I admit it. With the election looming less than a month away and this global pandemic showing no signs of magically disappearing anytime soon, I’m on edge. Every time I see folks in the grocery store ignoring the “mask required” signs prominently displayed, I want to scream. But what good would that do? These folks…
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In my last blog, I talked about my strong feelings about supporting and encouraging marginalized writers to share their stories, as well as my commitment as a white author to write books in which all young people can see themselves represented and affirmed. A great resource is the nonprofit advocacy group, We Need Diverse Books…
Read MoreI’m excited to share that at long last, Malice Domestic’s anthology, Murder Most Theatrical, is available for pre-order from Wildside Press and will officially come out on October 1st. My short story, “Missed Cue,” appears in the anthology, and its setting in a dance company reflects my love of the dance world I spent decades…
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Like so many in America and around the world today, I mourn the death of a genuine hero, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, whose decades as an attorney and Supreme Court Justice advanced human rights for everyone, most especially women. I recall reading that she was always amused by the frequent question from children visiting her at…
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I can always tell when I’ve read a wonderful novel. Days afterward, I’m still thinking about the characters and wondering what they’re up to! Such was the case this past week when I inhaled Sarah Dessen’s 2019 novel, The Rest of the Story. The novel centers around seventeen-year-old Emma Saylor Payne. When her father…
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Determined to support our football-playing grandson, my husband and I ventured across the Ohio River into Indiana to see him play his varsity game last night and JV game this morning. All I can say is I have now witnessed close up why it took less than two weeks for our grandson’s high school to…
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Like all fiction writers, I strive to create characters readers will care about. But that only works if I care about the life experiences that have shaped them. To do that, I’ve found it essential to delve deeply into their backgrounds. Much of what I learn will never appear in my novels, but my characters’…
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When I turned 39, my husband gave me a coffee mug that said, “39 and Holding.” At the time, I couldn’t imagine the day our marriage would reach that magic number, but today is our 39th wedding anniversary. I feel lucky as hell to be married to a man who makes me laugh every day…
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It all started after I finished my MFA in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill back in 2016. Despondent over the demise of my local SCBWI critique group, a former member told me about her other writer’s group. “These women are serious,” she said. “They’re all multi-published, and they take turns critiquing each other’s work…
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Is there anything more fun than discovering a writer you’re not familiar with and falling in love with her work? That’s what happened to me when I accidentally discovered Bounce by Natasha Friend, a book that came out in 2007 from Scholastic Press. Don’t ask me how, despite being an avid YA reader/writer, I didn’t…
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