I wasn't actually planning to do this until a few weeks from now, but my publisher has recently posted the first chapter of my latest book, THE CONCRETE MAZE. If you want to take a look, you can find it HERE. I should say that it is a hradboiled noir novel set in NYC in the early 1990s.

Enjoy and let me know what you think.

At last I heard from my agent that St Martin's has finally sent over the contract for two more Aristide Ravel mysteries. And now I have to write them. Yikes.

If you've read Game of Patience and/or A Treasury of Regrets, please send me encouragement as the prospect of starting all over again is fairly terrifying! How the heck do novels get written, anyway???

If you're already an Aristide fan, you can mark…

Ever wonder what mystery writers do when they're not plotting someone's death? If so there's a place to find out, even if you're curious about writers who are too far away to meet at a book signing. My good friend and fellow crime author Sunny Frasier pointed me to a great web site called Killer Hobbies - http://killerhobbies.blogspot.com/ - where six regulars and several other mystery authors go to discuss their off-hours activities. Sunny…

I was commenting on Amanda Stevens' blog about dolls when the windows of my brain finally clicked together into something that is so obvious, it's embarassing that it took me so long to put it together.

It's not so much that I didn't know what I was thinking. It was a matter of putting it into perspective - a good example to illustrate what I'm thinking.

Recently, I told you that many books I've reviewed have lacked the intensity expected in thrillers. I've been disappointed…

posted by Doranna

Ooh, it's that time again! A new cover!

It's been a while. Last fall, I was imminently expecting the cover for HIDDEN STEEL--and Silhouette canceled the Bombshell line. BACK TO THE RULES had also been completed...two covers worth of anticipation, squashed. So now I've just turned in the first Nocturne--contracts I picked up in the wake of those cancellations--which means it'll be a while before I see another Silhouette cover.

So…

Ellen Bob of the Los Altos (CA) bookstore Bob and Bob's tells me that Hadassah Magazine has the highest circulation of any Jewish periodical in the U.S.…

I passed my citizenship exam today and completed all paperwork, so I got clearance for my citizenship. The swearing in is next month.

No more INS for me. :-)

Fiction Nation - Tasha Alexander and Bob Fate

Groan. The time of year has rolled round once again for getting my car MOT & service done – as I have to renew my tax disc by the end of June. Honestly, I have no idea why they give you only a bare two weeks to get this sorted out – don’t they know people have busy lives and have to book things months ahead just in order to fit them in these days?? Last year, we really pushed it to the wire. And some. Anyway, Lord H has nobly said he’d book the service etc at a garage near him,…

Hope i haven't appeared to be rude...re friend requests...I'm travelling in Tanzania and haven't had running water, much less internet access. In Dodoma for the day at a swanky ($60 a day) hotel so i'm treating myself to a little computer time. My husband and i are helping to fund a library in a small village in central Tanzania. The work is going very well, and i'm planning to post a lot of pix on my website if anyone's interested. (…

Many National SinC members are fortunate enough to participate in

regional chapters. These chapters meet at different places around

the country, from Alaska to Florida, and from California to New

York. For those who aren't geographically near enough to participate

in person, there are the Internet Chapter and the Guppies. With all

of these active groups there are as many chapter personalities as

there are chapters. Some are mostly made up of writers, some mostly…

I keep receiving thrillers for review that lack intensity. You know, that spark, flare, flash, heart-stopping, nail-biting, can't-stop-turning-the-pages feel of a great thriller novel.

It's not that the books aren't good. They are. (Well, for the most part.) But they lack that fundamental element that makes a thriller, well, thrilling.

I'm seeing a lot of POV shifts - too many within a scene that causes confusion. I'm seeing stabs at omniscient POV. Unfortunately, the…

For a long time I wanted to write a story about a skeleton that was found under the Cape Hatteras lighthouse. One December I was on the ferry riding back from Ocracoke and I was reading an article to pass the time. That's where I learned about the time before the National Seashore was opened. Read on for more information about how Lilah and the Locket came to be...

Acknowledgement…