The line-up has solidified for Mystery on the High Seas, a Cruise to Die For. I'll be part of a panel discussion about "Putting Culture on the Page" and another panel about mysteries from "Hardboiled to Cozy." It's not too late to join me and a healthy crowd of mystery authors onboard the Carnival Splendour for this mystery-lover's cruise to the Mexican Riviera-…

I started a new project this week and have a readable draft of the first chapter. Any comments or suggestions are appreciated. (I promise not to post the whole thing like it was a friggin serial; I’m just curious to see if people would want to read more after reading this.)…

Being Original

By: Julian Adorney

We’ve all read them. Stories with solid characters and a fast plot and vivid descriptions, but nothing to make them unique. Stories that we finish reading with the vague

sense that we’ve read the exact same story a hundred times before.…

Ponzied Guest Post

One of the joys in writing fiction is the development of a character that can carry the writer through the entire story. Sometimes that character isn’t

even there at the start of the novel. He

isn’t even there at the original outline of…

Publishers' Weekly generously included my name in an essay on historical mysteries they ran this past spring. I was honored. The company was select, and it felt great to be in it. Now they honor me again: with an author interview -- a good interview that made me think about why I do the things I do, and why my books are set up the way they are. It's not that I'm a thoughtless author, but rather that each novel takes over and I'm not always aware of the larger picture or how I fit in with…

Glastonbury – A modern…

I always edit my work many times before I show it to anyone else, knowing myself too well to assume I did it right the first time. Then I send it off and VOILA! someone wants to publish it. Yay!

Then come the edits.

As I read the editor's comments, I think, "Yeah, she's right. I should develop that character more," and later, "Wow. It's true, I left that chapter hanging." Farther on I think, "I really do need to clarify that plot point. She got me there."

What all this means, of…

Laura Ann Ford not only completed her novel but managed to get it published! Then, due to unresolved problems with her publisher, the contract was terminated -at HER request. She shares her story on my blog, Another Writer’s Life. This is an unusually long post, but I wanted you to hear about her experience in her own words, uncut, as a clear warning to those of us who want so…

Since my last newsletter I had a couple of fun book signings. At the start of Labor Day weekend I appeared at Borders in the Boulevard at the Capital Center in Largo, MD. Then on Labor Day itself I greeted homebound travelers at Baltimore Washington International Airport.…

Yesterday was a long day, long and lovely. Started off with the breakfast of champions (pancakes, courtesy of my mom) with my 8 yo niece.

The two of us then set out for a music filled two-hour drive to Ochs Orchard

in Warwick, NY. http://www.ochsorchard.net/ I’ve

only been apple picking once before, a very long time ago, and don’t…

A Non-Genre Writer's Look at Suspense by Jason McIntyre

What creates suspense?

Years ago, a film-maker friend of mine told me he wanted to try something radically

different with his next project: he wanted to shoot a story that had absolutely no conflict.

He told me he didn't want to have a…