At an author event last week at the Logmark Bookstore in Cheboygan, MI, I was talking with two other writers about how completely we become absorbed in the book we're writing. It wasn't a new conversation; authors often speak of being immersed in a world of their own creation. When we finish a book, it's like waking up and becoming re-involved in the world outside our heads.We're probably lucky if we find that our significant others still live in the same house and our children haven't…

From time to time, people argue about whether writers can evoke something they've never experienced. I have friends in the writing community who take classes in how to shoot a gun, sign up to go rock climbing, and (of course) travel to faraway places in order to write realistically about a subject.

We know, though, that writers must also use their imagination to create scenes and characters they can't actually visit: battles are pretty much out for me, as is being a teen-aged boy…

I've given up telling people I'm going to Bouchercon next weekend, at least the people who aren't rabid mystery writers like me. Instead I say I'm attending a big meeting for mystery readers and writers in Cleveland. Most of the time that gets me a funny look that might mean, "I knew you were a little nuts." Mystery conferences are in some ways like the teachers' meetings I used to have to attend. There has to be programming, a sort of raison d'etre, so panels on various aspects of reading…

On TV, it works in about three seconds and it's right every time. I want it. I know the face is familiar, but where have I seen it, what is my connection to it, and most importantly, what name is attached to it?

It happens often at book signings, but first, know this: I taught school for many years. Decades, even. Figure somewhere between a hundred fifty to two hundred students each year. Then add in all the people I worked with, especially those who moved on after only a year or two:…

May 7 Seamus Interview Part 3- Melissa's Imaginarium- http://melissasimaginarium.blogspot.com May 8 Writing a Mystery Series- Nancy's Notes from Florida- http://nancyjcohen.wordpress.com May 9 How Did I Know I'd Made It?- Suspense Your Disbelief- http://www.jennymilchman.com/blog/ May 10 Choosing a Great Title- LL-Publications-…

They'll tell you an author can't succeed without them, but at a certain point, this one sure wishes she could!

My blog tour for DEAD FOR THE MONEY starts this week, and the schedule is printed below. There are of course prizes if you're willing to visit blogs and make comments between now and June 7th (even comments on this blog will work). LL Publications provided invaluable help with the tour in the form of a publicist who contacted all the bloggers and made dates for me to visit.…

I had lunch with an author friend recently, and she mentioned that her editor has twice now commented on the mood of her books, which gets darker in bad times and lighter in better times. The editor has never met my friend but accurately identified times when she was dealing with personal tragedy. The books were different than those which came when life was happily humming along.

Wow. Do we know we're revealing so much of ourselves as we write? I know from studying literature that…

The second Dead Detective Mystery, DEAD FOR THE MONEY, comes out on Friday, and the publicist for LL-Publishing has arranged a blog tour for me beginning in May. (This in itself is cool, because I've always had to arrange my own before.) In most of the posts, I'll be letting Seamus, Dead Detective, explain his view of things. I'll keep you apprised of the schedule as it develops.

So what is it like to be dead? There are so many possible answers that the mind boggles. Some say death is…

So it's almost April (with its shoures soote) and I'm looking forward to the active part of the year. All winter I focused on writing, managing to finish Book #3 of the Simon & Elizabeth series and Book #2 of the Dead Detective series. I'm at work on Book #3, but author appearances are starting to emerge. There were two in March, and from there on, the calendar starts to look like a dartboard, with towns and times scribbled all over the place.

The interesting date this month…

They'll tell you that awards mean nothing. No big sales surge. No extra attention from publishers and agents. No movie deals. Got it. Nevertheless, when I got word yesterday that I won Best Mystery of the Year with THE DEAD DETECTIVE AGENCY, I forgot all that and succumbed to joy. Somebody--whether several or dozens or hundreds or hordes of somebodies--thinks my book is worth…

Chris Redding interviews me today on her blog: http://chrisredddingauthor.blogspot.com/

Thanks, Chris!

Yesterday a man said to me, "My wife really likes your new book." He couldn't recall the title, but she'd said it was totally different from everything else she'd read of mine. I formed a theory from that and was just about to say the title when he said, "It's the one that takes place in Grand Rapids." Oh, THE DEAD DETECTIVE AGENCY.

Not the one I was thinking of at all. That book came out last April, and there have been so many on my mind in the time between that it seems really…

My guest today is Ryder Islington, whose book, ULTIMATE JUSTICE, is published by the people who produce my Dead Detective Mysteries.

I'm giving away an Amazon gift certificate for one person who comments on Ryder's post, so go to my main blog  HERE and enter for your chance to win.

I finished a book last night that was one of those "I can't wait to find out what happens" stories. The author had me caring desperately for the characters, hoping against hope that they could defeat the almost certain doom that swept toward them. I read and read and read...and then they died. Greek tragedy and ANNA KARENINA aside, that's not what I read for. I read to be entertained, at least when I read genre fiction. I contend that an "entertaining" author who gives the reader false hopes…

My cozy mystery, SOMEBODY DOESN'T LIKE SARAH LEIGH, is available for Kindle and will come in other formats in the spring of 2012. Set in northern Lower Michigan, it’s an intriguing mystery and more than that. It's also about what can happen to friendships between women.

We've all seen movies and read books about those lifelong, girl-to-woman relationships, and they are wonderful. But what we often don't consider is that some of those friendships go wrong over time. It's hard to say…

Multiple opportunities to win prizes and have fun on blogs this week.

First, I'm continuing the Blog Party that celebrates the release of POISON, YOUR GRACE yesterday. It goes till Saturday, with a drawing each day for an

Amazon gift certificate. Visit

http://itsamysterytomepegherring.blogspot.com/

Second, I joined the Gratitude Giveaway Hop…

Saturday, Nov. 12, and every day until Nov. 19th, I'm having a party on my main blog.

Visitors will meet a bunch of author/friends who will answer (hopefully with

wit and humor) questions about themselves and their work in ONE sentence.

Everyone is invited to visit and comment. Each day I will draw a name from the list of people who comment, and that person will get an…

That's easy: there are too darned many of us. I just returned from Magna Cum Murder, which is a small con. Attending cons, while a lot of fun, always underscores how many people are out there writing mysteries--and a lot of them a pretty good at it. One man at an informal discussion said it out loud, "I know I'm as good as a lot of the best-selling authors, but I just can't get recognized." It's true. You get good--even great--reviews. You get nominated for awards. You splash your book…