Recently, one of my beta readers demanded to know how my book’s protagonist, Kate Gallagher, can attract men so easily, even though she is—to quote Beta—“stout.”

As described in the books, Kate is five foot five and a hundred and fifty-five pounds. Is she trying to lose weight? Yes. Is she unattractive? Not in the least. In fact, she’s a traditional Irish beauty, with wavy auburn hair, sculptured cheekbones, and an hourglass figure. But Beta…

Tardif Trivia:

• From an early age, I wanted to be "Mrs.…

posted by Leann Sweeney

Face it. You watch TV and you like it. I won't tell anyone. Between the monsoons and heat indexes approaching Fahrenheit 451 here in the Commonwealth of Texas, I prefer air conditioning. And I suffer no shame in admitting I am addicted to crime shows. I like the real life ones on Court TV. Forensic Files, LA Forensics, North Mission Road. And my new favorite is on Spike--a station I've never tuned into in my life until they created a new program called…

Journal entry, day 17: " It's been hard, these last few weeks. I have to project an image that is totally false, and I have to be convincing. I'm not doing well, so it isn't hard to seem nervous, but I must be careful not to overdo it and pretend too much.

My nervousness isn't what people think at all. She was going to leave me, so I killed her. I buried her body eight feet down in my garden and covered it with two feet of soil. Then I killed a stray dog, laid it in the hole, and…

Some people seem to think about their current project whenever they are doing mundane, routine tasks. That has never happened to me unless I make a conscious effort. I wonder why that is, but I

have no answer.

I guess there must be other writers out there like me, and I wonder if they try to remember to think about their stories while doing other things. It does save time when you finally get to

sit down and…

The hardest part of our job as writers is to become known, to connect with our readers or potential readers. No matter how big or small your publisher, your marketing budget has finite limits. With small publishers, though, it’s particularly difficult—not only doesn’t the publisher pay for much in the way of publicity or promotion, but advances are so small that it’s difficult to decide where to spend that hard-earned…

Drop by Criminal Minds at Work for Chapter 2 of Cheryl Kaye Tardif's psychic suspense Divine Intervention, a novel that pits a team of psychic government agents against a deadly serial arsonist who is leaving a blazing trail of bodies behind.

Or…

I just clicked the send button forwarding the completely edited version of Tree Huggers to my editor. It's done, it's over, it's gone, it's an SEP (Somebody Else's Problem). This thing been dogging me all summer, and I'm just glad that I don't have to think about it any more.

I'd have sent it out yesterday, but some computer glitch turned every quotation mark into a vertical line and I had to go through the entire file to change every one manually (Yes, I thought about using "find and…

"Priests can't tell what people confess, right? What I say in here is secret and you can't repeat it even if they put you in jail or whatever? You've heard what I told the girls, and most of it is true, but there's more, if you can keep it to yourself.

“Good, ‘cause I really need to talk to someone and my parents are...well, they’re parents. ‘This is for your own good’ and ‘You’ll understand when you have kids of your own.’ I’m not having kids, ever. In fact I’m thinking of becoming a…

Book reviewer and film critic Jack Anthony interviews author Cheryl Kaye Tardif about Whale Song, the Controversial Novel that Explores Assisted Suicide…

I have a December deadline and ten pages written, so...what am I doing here, you might ask?

Procrastinating, of course. I've never blogged before, and I fear that the number of words I write here will be in inverse proportion to the ones I write for the new book, tentatively entitled BEAN THERE, DONE THAT. At least, that's what I want to call it. I have a feeling my editor will want the word "grounds" in the title to match the first two books in my…

Letter to the Editor

New York Times

Sept. 12, 1963…

I have attended many celebrations for finishing a novel. Today I attended another, although it had to be squeezed in due to all the work Dana Stabenow is making us all do for Bouchercon. Lol. What was different about this one? It was intimate. We watch a film, Full Monty, and had wonderful food. We sat on a living room floor, some knitted, some crocheted and some just stared at the telly and made rude comments. There were only 8 of us, but the joy in helping our friend celerate the…