Operation Welcome Home is underway.
Signs—check.
Chocolate chip cookies—check.
Balloons—well, the balloons need a little more work. We can’t have plain old balloons. We’ve got to have a balloon drop.
If things go as planned today will be Pilot Guy’s return day from a 45-day deployment. Currently, we’re at Day 50. Yes, you read that right. […]

Ever wonder what it is about fiction that we’re drawn to? Is it the fact that it’s a world we can delve into—and out of—without being personally affected?
Sure, good books can move us. Make us think. But they’re still fiction. With characters created from someone’s imagination, a storyline dreamed up in a shower, and—more often […]

Mr. Thrilling and I are on a quest for the perfect Chinese takeout.
I love Chinese food.
I love those little white cartons (that most places don’t use anymore) and I love chopsticks. Chinese food is so…so…Breakfast at Tiffany’s. You know what I mean? When I was a kid I couldn’t wait to be a grown up […]

Heading for the Malice Domestic Mystery Conference this year? If so you probably already received your ballot for the Agatha Award, and you’re probably trying to remember all the terrific books you read in 2006 and whether any of them are eligible.
Well, the good news is ANY cozy or traditional mystery that was first published […]

Last weekend, I was at the US Space and Rocket Center, a place one frequents when one is the mother of a son who decided, at age four, he would be the first man to walk on Mars. He’s already prepared his touchdown remarks (That’s one giant leap on another planet) and been interviewed by […]

Da dum dee da.
Anyway, I think that’s how it goes.
They didn’t play “Here Comes the Bride” at my wedding. In fact, they didn’t play anything. I was sixth in a line of sweaty brides walking down the aisle of a steamy El Paso Army chapel, past poor, bored privates who’d been commanded to […]

The continuing saga of book promotion assessment goes on. Here’s some other things I did last year to promote my debut book.
Signings at places other than bookstores
Since I’m a military spouse and the book was about a military spouse, selling it in the Base Exchange should be a no-brainer, right? Yes and no. There […]

I did it. I finished my proposal.
Which means one thing.
I keep writing.
Because that’s what you do if you’re a writer. You. Keep. Writing.
You keep observing.
You keep listening.
You keep plotting.
And you keep writing. Always.
That said, I’m looking to you guys once again to play along (yep, I’ve got that post-project-fog-can’t-write-a-blog thing going on)
Whether you’re a […]

I love movies. I can watch the same movies again and again, and I’ve spent a small (compared to what I’ve spent on books) fortune on DVDs and videos.
I even find pleasure in bad movies, assuming they are bad enough. The perfect bad movie lends itself to cold pizza and giggles.
Some movies aren’t quite […]

Oh, my friends, what a party we have for you today! Joining us is an immensely talented writer. Kevin Guilfoile is as capable of posing darkly fascinating questions that will haunt you late into the night as he is of making you laugh hard enough that you’ll be in danger of falling off your chair. […]