One of the most often-asked questions for a mystery and thriller author is "Where does your inspiration come from?" Political thriller THE HIDDEN LIGHT OF MEXICO CITY had quite the auspicious beginning . . . Fateful dinner party We were invited to a dinner party at...
#booknews category
Reshaping the Acapulco Skyline
Jul 8, 2014 | #booknews, #EmiliaCruz
Acapulco has alot to offer: beautiful beaches, water sports, cliff divers, iconic skyscrapers, swimming with the dolphins. Get off the beaten path and you can add gun violence, murder, cops, and drug seizures. All that's missing is a skycraper that looks like a...
DIABLO NIGHTS Cover Reveal and Kindle Release
Jul 1, 2014 | #booknews, #EmiliaCruz
The third installment of the Emilia Cruz mystery series, featuring the first and only female police detective in Acapulco, is out on Kindle! The paperback version will be available in August. And finally--the Cover Reveal! The final cover, shown here, is a slight...
The Lure of the Open Notebook
Jun 24, 2014 | #booknews
Maybe it's a sickness. Yesterday, as I was cleaning out my den (also known as the writer's cave, Mom's office, and a total mess) I found a COMPLETELY VIRGIN hardcover spiral notebook from Agatha Ruiz de la Prada. The rush of excitement was intense. Paper...
If You Went Missing, Who Would Know?
Jun 17, 2014 | #booknews
Donde estan? The question amid all the shoes in the picture is Where are they? This is the cry of those who search for and mourn the missing who are the casualties of Mexico's drug war.But calculating just how many are missing is a bureaucratic--and political--war of...
A Counterfeit Money Mystery
Apr 15, 2014 | #booknews, #EmiliaCruz
Have you seen the new US 100 dollar bill? Compared it to the old bill of the same denomination? Money and Mystery The changes in the $100 bill drive the plot of "The Cliff," a short story from MADE IN ACAPULCO: The Emilia Cruz Stories. "The Cliff" later became the...
El Chapo, Soft Power, and Dirty Faces
Feb 25, 2014 | #booknews
When I heard that Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán, notorious head of the Sinaloa Cartel had been arrested, two things came to mind: Monocle, the British magazine about all things cultural, and a great old James Cagney movie.Wait. This will make sense.Soft Power...
When the News Writes Mystery Novels for You
Jan 28, 2014 | #booknews
I can look at the problem in one of two ways: either the news gives me great ideas for my mystery novels or all the good stuff has already been written as fact, not fiction.As the author of a mystery series set in Acapulco, I often run across plot ideas in the news...
MADE IN ACAPULCO: Prequel to the Emilia Cruz Mystery Series Novels
Oct 31, 2013 | #booknews, #EmiliaCruz
The Emilia Cruz mystery series delivered another bit of entertainment to mystery lovers yesterday with the release for Kindle of MADE IN ACAPULCO, a collection of short stories that take place before the action in the full-length Emilia Cruz novels....
Huffington Post Premieres Emilia Cruz Short Story
Sep 3, 2013 | #booknews, #EmiliaCruz
This week the very first Emilia Cruz story, "The Beast," was published by Huffington Post, in the website's Huff/Post 50 showcase of female fiction writers. Acapulco beat cop Emilia Cruz wants to become a detective. But will they break her before she gets to the...
Illustrating the Release of HAT DANCE with Drama and Dialogue
Aug 20, 2013 | #booknews, #EmiliaCruz
Great mystery novels need drama and dialogue. HAT DANCE, the latest Emilia Cruz novel, delivers both but sometimes words aren't enough. Sometimes it helps to have images as well. Here is a bit about the book, which is being released for Kindle...
Book cover design: Updating political thriller THE HIDDEN LIGHT OF MEXICO CITY
Aug 17, 2013 | #booknews
This book cover design story starts about seven years ago when I was eating dinner with Sherry, the genius of all things PR, in a swanky Italian restaurant. Red wine, tortellini, and a laptop with a gallery of 4 proposed cover designs for THE HIDDEN LIGHT OF MEXICO...
Finding the Missing in Mexico: New Effort or Whitewash?
Jul 2, 2013 | #booknews
In HAT DANCE, the latest Emilia Cruz novel due out later this summer, Acapulco detective Emilia Cruz is on the hunt of a missing local girl. The plot line is straight from the headlines coming out of Mexico. These headlines have reported—but struggled to actually...
The Girl on the Cutting Room Floor
Apr 11, 2013 | #booknews, #EmiliaCruz
Book editing is a ruthless business. How much of a book gets rewritten when an author comes back to an old manuscript?In the book editing case of HAT DANCE, the second Emilia Cruz novel coming 30 July, it looks like about 50% of what I wrote 18 months ago will hit the...
The Case of the Mysterious Immigration Debate
Feb 20, 2013 | #booknews
I’m a mystery and thriller author, not a political pundit or a news commentator. My books so far have been set in Mexico, however, and if you think/talk/enjoy things Mexico the US immigration debate is never far behind.From my optic, here’s how the debate is shaping...