I love graphic novels. I tried to pen one before, but wasn’t successful at figuring out which panels to do. I’m leaving that one to experts. But every now and then, I think adding a few illustrations to a book can be fun, for the writer as well as the reader. The first time I … Read more
It’s really not so bad. I can quit at any time. Any time. But I won’t! I am writing two series at the same time, a Tudor mystery series called the King’s Fool Mysteries with Henry VIII’s real court jester Will Somers as the sleuth, and alternating with a Victorian cozy and Sherlockian pastiche called … Read more
With my fifth Irregular Detective Mystery THE MAGICIAN’S MISADVENTURE releasing on December first of this year, I had to do some research into the music hall, so here’s a bit of background history. . Charles Morton, impresario, was the original theatre manager for what was to become the Royal Canterbury Theatre of Varieties in London. … Read more
Many of us think of the Victorian period of genteel people dressed to the nines — men in their starched collars and fitted suits, mustaches, perhaps even side whiskers, parted pomaded hair…and women in their corseted bodices, voluminous skirts, and bountiful, coifed hair — sitting in their drawing rooms with tea cups in hand and … Read more
I don’t know if it’s unique to Los Angeles, my hometown, but LA is the home of the dream factory, that is, motion pictures, and I don’t think Angelinos ever get tired of dreaming about what could be. So after World War I, and as films became the number one kind of entertainment in the … Read more
It seems that I keep hearing a lot of, “I wanted to get this book out there” or “I wanted people to read this book.” I see a lot of focus on THIS book rather than THIS career. And I think writers need to ask themselves what it is they really want. Do they want … Read more
Maybe it’s cliché for actors to aspire to play Hamlet. But it also seems especially aspirational when it comes to playing Sherlock Holmes. Numerous reboots sprout up in media these days, whether in plays, TV shows, and films. It seems there will always be more opportunities than ever to play the Man from Baker Street, … Read more
The London I write about in my mysteries is never the London you can see today. Not my Crispin Guest Medieval Noir London set in the fourteenth century. Nor my Tudor London set during the reign of Henry VIII in the early sixteenth century for my King’s Fool Mysteries. Structures and city walls are long … Read more
The week before April 5th this year is Passion Week and that is the last stretches of the Triduum, the three days prior to the Feast of the Resurrection or Easter, which includes Holy Thursday, commemorating the institution of the Eucharist; Good Friday, the day Jesus died; and Saturday, the Easter Vigil, the mass where … Read more
Welcome to the first penitential season of the year. It was Shrove Tuesday yesterday and today is Ash Wednesday. “Shrove” is past tense for “shrive,” an archaic term “to confess.” It was a day to be absolved, to prepare for the penitential season of Lent ahead. This day is more recently known as “Fat Tuesday” because … Read more
Author of Medieval Mysteries, Historicals, and Paranormals