Do you ever feel like the whole world is in on the secrets of life, and no one bothered to tell you? Have you ever read a great book, or seen a movie whose entire premise should be completely and totally impossible…but you just can’t stop yourself from wondering if it’s true? What if there really were Jedi Knights out there somewhere? What if vampires were real? Or werewolves? What if our planet really was alive and could speak to us, like the home world in Avatar? What if we really did live in a matrix, and gentlemen like Mr. Smith were out there, watching and waiting to strike down anyone who got too close to the truth? What if wizards and magic were real? What if aliens really did walk among us? What if? What if? What if? I could ask questions like this for hours. Days. If you must know the truth, I have been asking them…for decades. ‘What if?’ is my favorite question. And it’s what inspires me to write. I have notebooks full of wild ideas. In the Timewalker Chronicles, I combine several of my favorites. What if time travel were possible? What if humans were…

One of the many things I enjoy about writing the Library Lover’s Mysteries is that I get to flex my librarian research muscles. As I devised the plot for ON BORROWED TIME, I knew that Lindsey’s brother Jack was going to be a globetrotting economist. But when it came to the business crisis that would cause him to be on the run, I was stumped. This happens frequently during the plotting stages of a novel. I’ll have a kernel of an idea but no idea how to make it pop. There are a variety of methods to try and get a lock on the idea. I walk my dogs a lot. Sometimes inspiration hits during the pooper scoop portion of the walk and sometimes it hits when my girl dog launches herself off the sidewalk in some crazy attempt to take down a passing bread truck. She has issues. If the dog thing doesn’t work, I move on to baking. I will bake myself into a three pies, two rounds of cupcakes, several batches of cookies sugar coma in an attempt to get my ideas to blossom. When that doesn’t work, it’s back to walking the dogs, because by then…

I rarely write blog posts, partly because I spend so much of my time writing my books and well . . . I have to have a life. My life looks something like a typical mom’s life. The laundry is never done, the house is never perfectly in order and there is always some errand to run. But this week was different. I finished a book I had been writing for several months so I rewarded myself with a break. Whenever my focus moves away from writing fiction, I find it impossible not to examine and analyze the state of my life. It’s like the big cozy blanket of make-believe is removed and I say out loud, “Wait, how old am I again? Oh sh$#! Where did that year go?” I came out of the writing cave, went to the juice bar, went to yoga and actually went shopping. I hate shopping but I forced myself to go and look at things that are current for the sake of my own social acceptance. Normally, I don’t care about that stuff, but this week I let myself care so I could feel like a person again. Complacent is how I would…

“My dog senses when my anxiety is high and gently nudges me when I’m about to have a flashback. He brings me back every time.” Iraq Veteran suffering from PTSD In the book EVEN HEROES CRY, I wanted to bring across a hero that is not perfect, but I didn’t plan for him to become so broken. I knew he was going to be a war veteran and intended for him to be someone who suffered from PTSD. I didn’t know the path this would lead us both down. Whoa were my eyes opened. I found a study that frightened me and let me to find information on organizations that help veterans with PTSD. Sadly, twenty-two war veterans commit suicide each day. Foundations such as Pets-For-Vets are unsung heroes that pair specially trained animals with veterans. In the process they save lives two lives. The animals they train as companions are acquired from shelters. The unconditional love they offer as well as training help veterans not medication or counseling can. Although in my book, my hero does not acquire a dog, I did write a small dog into the story and decided to donate a percentage of the books earnings…

BLACK ROSE is a romance/thriller/crime novel. This is a very hard genre to write in, what do you like about this genre? Are there other genres you like to write in? Suspense/thriller is hard, but I think any author would say their genre is difficult. LOL! For me, what I loved the most, was that this genre allows the author to really get into the reader’s head. It forces the reader to think on a different level and use their imagination in a way they normally don’t. For example, in scenes where Lillian hears what the others are going through, but obviously she doesn’t fully know what’s happening to them, you find yourself thinking the worse. In all honesty, you’re probably imagining something 100 times worse than what I was. And as “messed up” as that might be, that’s what I wanted. I wanted you to become as attached to these people as much as possible, and to do that I need that connection between the characters and the reader. As for genres I’d like to try, I would say paranormal. Either as a young adult novel or adult. I think a part of that is just wanting to write…

