2017 is shaping up to be nothing short of amazing! On Wednesday I learned that my short story, The Peter Rabbit Killers, has been nominated for an ITW Best Short Story Award. I confess I’m finding it very hard to wrap my mind around. I wrote it for Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine last …Read More
(I’m over at TKZ today, talking about making writing a choice. Here’s a post I did a while back about one of my favorite book-to-film projects.) Novel to Film: Matheson’s A Stir of Echoes Saturday morning, P came home from breakfast at a local diner to find me standing about six feet …Read More
Monday started out gloomy and rainy, but late in the afternoon, the sun came out. That’s my favorite time of day to take photographs because the light changes so dramatically from one moment to the next, and I’m opportunistic when it comes to light because I’m not so knowledgable about the technical stuff. The dogs and I …Read More
I love bulk discounts. That’s why, last December, when Ancestry.com had a sale on its basic DNA heritage kits, I bought several. Two went to my parents, and the other two came to Husband and me. I know it’s a little goofy, but here in the End Times, anything goes, yes? Only my mother’s …Read More
When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy. When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.– Khalil …Read More
Happy April Fool’s Day! 😺 Here’s a history of the dastardly day, along with a list of famous pranks. The links go international this week: There’s a new fiction genre on the shelves called Cli Fi. Here’s what it is. Bestie/writer J.T. Ellison turned me onto the story of this marvelous restoration project: Château …Read More
Do you know what these are? They are peonies. (This pic is from a year or two ago–this year’s batch hasn’t even leafed out yet.) Do you know what loves peonies? Ants. Ants adore peonies. If you look closely at peony buds, you’ll notice ants crawling over them like travelers over little white globes. …Read More
Amanda Stevens is a terrific writer, and an all-around sweetheart. Those are two great reasons to like her, but a close third is her subject matter: she knows how to thrill with her spooky, suspenseful tales. The Awakening, is her just-out new novel, the latest installment in her Graveyard Queen saga. She tells me it may …Read More
Sometimes I think that without my husband and kids, my non-literary entertainment would probably be limited to book research, playing the piano, watching endless reruns of Poirot, Midsomer Murders, and listening to whatever non-comedic random radio show is playing on Sirius XM’s Radio Classics (and I only have Sirius because it came with …Read More
Today, I looked up from my desk (which I hadn’t left all day) at 6:45 pm, and saw extreme magic outside my window. What does one do when one sees extreme magic? Why you must grab the fancy camera and shoot it. …Read More