Mexico, Two Dogs, and An Unexpected Gift
A few weeks ago, I cleaned out the room I use as an office and writing lair. Piles of paper got shifted from one side of the room to the other, new artwork went up (thank you, Command...
Writing for Water: Meet the Team Writing Clean Water for Life
In 2014 I will donate $1 for each Kindle book sold to water.org, the charity co-founded by Matt Damon and Gary White to bring clean water and decent sanitation to communities worldwide. My little...
El Chapo, Soft Power, and Dirty Faces
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...
12 Influential Bloggers Debate the Future of Bookstores
What will be the future of bookstores? Many brick-and-mortar bookstores, including the US-based Borders chain, have closed in recent years, unable to compete in the era of ebooks and ecommerce. Yet...
The Water Diaries: My Chat With Matt Damon
"Every 21 seconds a child under the age of 5 dies because he or she doesn't have access to clean water," Matt Damon told me. "I know," I replied, simpering a bit and feeling like an advertisement...
When the News Writes Mystery Novels for You
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...
How Deep Are Your Reading Roots?
I blame my oldest sister, really. She was studious and serious and had a lot of books. She organized them tidily on bookcases in the basement where they joined books my uncle had left when he joined...
Can Bookstores Survive? 25 Influential Authors Tell All
Can bookstores survive in the era of ebooks and ecommerce? Dramatic changes in the publishing industry have impacted the way authors, even influential authors, get their books to readers....
35 Ways to be the Worst Traveller in the World
I travel internationally about every 4 months or so. This means I get to watch fellow travelers, many of whom unsuspectingly offer colorful characteristics and situations ripe for my next mystery...
Can Bookstores Survive? 3 Differing Points of View
There's a huge range of opinions out there when it comes to the future of bookstores. I've been asking fellow authors, publishing insiders, book bloggers, and others about the future of bookstores....
How to Turn Books Into Water
As a mystery author, I’ve drawn inspiration from years living in Mexico and Central America, as well as my travels in East Africa and the South Pacific. I’ve met amazing people, learned about...
What if your dream job depended on this man?
If you only had one chance at your dream job, what if it hinged on this man’s help? In MADE IN ACAPULCO, the collection of short stories that traces Emilia’s Cruz’s path from beat cop to seasoned...
Why Writing is Hardly a Solitary Occupation
Alot of famous quotes moan about why writing is such a solitary occupation. About writers bleeding at the typewriter, with only a bottle of gin as company. Thanks to social media, however, this is...
Best of the Book Savor Series: Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner
The Book Savor series grew out of my passion for good friends, great books and interesting conversations about what we are reading. And what better way to wind it up than with a “best of” the...
The Lovely Glow of Too Many Irons in the Fire
I’ve got too many irons in the fire. I’d like to say that this is a rare event. But juggling multiple projects can be fun, which must be why I tend to overbook my creative energies. Here’s what is...
Can Business Partnerships Save the Bookstore?
Business partnerships maximize resources and leverage each partner’s audience and strengths. Could business partnerships save the bricks-and-mortar bookstore as well? This article is part of my...
A Book Savor Chat with Novelist Anne R. Allen
The Book Savor series grew out of my passion for good friends, great books, and interesting conversations about what we are reading. This week's guest, novelist Anne R. Allen, talks about the books...
3 Innovating Bookstores Turning Pages and Heads
As I mentioned last week, I've been giving the notion of the Bookstore of the Future some thought. Over the next 6 weeks I will be collecting ideas from authors, book bloggers, publishers and book...
A Book Savor Chat with CARTEL RISING Author Guillermo Paxton
The Book Savor series grew out of my love for good books, great friends, and interesting conversations about books. This week the author of THE PLAZA and CARTEL RISING, Guillermo Paxton, talks about...
MADE IN ACAPULCO: Prequel to the Emilia Cruz Mystery Series Novels
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...
On Learning from Mistakes
I made two mistakes recently. The first was an expensive one. Mistake 1 Flush from my record-breaking (my records, anyway) month in September, spurred by the publication of short story The Beast in...
The Enduring Magic of Book Night
Other families have Game Night or Movie Night. We have Book Night. It started out as a means of self defense. We had two kids under the age of 5. My husband and I both had full time, demanding jobs,...
Book Review: Cartel Rising by Guillermo Paxton
There are various subsets within the crime fiction genre; “tartan noir” for books set in Scotland and “Nordic noir” for those that take place in the Scandinavian countries. If there is a “narco...
A Book Savor Chat with Social Media Marketing Expert Frances Caballo
The Book Savor Series grew out of my passion for great books, great friends and interesting conversations about what we are reading. This week's guest, social media marketing expert Frances Caballo...
MADE IN ACAPULCO story collection is free for all
Fact may be stranger than fiction but in some cases they are deliberately similar. I routinely comb the news for inspiration for the Emilia Cruz mystery series so that "action torn from today's...
A Book Savor Chat with Canadian Author Sandra Nikolai
The Book Savor series grew out of my love for good friends, good books, and great conversations about what we are reading. This week's guest, Canadian mystery author Sandra Nikolai, shares the books...
A Book Savor Chat with Fabretto CFO Monica Drazba
The Book Savor series grew out of my love for good books, great friends, and interesting conversations about books. This week Fabretto Foundation CFO Monica Drazba talks about the books she savors....