My parents split up when I was in middle school. I suppose I might have handled it better but even now, looking back, I can’t say why they weren’t able to figure out a way back to each other despite their problems. They still love each other but they decided to part ways. So I suppose that divorce forged in many ways my ideas about a long term relationship. Honestly, I find myself somewhat surprised to be in one. I’ve been with my husband since I was twenty – almost 18 years now since we first met. We’ve been through 5 combat deployments between the two of us and we’re pretty lucky that we still love each other enough to keep the family together, spend time with each other and still be there when things aren’t going so hot. I don’t actually have any sage advise for maintaining a long term relationship but I can tell you what I’ve done through the war and the years to try and keep things going. Your mileage may vary and all that but I figure it’s been working so far, why not pass along what nuggests of whatever this might be called. They…

I have fond memories of playing in fabric stores when I was young. My mom is an excellent seamstress, and often took my sister and me on trips to Levine’s, our local fabric store, to pick out patterns for new dresses, curtains, pillows, or pajamas. She’d drop me by the tables of pattern books where I’d spend hours flipping through the pages, admiring the fashionable sketches and dreaming of the possibilities. As I got older, I would wander the aisles and pick out interesting prints for clothes that I made myself. Fabric stores are like bookstores to me. I can’t walk into one and not come out with a package. There are no better places to fritter away time! So when the idea of a cozy mystery series set in a fabric shop came to mind, I knew it was the perfect way to combine two passions. I imagined an old fabric store like the one I used to play in, one that had been around since the fifties. What treasures might be hidden inside: dusty vintage fabrics in a stockroom, new old stock of buttons, pattern books from decades past, forgotten packages of bias tape, or thick bolts of…

My mother used to say that when I was two or three I would come to her and ask for “choc.” Choc was what I called chocolate milk. Mother was a great reader, particularly of mysteries. So on one particular occasion, she replied, “Let me finish my chapter.” I sighed deeply, she recalled, and said, “Whenever I ask for choc, you say, ‘Let me finish my chapter.’” So mysteries and chocolate apparently were linked in my mind from my earliest days. Just as I love mystery novels, I also love chocolate. I like milk chocolate, dark chocolate, and white chocolate. I like it in solid bars, in truffles, in bonbons. In brownies, in mole sauce, in exclusive chocolate shops, and in bags on the Halloween display at the grocery store. I like Hershey’s, Nestle, and Ghirardelli. I adore Cadbury’s Caramellos. I like anything but jelly centers. Or chewy caramels, even chocolate covered. And chocolate cake mixes. I do draw the line somewhere. It’s no wonder that when my editor asked for a series of cozy books, I came up with chocolate as a theme. So in my new book, THE CHOCOLATE CLOWN CORPSE, my heroine/detective, Lee Woodyard, finds herself handing…

Every author’s writing process is different, and every story is different even for a particular author, at least that’s true with me. My latest release, TUNDRA THREAT, started with a full-of-personality character and a setting I love. When McKenna Clark, my law-enforcement-heroine, first took shape in my mind, the first thing I did was try to think about what kind of guy it would take to make sparks fly. And not just romantic sparks. Conflict sparks. Because who likes a happily-ever-after that comes too easily? In the book, McKenna is a stubborn, red-headed wildlife trooper, so I paired her with an equally stubborn (because that’s always fun, right?) hunting guide. That’s right. She protects animals. He takes people out to hunt them. And that’s just the beginning of the obstacles in their way. If there’s anything that’s true of both McKenna and Will, it’s that they’re risk takers. Even when a tragedy in Will’s past makes him life more cautiously for a few years, he comes back to this way of living life fully with no regrets when he’s reunited with McKenna. As far as the setting fitting the characters, there was no better place to set their love story…

It all started with a side room in a little shop in Mahone Bay, NS. We had a family day out and were browsing around and there they were…racks of vintage clothes. We saw shoes, coats, dresses… and while my husband wasn’t particularly keen on the clothing, my daughters and I were in heaven. We ooohed and aaaahed over several items, and in particular, a beautiful wedding dress. It was way too small for any of us, and my daughters were wayyy too young to think about wedding dresses (and still are!) but I took a picture of it anyway, that doesn’t do it justice. The ivory satin and the lace were just stunning. I knew then that someday it would make its way into a book. But I didn’t know when, or how. But I finally found the right moment. It’s Abby’s wedding dress in TREASURE ON LILAC LANE (Oct 28).  And it started my fascination with searching for vintage clothing for my characters to wear for her big day, including the heroine, Jess, who is Abby’s Maid of Honor. After all, in THE HOUSE ON BLACKBERRY HILL, Abby inherits her great-aunt’s house and with it a treasure trove…