While touring the Acropolis Museum in Greece, I stumbled upon a stone relic that caused me to smile, as though I’d just learned a powerful secret. The English translation said simply: thesaurus, a treasure box. The meaning that fueled my interest is the idea of a storehouse or a treasury. The ancient Greeks used a thesaurus to store treasures, and for writers, our words are our treasures. Since grade school, we’ve used a thesaurus to find synonyms and sometimes antonyms for specific words. This valuable resource helps writers locate specific words when the ones normally used are not exactly what we intend or the concept needs to be bigger, more definite, unique, or the writer wishes to avoid repetition. Meanings twist and turn according to culture, dates used, and what the writer is desperately seeking. Word lovers can get lost in a thesaurus. But there are dangers in tossing aside creativity and diving into a treasure box each time we want to sound distinct or extraordinary. The result builds barriers in our writing. We lose our voice and our character’s voice in an endless pursuit of the perfect word when often the most common fits our passage. Communicating with our…

If you’re a fan of Foyle’s War or other period pieces on PBS / BBC, then check out RADIO GIRLS for a glimpse behind the scenes of the start of the BBC. Mixing fictional and non-fictional characters, Sarah-Jane Stratford brings the era to life. You’ll soon be digging into Wikipedia for more details! How did you first learn about Hilda Matheson, and how did you come to write about her? I came across her name during research—just a short line, saying she was the first Director of Talks at the BBC. Not the first woman, the first director, period. Which seemed quite a thing in 1926. As I kept reading about her, I realized what an influential, yet unknown, feminist she was. She was in M15, recruited there by T.E. Lawrence (aka, Lawrence of Arabia); she was political secretary to Lady Astor, who was the first woman to be elected as a member of Parliament; and then she was hired away to the BBC, where she developed the concept of what talk radio could be. (Anyone who enjoys NPR or the BBC owes her a debt.) She went on to write the first ever book on broadcasting, and developed an…

What genre do you write in? I write a cozy mystery series with an amateur sleuth. I like the elements of this genre. There are interesting characters and a small town setting. There is no graphic violence so the reader doesn’t need to worry about suddenly finding a scene that puts an unpleasant image in their mind. It’s a “safe” read. You know your favorite person will be back in the next book. Tell us about your books. In the first one, MURDER AT REDWOOD COVE, Kelly Jackson, executive administrator for Resorts International, flies to Redwood Cove, California, after the manager of a bed and breakfast has a fatal fall off of a seaside cliff. It’s a straightforward assignment until a group of crime-solving senior citizens, the Silver Sentinels, cry murder. Kelly and the Sentinels work together to find out the truth about what happened. In the second book, MURDER AT THE MANSION, a guest is found stabbed and one of the Sentinels, Gertie Plumber, is attacked. Kelly and the Silver Sentinels must solve the crimes before another life is lost What makes your books different than others in this genre? I have a crime-solving group of five senior citizens,…

Juliet Lyman is a senior executive at Yesterday Records. Music is her passion and she’s very good at her job. That’s why her famously philanthropic boss Gideon sends her to Majorca, Spain to work with a very tortured, but talented client. Lionel Harding is one of the best songwriters of the 20th century, the multi-Grammy award-winning lyricist of the third most recorded song in history. But now he’s forty-two and six months overdue on the his latest paid assignment. Juliet is not leaving Majorca without either new lyrics or a very large check. For Juliet, business comes first. Emotions are secondary, and love isn’t even on the menu. But to Lionel, love is everything, and he blames Gideon for his broken heart. He’s determined to show Juliet that nothing is more important than love, but Juliet is just as determined to get Lionel to create the music that made him famous. As her professional and personal lives start to mix for the first time, Juliet is forced to reevaluate her priorities, and open her heart—perhaps for the very first time. Writing a Woman’s Life columnist Yona Zeldis McDonough chats with author Anita Hughes about her delectable new offering. YZM: You…

I had so much fun with Alex and Sydney in BAND OF BACHELORS: ALEX, which comes out today in all formats. I’ve never written a heroine who is 4” taller than the hero, with thighs stronger than Amazon tree trunks and who can jump like a gazelle. And she wears a bathing suit so tiny, you wanna watch the game for a clothing malfunction. They meet on a blind date. Little does Alex know that chocolate, caffeine and zombie movies drive Sydney out of control, such that she nearly mounts him in the theater. Even for a Navy SEAL, this is something he has a hard time juggling. Trained to get the bad guys, there wasn’t anything in his training that could prepare him for the cyclone he’s about to become attached to. And to find a girl who likes sex as much as he does? He thought that impossible. Here’s our fun trailer that gives a “taste” of what I’ve written. Enjoy. And let the games begin! Watch the Book Trailer for Alex. About BAND OF BACHELORS: ALEX Adrenaline junkie and Navy SEAL Alex Kowicki is one of four bachelor SEALs trying to navigate his successful military career while…

