I hope you all recognize the James Carville quote from 1992–I’m not calling anyone stupid! Bouchercon 2024 was about the books in so many ways: Despite the issues, it was grand to see everyone! The organizers worked very hard in some very challenging circumstances and I’m grateful for their efforts. To follow up on a…
Read moreBetter than Boycotts: human rights offset
Have you been sad because your favorite conference is being held in a state that has outlawed healthcare for trans people, restricted voting rights, or attempted to outlaw perfectly safe and sane reproductive healthcare medications and procedures? Do you feel like you can’t go without supporting the fascists intent on dismantling American democracy? Yeah, me…
Read moreFarewell, Left Coast Crime 2023
My husband snores gently on the hotel bed behind me. The hotel hallways are mostly empty, the staff still cheerful after four days of writers and readers running them ragged. In a small room off the main hall, organizers are already prepping for next year. And I am having all the feels. * Grateful for…
Read more…And (1/72 Of) The Award Goes To…
A book with my one-page contribution is now a 2022 Macavity, Anthony, and Agatha award winner for crime non-fiction! How to Write a Mystery, edited by Lee Child and Laurie R. King, is not an EGOT but definitely an MAA. Kudos to the writers and editors of this MWA handbook. I think this makes me…
Read moreThe Party’s Over: ThrillerFest 2022
Folks are streaming out of New York and back to their home towns this bright Sunday morning. The maids work hard cleaning the rooms up and down the hall as I type, sequestered away from the world for one more day, waiting to see if these are allergy symptoms or a Covid infection coming on….
Read moreTravel: when your love for something dies
After family, there are two things I absolutely love most in the world: travel, and San Francisco (and cask-strength single-malt whiskey). With this latest trip to New York City for the Thrillerfest conference, my love of travel is on life support. Or, maybe it’s dead and I just can’t admit it. I feel a sort…
Read moreObservations by a Newbie Editor
I just finished reading nearly 100 short stories for an upcoming publication, the third crime-fiction anthology (charity fundraiser) for me as an editor. Writers agonize over editorial rejection, but editors do, too. Here are some things to keep in mind that may help you as a writer or an editor in your next round of…
Read moreReview: Webinar with S. A. Cosby
Rock and a Hard Place Press sponsored a webinar with S A Cosby recently, and it was full of great information! If you get a chance to sit in on a panel, class, or webinar with Mr. Cosby, do it. Why? Because Cosby: Is more well read in and out of the genre than many…
Read moreWhy I Bailed on Bouchercon 2021
It felt like stabbing a friend. Like ghosting my own birthday party. So why did I bail on Bouchercon yesterday? There’s 100 reasons anyone does anything. 99 perfectly good ones, and the real reason. The 99 perfectly good ones are neatly encapsulated in any real news reporting: infection rates up (though they did start to…
Read moreCrime Writers to the Front Lines, Please
Democracy is under attack, but we crime writers seem oddly silent. Sure, we’re tweeting, but at retail scale, does that ever move the needle? Remember when McCarthy & Cohn were trying to undermine democracy? How writers like Arthur Miller refused to name names? How Dashiell Hammett was blacklisted and went to jail rather than name…
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