Meredith and I just got back from a book tour that took us all over Florida, ending up at Sleuthfest in Miami. We met lots of readers, book club members, booksellers, fellow authors, reviewers, and more. Let's not forget the bartenders!

The mystery/thriller community is a terrific one -- full of interesting, friendly and fun people. Our publishers, the folks at Oceanview, are just amazing. They are so supportive.

And the early reviews are mostly great!

Hope to see many…

posted by Doranna

I was startled the other day when a friend defined me as competitive. I've always considered myself to be anything but. Indeed, the very antithesis of a competitive soul! I'll even opt out of activity rather than mess with a competitive feel...no board games, no gift exchange games, and no pretty much anything else where the only goal of the experience is to win something. I've been that way since I was a wee one.

On the other hand...I…

In order to lure prospective new readers to my A World Ago blog (http://www.doriengrey.blogspot.com) I'd like to post here one entry...a letter written my parents on May 16, 1955, while I was a very young Naval Aviation Cadet learning to fly. If you like it, and I of course hope you do, perhaps you can check out the other more than 200 letters in the blog.

16 May 1955

Dear…

Fast on the heels of my current book is the next, Paying the Piper. It's finished and the publishing elves are now working on it to get it ready for November. But you don't have to wait until November to start reading it. Dorchester has inserted excerpts in a number of their upcoming titles. You can find them in:



The Concrete Maze by Steven Torres (August)

The Bone Man by Vicki…

What do you think? Is a code of ethics outdated? Superogatory, necessary, or just semantics. In working on my dissertation, I am coming full circle on this question. I would be interested to see what you all think on this topic........

What accounts for ethical breaches on the part of law enforcement, and is there anything or anyone capable of intervening prior to an officer’s…

I took this photo myself. What do you suppose the landscapers were trying to say with it? Thoughts? Donna?

db

Last year I got a kick out of meeting Stephen King, well this year I 'met' Dean Koontz at The London Book Fair, which was a real thrill - read below

London…

Goodness, what a literary day today. The boss is back too, so we have to look super-professional and cutting-edge. Not that we don’t always look like that, of course – it’s just that we have to expunge that tell-tale trace of panic from our eyes …



Anyway, did a fair amount of website stuff, which I always enjoy, mainly on the Mentoring site, and we have plans for the Health Centre site too. Hurrah. About time it got updated. I’m sure we still have stuff about the Bubonic plague up…

I've spent the last hour posting on various forums and on my own blog, and it occurred to me that if someone actually finds my posts interesting enough to click on this page, and maybe even buy my book, they may wonder how to get it. Easiest way is to order on Amazon, where I have four ***** reviews, or on Barnes & Noble. You can also go to my publisher at www.virtualbookworm.com, then type in my name or Mood Swing in their online…

Hooray, I finally booked my flight from Albany to Crystal City for Malice Domestic. My friend Marilyn Rothstein (aka M.E. Kemp) booked our room in the conference hotel months ago, and I'll be on my first national panel. All that remains is to figure out the logistics of getting my books there to sell, and getting my website up and running so that after I hand out my beautiful new postcards, people will be able to access the site printed on them.

I'd also been planning to attend the…

I've been worried about my rose bush. Not that I know jack--er--poop about roses.

Backtrack....

Several years ago, Frank and I vacationed in Bar Harbor, Maine. Along the public walking trail (which rims the shore) were these huge, old-fashioned roses. I mentioned how much I liked them and Frank, ever thoughtful, bought me a little pink beauty.

I've been pleased with this little bush for the past 3-4 years, but Frank wasn't sure it made it through this year's harsh…