My Latest Blogs

Lessons from Anthony Bourdain

Lessons from Anthony Bourdain

Edited in July 2021 I learned many lessons from the late author chef Anthony Bourdain, including: Pho isn't merely soup, and it doesn't come in a brick of dried noodles to be rehydrated. Shallots are the kinder, gentler cousins of onions. Bind up those chicken legs...

It’s not hoarding. It’s ABUNDANCE!

I'm a reading dragon with a hoard of books. You say that like it's a bad thing. Yes, sometimes my To Be Read pile slides, like the avalanches Bilbo triggers.   And, yes, I'm just as grumpy as Smaug when an avalanche suggests my hoard may be out of control. Why do...

Lessons from Lady Gaga and Lin-Manuel Miranda

I'd just posted to Twitter's #Fridayreads about a book titled MONSTER LOYALTY: HOW LADY GAGA TURNS FOLLOWERS INTO FANATICS by Jackie Huba. Okay, the word "fanatics" suggests unpleasantness, but the word "fan" derives from it. We all are "fans" of a musician, an...

The 2017 SinCNE “Murder by the Minute” CT edition

I read an excerpt from my short story "On Like Donkey Kong," published this year in FISH OUT OF WATER: A GUPPY ANTHOLOGY for the Connecticut edition of a Sisters in Crime New England event. Sisters in Crime New England holds a "Murder by the Minute" weekend in which...

Celebrating Sasscer Hill’s FLAMINGO ROAD

As her first Fia McKee mystery novel FLAMINGO ROAD is released by St. Martin's Press, I want to share a story about my friend Sasscer Hill. Over on The Horsey Set Net is a horse-centric post, especially appropriate because Sasscer used to breed, train, and race...

The “Blogging Isn’t Dead” PDF and Tips!

Hi! If you're new here, you probably clicked in because you were at our NECRWA panel. Thank you for coming out to see us first thing in the morning, when you could've anywhere else, even chatting over breakfast with your dream agent. Anyway, here's the PDF of the...

That Special Outfit

Last spring, I ordered an outfit I longed to wear for a special occasion. I imagined all the smiles and compliments. When The Preciousss arrived, I couldn't wait to try it on. One size fits all, right? I broke a seam. Once again, the size of my waistline -- let alone...

2017 Appearances

Here's where I should be or may be in 2017. Schedules can and do change. Yep. I'm behind here. I've been busy on The Horsey Set Net, getting "On Like Donkey Kong" ready for FISH OUT OF WATER's spring publication, powering through revisions on FATAL IMAGE, working on...

Great news!

That's not me sitting on the moon. I'm more "over the moon." My short story "On Like Donkey Kong" was accepted for the upcoming Sisters in Crime Guppies chapter anthology titled FISH OUT OF WATER. It will be, what's called, my "fiction debut," aka, my first...