Lynx is a special operative who helps solve the riddle in WASP, the first book in the Uncommon Enemies Series (2017, SilverHart Publishing) Lexi Sobado (AKA Lynx) Lexi was an un-schooler. Un-schooling is homeschool on steroids, where everything and everyone could present a learning experience. Now that she’s an adult, her non-traditional upbringing gives her a unique world view — different from those around her. She doesn’t stand out as weird or awkward; she just stands out. I thought you might like to get to know one aspect of Lexi’s un-schooling experience, her Kitchen Grandmothers. I’ll let Lexi introduce you to her Kitchen Grandmothers in her own words: So much of my education happened around the stove, under the watchful eyes of my Kitchen Grandmothers, so much warmth and goodness. It was Snow Bird Wang who decided that I needed the Kitchen Grandmothers. She was worried that I would lack women’s skills, making it hard for me to find an honorable husband. She knew that my mother’s illness, that had left her bedridden since I was twelve, would keep her from teaching me “wifely” skills. So Snow Bird chose, amongst her friends at our apartment building, five grandmothers who were…

About Good Lies: Releasing May 8th, 2017 If Warren Price was gasoline, I’d be a lit match. Addison Wanks, rock ’n’ roll’s favorite daughter, is good at keeping secrets. Secret One She’s responsible for the long-standing feud between her father’s band, Wanks and Janks, and younger band Wild Minds. She may or may not have let Wild Minds’ sexy bad-boy lead singer Warren defile her backstage at a concert. Okay, she totally did. Secret Two She’s supposed to be attending college but instead skips town to follow Wild Minds on their European tour. Addy adores Warren Price. Secret Three Europe doesn’t go so well. Her sexy lead singer turned out to be king of a**holes. He’s arrogant, demanding and controlling. Addy loathes Warren Price. Oh, well. Secret Four Fast forward a few years and Addy is planning to attend her father’s farewell tour when she hears the news—Wild Minds is back in the good graces of Wanks and Janks. The two bands will be headlining together. This is going to make avoiding Warren difficult. Especially since it seems Warren doesn’t want to be ignored. He also doesn’t want a divorce. That’s right, Addy is married to the Wild Minds front…

Whether or not ghosts exist is a big debate in my house. My daughter and I firmly believe in ghosts, while my husband and one of my sons do not. My youngest son, Logan, who is only six years old now, has no firm opinion yet, but he is part of the reason I believe so strongly. Of course, I had other…encounters before these, but that’s another story. My younger brother, Chris, passed away when my son was only four months old. Chris and I shared a love of reading, especially mysteries, and I often feel his presence while I’m writing. Chris always had the best hair, thick, full, and loaded with natural highlights. And he always kept it long, at least past his shoulders, even after he became an air traffic controller. Late one night—we don’t keep normal hours in my house—I was sitting on my bed writing. My youngest, who was about two at the time, was lying across the bottom of the bed watching his iPad. He looked over, then past me, and frowned. “Who’s that?” he asked. I turned around but didn’t see anything. “Who’s what?” “That guy with the long hair?” I jumped and spun…

Thank you, Fresh Fiction, for hosting me and my new series today! SOMETHING OLD is the first in a series about four college friends who reunite for the wedding of one of the girls, five years after college. Most of them haven’t seen each other due to life and other circumstances and so, when the bride planned her wedding, she decided to through in some matchmaking of her own, reuniting her bridesmaids with the men she thought they should have been with all along. Weddings kind of freak me out honestly. So much pomp and circumstance. So many ways things can go wrong and yes, if I’m in the wedding, things will go wrong. You can trip walking down the aisle. You can spill something on your bridesmaid’s gown. You can mess up the dance. But the worst part about being in a wedding (or even attending one) is being the lone single person in the bridal party when everyone is drunk on love. The bride is seeing hearts everywhere. The attendees all have advice for when you can find your true love. And everyone tries to matchmake with a groomsman, or their single nephew/cousin/friend. Haven’t we all sat at…

Several years ago, TIME MAGAZINE’s cover story asked the question “Is God Dead?” in our society. While it is generally believed today that somewhere between 75% and 85% (depending upon which poll one reads) of the people in America believe in a supreme being, the belief is trending down, and those beliefs that do exist are varied, from those who say they believe, yet don’t practice any faith, to those who are daily practitioners of their faith, and every combination in between. In the early years of this great country, if polls on the subject had been taken, the likelihood is that the believers would have reached percentages exceeding 99.99% of the population, and the vast majority would have been regular practitioners. The purpose of this post is not to consider the reasons for this decline in belief and what effect that has had on our society. Each of us our own opinion on these questions, and each opinion has a germ of truth to it. The question here is what would happen if there were actually concrete proof of the existence of God? What would that do for our society? Until 1988, most people who knew about the existence…

