My Life
Christmas in Hawaii
As I write this I’m picking a bit of dried cookie dough off my (significant) bosom, launched there by the enthusiastic dough-wrangling efforts of my niece and nephew this evening at our annual Christmas decorating/baking bash. Christmas in Hawaii is a lot like...
Twenty Things I've Learned
Twenty Things I’ve Learned: My friend, the lovely, talented and funny writer Tee Tyson, recently did a Things I’ve Learned vlog: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tj9kYNJh1o If you haven’t watched it, you should! I laughed at several and mulled over others, and it gave...
The Upside of Middle Age
I promised an upside blog, and I’ve been hunting for inspiration ever since. This is Thanksgiving morning, and it’s time to pull out of the negativity. So here are some of the gifts of hitting midlife that I want to acknowledge, and invite you to add to. The kids are...
a little something to share…
Grumpy in the time of Thanksgiving. I hope my attitude will improve by Thursday. Say a little prayer for me about that, will you? Thanks.
Angels sing Na Mele
When I’m not writing mysteries, I’m working as a school counselor and therapist—and this morning as I walked into my 100 year old school building my ears were treated to an unbelievably sweet harmony of young voices, echoing off the shining wood floors with a sound...
Middle age, she is a cruel mistress.
Middle age, she is a cruel mistress. I came up with that phrase myself, liked the ring of it, and tried it out on Twitter. Then I thought, why is middle age female? Shoot, male middle age is a mean bastard too. Somehow I didn’t think it would happen to me, and I know...
That bumpy homecoming…
The plane home to Hawaii usually has a festive feeling, because it’s mostly tourists heading out for their vacation: families optimistically toting toddlers for that Dream Vacation, newlyweds snacking on each other’s extremities, rotund middle-aged couples going to...
My Writing
Avoid the moist turgid pole for hotter scenes.
I wrote my first romance novel when I was sixteen and had hardly even been kissed—I’d got all my education on the subject from Barbara Cartland and Joan Collins. I wrote it at camp as a series of installments I read aloud each night to my giggling cabinmates. Called...
Managing the risks of creativity.
I wish I had Elizabeth Gilbert's problem. Honestly. That said, I found her concept of the externalization of the muse as a construct who helps the artist continue creating--deeply thought provoking. Days later, I'm still mulling. I'm a spiritual person with a...
Great titles are born, not made.
The Pillars of the Earth- Ken Follett Atlas Shrugged- Ayn Rand Where the Sidewalk Ends- Shel Silverstein The Long, Dark Teatime of the Soul- Douglas Adams The Deep End of the Ocean- Jacquleyn Mitchard Like Water for Chocolate- Laura Esquivel The Mermaid Chair--Sue...
The paths not taken.
I'm doing research, reading a book on how to become an FBI agent. It's dry, pedantic, and yet just reading about the application process, the screening, even the colors and symbolism of the logo, tugs at something within me. A competitive spark, and a patriotic one....
Complex emotions.
"Our agency agreement is terminated." Those words are the period on the end of a three-year sentence: one year to get the agent, one year to work on Blood Orchids to her satisfaction, one year to try to sell it. This last year was the hardest one, as I follow industry...
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