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...
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...
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...
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....
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Elsewhere in this blog I've talked about historic preservation as a means of taking the temperature of a culture. A healthy culture chooses to preserve both its good and bad: we celebrate the good and learn from the bad. The bad is often scary and it might be...
I ended up with the yellow hard hat but what I really needed were safety goggles. My eyes watered from the cinders in the air. Heat rose from the black porous rocks that lined the uphill path and within minutes my jeans were damp with sweat. The smells of sulphur,...
Advertising in Managua, Nicaragua, can be hit-or-miss so I wasn't quite sure what I'd find when I walked into Alter Eco, which bills itself as an alianza hecho a mano. This "alliance" is actually a cluster of artist shops and studios near the big art and antiques...
Managua, Nicaragua, is full of surprises including the beautiful art and antique store, Mama Delfina's. Housed in a large white Spanish colonial building with an open courtyard and beautiful old brickwork, the place is a treasure trove of handmade holiday gifts and...
December is a big month for Mary, the mother of Jesus. On 8 December Catholics celebrate the Immaculate Conception, the day She became pregnant with the son of God without benefit of sex. On 12 December there is the feast day of the Virgin of Guadalupe to commemorate...