Like a lot of people who write mystery and suspense novels for a living, I regularly comb the news for true crime stories that might someday form the basis of either a down-the-road Mike McCabe thriller or

possibly a stand-alone. When I find one, I cut and paste it into something I

call my “What If?” file. When the news recently broke about the murders

recently committed by Dr. Amy Bishop, I thought to myself this might be the basis

of something…

Insomnia and The Fine Art of Writing Murder Mysteries.

Did you ever wonder what it takes to write a successful murder mystery? Or a series of murder mysteries or suspense thrillers featuring the likes

of Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch, Tess Gerritsen’s Jane Rizzoli or

Sara Paretsky’s V.I. Warshawski? One answer is not sleeping. Ms.

Paretsky once noted the secret to her success as a writer (or at least

one secret) was the…