Chicks-on-the-Case Blog on Fathers, Humor, Dry Wit, and WHEN THE HOUSE BURNS.
Enjoy this blog which I wrote for Chicks on the Case! And here’s a picture of my stoic father of few words. I miss him very much.
Read MoreGuest Blog for JungleRedWriters on Home, Homelessness, Comfy fires, and Arson
Greetings: Please check out my guest blog on my latest, When The House Burns, for the wonderful JungleRedWriters.
Read MoreA New Mystery, Fun, Pain, and WHEN THE HOUSE BURNS
Today is Valentine’s Day and pub day for my latest, When The House Burns–sex, death, real estate. The writing of this book during the worst of the Covid Pandemic and a year of multiple traumas was not easy. I’m sharing here the blog I wrote for Women Writers, Women’s Books: Writing When Hurt, Writing to…
Read MoreHoliday Cookies, Tradition, and Mysteries
Tis the season of mysteries. What’s wrapped under the tree? Which liquor spiked the eggnog? Who will surprise us with a sudden yet abiding kindness? For the devout, mysteries underlie faith—the miracle of lights that burn throughout Hanukkah, the divine birth of Jesus under the light of a star, the burning Yule logs celebrating the…
Read MoreApril, Domestic Violence Books, a Survivors Memorial, Hope and Beauty Reborn
It’s spring. Rebirth abounds in the cold north, songbirds celebrate their return, and flowers dare display their pastel heads. It is not all bouquets since tragedy persists in a pandemic not fully conquered, international strife, and the killings of people of color. Homo sapiens cannot seem to learn live-saving lessons. At the best we are…
Read MoreSneak Preview SHOULD GRACE FAIL
Click on the link for a reading from the newest Twin Cities Mystery– SGF Reading
Read MoreResearch, Diversity, and Writing the Not Me
When I was attending a regional middle school in rural Maine, I wanted to work for the United Nations. It seemed cool—the building’s international design, the New York City setting, the languages, the people of different colors from diverse countries, the mission. At the time, I was enduring mean-girl culture. Snip-snap, realign, re-friend, repeat. Maybe…
Read MoreHeroes, Alfred Hitchcock, Pandemics, Cary Grant, and Formulas
That crop duster. The cornfield. Watch it. Isolated at home during the Covid-19 pandemic and a dreary rainy spell, I watched in Technicolor glory Alfred Hitchcock’s 1959 film North by Northwest. Its lumens were intensified by the star power of Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, and James Mason. Cinematic thrills when my day was…
Read MoreBack to School with the Craft of Writing: Lessons from Charles Baxter, Walter Mosley, Elizabeth George, Ben Percy, and Richard Russo
I can write. I can write a statement like “Where’s the coffee?” and realize that it is not a statement but a question fraught with suspense. Then I can write “We’ve run out” and realize that a crisis will ensue. Conjuring up a fat novel out of thin air, however, is not a basic Reading-Riting-Rithmatic…
Read MoreFairy Tales, Lake Superior, Minnesota Writer Leif Enger, and a Fish
I happen to read VIRGIL WANDER, by Minnesota writer Leif Enger, at the same time I was reading about fairy tales in The Sleeping Beauty and Other Essays, circa 1955, by Ralph Harper. Harper was a reverend, a theologian, and a philosopher so his thoughts run deep. Harper led me to review classic illustrations in…
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