Fall is here. Our New Year’s resolutions petered out long ago and the holidays, with overspending and family drama, loom on the horizon. In this season between what-might-have-been and what-will-overwhelm-us-soon, dive into one of these life-changing books. You'll get...
Priests in Mexico appear to be wearing targets as well as their vestments. Father Richard was the first My pastor in Mexico City was an Oblate missionary, Father Ricard Junius, who was murdered in 2007. I wrote about his death in this blog post and...
I have a suggestion or two how to fix Hollywood's Latino diversity problem. Well, maybe not fix. But at least make a good start. The problem in perspective In a recent commentary for CNN, Felix Sanchez, chairman and co-founder of the National Hispanic Foundation for...
My favorite teacher was Mr. Taverna. He was the only male teacher in the elementary school and undoubtedly the most famous. Everyone in town knew that Mr. Taverna was a great teacher and it was quite a coup if you got in his fourth grade class. First, his math...
Exhausted by the run-up to the US presidential elections on 8 November 2016? Exchange those robo calls and campaign ads for some election thrills of the literary variety with 5 presidential election thrillers These novels are a definite improvement over the real...
Although many of my books are set in Mexico, and I write frequently about current events there, the years I spent in Greece also live in my heart. So I can't help worrying about how the Greek economic crisis will impact the friends who still live there. The crisis...
Can a mystery author who writes about sunny Mexico really love cold places? Yep. Besides Mexico, where my mystery series is set, my favorite country (except for home) is Norway. Not only does the country have superb natural vistas of mountains and fjords, but...
If you read this blog with any regularity you know the following; I am a mystery author I drink too much coffee I love Pinterest and Twitter I find inspiration in unlikely places Talavera Pottery The latest thing to jog my imagination is talavera, the beautiful and...
After a few bites of the cake Raul seemed to realize that she was waiting. “He read about the United States and wanted to go. He tried to cross the desert but the Virgin abandoned him because what he was doing was wrong. He got lost and died in the sun.” “I’m so...
I’ve been thinking about visual inspiration lately, as I tackle KING PESO, the 4th Emilia Cruz mystery. Thankfully, Mexico is replete with visual cues to creativity, from large (the Basilica of Guadalupe, Mexico City’s Zocalo, assorted volcanoes) to small (shots of...
Three places I love are bleeding and all I can do is watch and pray. Mexico As many readers know, my years in Mexico and Central America provided the impetus for my mystery and thriller novels and part of my heart will always be in Mexico. But the country has been...
Are bookstores facing a "survival of the fittest" era? If so, what can make a bookstore "fit?" In the case study letter below, the key is creativity and willing to do something wholly different. Last week I wrapped up my Bookstores of the Future project,...
Will bookstores survive? Must they innovate in order to stay relevant and solvent in the era of ebooks and ecommerce? Simply out of curiosity, I began posing this question to authors, book bloggers, publishers, and store owners. This led to a series of articles on...
Can publishing insiders predict the future of bookstores? What will stores look like in 10 years as they face competition from ebooks and ecommerce? Over the past 6 months I've asked more than 800 people this question, including fellow authors, as well as...
The Friday Fiesta is stuff worth celebrating from the past week. This week it’s how to focus on a goal, the quest for discoverability, and a book sale in defiance of the trolls. The margaritas are on me. Focus What with one thing and another, I'm having some trouble...