So, children, what have we learned by Saturday’e2’80’99s efforts? I learned that I can write through the panic. It’e2’80’99s nice to know that I still have the skill to zero in on what I’e2’80’99m doing and let the outside world fade. I could do this when I was first starting as a writer, when I…

A note about the time of Saturday’s event. It begins at 11:00 Pacific Time, but yes, we’re on Daylight Savings now. It might be simplest to ring your operator and ask what time it is in CA, but community member Cornelia has recommended http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/ as an online resource.  Our sight-impaired readers may prefer to use http://www.thetimenow.com/worldclock.php, which…

As I’m sure you know by now, unless you’ve just stumbled on this site, I am scheduled to do an event as my performance to celebrate being named my county’s Artist of the Year. That event will be a writer’s improv, when online viewers can watch the live writing of a story eventually intended to…

Am I scared? I’e2’80’99m hearing the question almost daily now, and frankly, I wasn’e2’80’99t until people started asking me. On May 20th I go online and write, for all the public to laugh at. Having been named my county’e2’80’99s Artist of the Year, it seemed to me I had to give back, and this is…

A couple of weeks ago I was asked to talk to the local (Northern California) Mystery Writers of America group about, among other things, promotion. Now, as I said to Cara Black when she asked me, I’e2’80’99m probably not the person to talk to for recommendations about promotion. Joe Konrath, sure; Laurie King, not so…

Two questions I missed, and one latecomer:Q: Nikki wanted to know, Ok I caught the Lord Peter reference, and I know you said no more questions (I can wait ’til June if I must, but this has been bothering me for AGES!!), but how do Holmes and Russell know Lord Peter?? A: You think I…

Sorry to go off the air for a week, my computers’e2’80’94both of them’e2’80’94were having a holiday. Not sure if it was related to the previous posts, but I suppose all machines are imports, even Macs, so perhaps it was. And since we’re in that vein, my local independent (very independent) bookseller at Crossroads Books has…

Okay, enough questions for May, save any others for June (or July?) Q: Erika says, I’m sure you’ve been asked this multiple times…I recently finished “A Grave Talent” – did you have any artist’s work in mind when you created the character of Vaun Adams? I imagined her work to be as that of a…

Q from Wimindance: Here’e2’80’99s a question, in the second Martinelli you refer to the Morningstar murders but don’t give many details, are we going to hear more about this case? It seems Kate did a lot of growing through that case; is there a short story out there somewhere I’ve not seen? A: No short…

Even before coffee the following morning, the thrill of all those millions of faces remains with me–glossy black and pasty white and all the colors in between, marching in the sun across this country and having such a blast at it. Men and women from Senegal or Ireland, families from Bangladesh and Iran, waving their…