-com mystery! For me, “release day” always conjures visions of a novel in a cage with the barred door being slowly raised in a darkened Barnes & Noble. Slowly, the novel takes its first steps into its […]

It is an accomplishment to write the first draft of a book, but it is an even greater feat to polish that book into something that sparkles. This post is written by a mystery author, but elements of it can be applied in total or in part to other genre fiction. As I’ve published in […]

We live in interesting times. Then again, I suppose all times have been and always will be interesting in one way or another.  I’m someone who has always found plots and characters for my books in current events-from local to worldwide. Everything I read about, see on the news, and observe winds up parked in […]

I write long and short – novels and short stories. Most writers prefer one to the other because they require different skills, but I really enjoy the challenge of both. One problem with writing short stories that appear in periodicals and anthologies is that people may read or hear about one story, but they often […]

I’m currently mentoring a gifted fourteen-year-old author who’s writing a novel. Each week, I share a quote with her from a writer that I’ve found either helpful or humorous. Some of my favorites include: “Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you […]

 It’s been said that San Francisco considers its opera only slightly less sacred than the Holy Grail. The city is totally an opera town. That’s one major reason why I chose to set Overture to Murder, Book 3 in my Julia Kogan Opera Mystery series, at San Francisco Opera. The City by the Bay and […]

When 2024 began, it appeared that all but one thing would be status quo. The only change would be the birth of a new grandchild in April. That child, a boy, arrived as planned and immediately charmed everyone by being easy going.   For me, writing became complicated when my Sarah Blair series ended and a […]

From Lord Byron’s Don Juan (1823) “Tis strange-but true; for truth is always strange; Stranger than fiction.” In our quest to ‘get it right,’ authors are natural researchers and lifelong learners with a penchant for discovery, and as we satisfy our curiosity, the quest for truth builds and enhances our tales.  When I began writing […]

Have you ever wondered what, exactly, cracking a secret code involves? Wonder no more. We’re going to dive into the world of spycraft. Sorry, I won’t be giving away any secret code books or nifty decoder rings. But I am extending an invitation to dive into the intriguing world of spycraft, a subject that takes […]