Weddings. They bring out the crazy in a person, don’t they? I’ve done more tours of duty as a bridesmaid and maid of honor than I can count on two hands, and it never ceases to amaze me how a seemingly normal woman, a person I’ve known for years, through acne, braces, thin letters from our dream schools, first boyfriends, bad breakups, and finding true love, can suddenly morph into a flower, dress, and cake obsessed zombie swathed in organza and tulle with a tiara on her head. I believe we call her bridezilla. I’m not really sure how it starts. The guy proposes and everything is all happy and sparkling and look-at-the-ring-bling and then, about when the couple sets the date, the whole thing turns into a carnival of curiosities. Brides wearing aptly named bridal diapers (no, I’m not kidding). Apparently, this is a thing now so that the bride doesn’t have to use the restroom on her special day. Ew. Then there are the bridesmaids getting plastic surgery so they are perfect looking for the bride’s wedding photo op (oh, horror!). And lastly, my personal favorite, the bride having a life-sized cake replica of herself in all of…

Not long ago I was at a book signing for my latest novel, OPERATION SCORPION, and a reader asked me the question – why do you write so much about cops and terrorists? I looked up, smiled and said that was what I knew. We then had a wonderful conversation about the genre of police thrillers, which I actually believe are more psychological thrillers since I always delve into the minds of the characters. What is the protagonist thinking, feeling, experiencing? What is the antagonist also thinking, feeling, experiencing? The concept of writing one dimensional characters never crosses my mind as I sit behind the key board. People have breadth, depth, needs, desires (both good and bad), but mostly they are human. They may be fictional characters but they are real to me and hopefully to my readers. Why would someone believe it is the correct thing to do to murder someone? Why is that? As a person with a background in psychology, this ultimate betrayal of human life has always fascinated me. As an ex-cop it sometimes was part of my duty to investigate homicides – too many it seems – but to write about what is in a…

I’ve been writing a long time. I won’t tell you how long, because I’d give away my age – but long enough to not care to admit it. J And over the years I attended many, many, many conferences, workshops, signings and speaking events where other authors, successful authors, authors I admired and read and adored talked about how they did this mystical, mysterious art known as crafting a novel. Oh, boy, did I absorb every. Single. Word. I took notes. Lots of notes. Notebooks FULL of notes. I paid hundreds of dollars in membership dues, class fees, and bought books on writing. I joined clubs, went to monthly meetings (Thank You RWA!) and still struggled. Thoughts chased themselves around in my head like a constantly beating drum. How was I supposed to do this? Why wasn’t I getting published? What was I supposed to do? How did I get good enough to be legit? To be worthy. Then self-publishing rose as an option, and I wrote, and I published, and I didn’t SELL. No one cared. So I took more classes. Read more books on writing. Listened to more talks and speeches and took more notes. What a load…

Korean– I went with my mother to Korea in 2015 and had home cooked meals. We didn’t eat in restaurants (OK, a few), but mostly church suppers. Yum! I had no idea what I was eating and I didn’t ask, but it was all fabulous. I love cucumber kimchi and something called Shabu Shabu. Southern cooking– If it wasn’t going to give me a coronary, I’d eat it every day. I went to school in Savannah, Georgia and spent four years gobbling up hush puppies and biscuits, grits and sweet tea. And everything had ham in it—which makes complete sense to me. I love it so much I’m going on a road trip in June with my father across Mississippi to find the best fried chicken! Seafood– The corny saying is true- I’m on a sea food diet. Growing up on the Chesapeake Bay, crabs were king. I love a good steamed crab. But salmon fishing in Alaska has me hankering for some wild caught silvers. Of course, I was the one who caught a halibut by mistake (a BIG mistake!) and it was yummy! Italian– I would be getting a divorce if I didn’t put this on the list…

Hey-oh, everyone! So happy to be back on Fresh Fiction talking about my newest release, WILD RIDE! The book follows Ethan “Ozzie” Sykes on his twisty, turny, suspenseful journey to finding happily-ever-after. I can promise car chases, shoot outs, a rogue motorcycle club, mistaken identities, steamy hot sex scenes and so much more. But for today’s post, I want to focus on the book’s setting. Chicago, the Windy City, the City of Broad Shoulders. My home. Sit back, relax, and let me take you on a journey of locations found between the pages of WILD RIDE. If you’ve been to Chicago, hopefully you haven’t missed these fun Chi-Town destinations. If you haven’t been to Chicago, then be sure to put these spots on your list of must-sees when you do get a chance to visit my City by the Lake! The Magnificent Mile: A mile of shopping, restaurants, and people-watching unlike anything you’ve ever seen. You’ll find everything from Payless Shoes to Sax Fifth Avenue on the Mag Mile. Coffee shops. Street performers. Garrett’s Popcorn, which is a Windy City staple. (Hint: Get the Chicago Mix while you’re there. It’s cheddar cheese popcorn mixed with caramel popcorn. Sounds gross, right?…