About THE SUN GOES DOWN Mitch Mitchell needs a vacation, and he is determined to make the most of his trip to the Mediterranean island of Gozo. Death never takes a break however, and at the behest of fellow doctor Bob Southern, Mitch soon finds himself investigating the demise of a young, gay lance corporal. The police have ruled it a suicide, but the young man’s boyfriend claims it was murder. Suspecting an official cover-up of a queer scandal, Mitch gets to work on an investigation that leads him into a labyrinth of lies, false identities and secret sex. With tension, humor and plenty of Mitch Mitchell’s exuberant sexual encounters, The Sun Goes Down cranks up the Mediterranean heat for one of his most baffling and dangerous cases. Buy THE SUN GOES DOWN: Amazon.com | Kindle | BN.com | iTunes/iBooks | Kobo | Google Play | Powell’s Books | Books-A-Million | Indiebound | Amazon CA | Amazon UK | Amazon DE | Amazon FR | Goodreads A little farther along the deck, huddled in chairs and surrounded by excessive amounts of luggage, was an English family with thin, pinched faces, gray hair and ill-fitting clothes that were quite unsuited for…

Anyone who knows me knows just how much I adores me some dark chocolate. The 72% variety that pairs wonderfully with a cup of coffee, a glass of red wine, or a flute of champagne. Frankly, it’s kinda like the perfect food! And while I’d like to claim it as my secret indulgence, in truth it really isn’t. For one thing, it’s not a secret. Secondly, it’s not an indulgence if it has its own space on the food pyramid – my version of it, anyway. Go on, tell me I’m wrong! However, I do have weaknesses that, once triggered, are a bear to stuff back and overcome. So I mostly just don’t indulge. Mostly. *stares at the ceiling and whistles* But I digress… While most people think of food, I’ve got three non-food indulgences: A good book. Let’s face it, there’s never enough time to read. Between life at The Male Observation Lab (aka, my day – and sometimes night! – job at a construction company), raising a (drama) teen, writing-related stuff, and making sure the house is shoveled out enough so the place isn’t condemned, there’s just not enough time to indulge in a good story. I often…

The older I get, the more I’m against the concept of ‘guilty’ pleasures. You want that cupcake, go for it! You want to put off the laundry and binge-watch every season of a television show, have at it! You want to crank that pop song and sing loud and proud in traffic, you belt that song, baby! Even in the bedroom, as long as it’s between two consenting adults, and hurts no one, why feel guilty about something? Unabashedly love and own the things that make you feel good! Whether it’s tattoos, or dancing to a certain type of music (hey, reggae! I love you!), there’s something out there for everyone that makes their smile a little brighter. And that is especially true when it comes to publishing. Search for nearly anything and you’ll find it—sometimes thanks to the inimitable Chuck Tingle. Like I said, I’m not about judging you for the things you like. But there’s one trend in romance that was definitely not my cup of tea. The taboo romance involving stepsiblings, in particular, the stepbrother romance trope. Stepbrother romances lit the literary world on fire in the past year or so. It seems a release date didn’t…

Many people have asked me what my inspiration was for writing BURNOUT. Answering that question is a piece-a-cake. I’ve been a federal agent for over two decades, so the suspense part of the story flowed naturally from my brain to my fingers, and from there, to my keyboard. That, and I’ve always enjoyed the underlying crime that has to be solved in a suspense novel. That aspect of a story inevitably throws the hero and heroine together under extreme circumstances, something that always leads to emotions and passions running high. Perfect fodder for a romantic suspense. Having worked with police and federal law enforcement officers my entire career, I have the most amazing contacts. I like to be factually accurate, so when I don’t personally know a specific agency factoid, I have an incredible contact list of cops and feds who are only too happy to assist in the creation of my stories and bringing my characters to life. There is also a huge part of me in this book. Many times in my career, I’ve considered leaving “the business” and doing something completely different, like opening a small restaurant or a bed-and-breakfast and cooking my little heart out. The…

By Hitchcock, of the Bad Luck Cat Mysteries by Kay Finch Cats aren’t often asked to speak their mind, so when I get a chance like this I’m going to take advantage. My name is Hitchcock, and I’m a coal black cat. I was pretty much nameless until I decided to hang with Sabrina Tate in Lavender, Texas, in the heart of the Texas Hill Country. Sabrina’s a mystery writer, and she has this idea in her head that my presence helps her write suspenseful scenes in her fiction. Thus the name Hitchcock, which is fine by me. So long as I can live with Sabrina at the Around-The-World Cottages owned by her Aunt Rowe, I’m happy. Sabrina and I live in the Monte Carlo cottage on the banks of the Glidden River, and things are peaceful most of the time. Until people start saying I’m some legendary bad luck cat. Maybe I look like this legendary cat. I guess he existed at some point in time because everyone (except Sabrina) seems to believe the legend. I’m only five years old, so there’s no possible way I could know for sure if this legend they’re talking about truly existed back…