Each Sunday, The New York Times’ Real Estate section showcases a city residence. The feature is called “Habitat” and the articles don’t merely profile a residence; rather, the stories discuss how the space suits the people who live there. When my husband, Joe Stanko, and I learned that the New York Times was interested in featuring our apartment, one question came to our minds: Where in God’s name would we stash our stuff?



If you’ve never lived in New York City, you don’t know what… Continue

When I stand on my balcony, I can see the United Nations, the East River, the famous Pepsi sign, and Egypt, Nigeria, and Kuwait's missions to the U.N. But most of the time, that's not where I look. My attention is usually fixed on one of the United Nations Plaza buildings. It's my favorite building in New York.

Look at the top. Doesn't it appear to be paper thin? Isn't that astonishing? How do architects and builders do that? What… Continue

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Jane's Guest of Honor Interview: Cool Questions

As the guest of honor at this year's Deadly Ink Mystery Conference, I was interviewed by author Cheryl Solimini.Here are Cheryl's way cool questions and my answers.

1. What…

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What Kind of Horse Are You?

I'm not a clothes horse. I select outfits for comfort, not style. In other words, I'm a comfort horse.

When I was twelve, my father told me that he would gladly pay for any and all beauty treatments. He liked his women well-kempt. My mother was more of a comfort-first sort of gal, so this was his way of suggesting that I try a…

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At the recent mystery conference, Left Coast Crime, I moderated a panel entitled, “What’s My Niche? Cozies With a Theme.” As the author of the Josie Prescott Antiques Mysteries, that topic is right up my alley.

My panel was intended…

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Finding My Way: Thoughts on Plotting

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In Antiques to Die For, the third Josie Prescott Antiques Mystery, I wrote without an outline. Boy, was that a mistake. Twenty-twenty hindsight and all that. Writing without an outline worked out pretty well in the first two books in the series, but man, it sure didn't with this one.

Not that I knew it at the…

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I've spent a fair amount of time thinking about the nature of persuasive arguments. Why is one person good at it, and not another?

Certainly, one needs well-framed and well-developed content and a delivery style people find pleasant to listen to or read—after all, people aren't stupid and they won't pay attention unless they want to. But that's all theory... in order…

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Kate White, editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan magazine and the best-selling author of the Bailey Weggins mystery series, said she frequently reminds herself to write big and bold—to find the best way of expressing exactly what it is she wants to say to knock her readers' socks off.

"I have a tendency to hold back with my writing,"…

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Here’s an example of why I sometimes have trouble admiring people who volunteer on Thanksgiving and Christmas at organizations like soup kitchens. I overheard a woman explain her intentions by saying, “My son is going to his girlfriend’s family, so we might as well.” In other words, she and her husband are volunteering because they have nothing better to do.

Most soup kitchens don’t need volunteers on Thanksgiving and Christmas. Lots of people…

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For many years, I was the official "cookie baker" for my family’s holiday get-togethers. Chocolate chip

cookies were my specialty, but I dabbled in sugar, chocolate, apple,

creamy fillings, and other gourmet styles, too.



As the years passed, and I became busier at work, I grew less entranced… Continue

I live on the block that ends at the United Nations. The General Assembly is about to sit for its annual meeting. Many countries’ leaders are in town. Security is high.



Security has always been high, but since 9/11, it’s been astonishing. Last year, for the first time ever, I was stopped from entering my own block. The president of Pakistan was stepping out from his hotel into a limo as I stood…

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