Besides the writing of the world’s best novel, there are a few things to consider before that novel makes it to print. When I spent my years writing novels that didn’t get published, I also spent a lot of time planning what would happen when I finally was. And part of that planning was, of … Read more
Sometimes I think there’s too much information these days. It’s a good thing that it’s at our fingertips, but winnowing out the wheat from the chaff is the hard part. When I started writing to sell some twenty-one years ago, writing historical fiction at the time, I researched what I could. But it was no … Read more
It was a Covid project. I kept seeing ads for these this bookshelf dioramas, and while still on Facebook in those days (don’t look for me on Fascistbook anymore! And why are YOU still on it?), I ordered one called “The Eternal Bookstore” but decided to modify it by making it into my An Irregular … Read more
An embarrassment of riches, I suppose it could be called. Having two series going at once. That’s where I am now. My publisher “paused” both these series, and says they want to publish more. Eventually. But I decided that dealing with publishers right now was pretty much over. Nice people, they mean well, but have … Read more
It is better to give than to receive. Indeed it is, when it’s swag, freebies, giveaways to people who come to see my book events or my panels at any number of mystery fan conventions I have attended over the years, including some tables at the banquets where people signed up to sit there and … Read more
As I wind down my career in book writing, I must reflect on my successes and my not so successful books. The two most successful series I wrote, were my first two; the Crispin Guest Medieval Noir series and my Skyler Foxe LGBTQ Mysteries, as far apart from each other as they get. One is … Read more
Mr. Walter Kaplan was my high school journalism teacher, and I credit him with actually teaching me something useful that I could use in the world. My English classes were generally boring way back in my junior year in 1977. Even the literature classes. Oh, I aced them all, of course, but I was disappointed … Read more
When I wrote my 15-book series the Crispin Guest Medieval Noir novels, one of the features of each book was the pursuit of a relic or venerated object, either one stolen or one a person was trying to acquire…by any means necessary. They became McGuffins, an object that propelled the plot that was either foremost … Read more
A uniquely Victorian pastime for the very rich; First, get yourself a several thousand-year-old dead guy, invite all your friends over to watch you unwrap him from his bindings, then grind him into a powder and everyone gets to go home with a powdered mummy souvenir. Fun times! Unwrapping a mummy. Well, that was the … Read more
I know this looks like a blog rerun, but it isn’t. Yes, I wrote about the Little Free Library before, but not this story. Not about this heist. Read on. Little Free Libraries are just what the name implies. They’re free. You might have seen them on various street corners, little boxes of varying designs … Read more