It’s April, here on the Central Coast, and in a normal year, we’d be pretty well finished with rain until October. Not that we can remember what a normal year looks like. This year we’re above our more-or-less average of 33 inches (the below are from the excellent Weathercat.net) – Last year, on the other…
Read MoreI hit the SEND button–wahoo! First draft, hence short, untidy, and incomplete…but it’s sent, out into the editorial world. Now I wait, and see what she thinks. (*sound of chewing fingernails**) I think I’ll reward the newsletter subscribers with the first page this weekend. Or if not reward, at least give them something to talk…
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Last day of February, the last of February’s posts celebrating 30 years of A Grave Talent. ** About a year after Grave Talent came out in 1993, St. Martins Press published The Beekeeper’s Apprentice. Two months later, in April, 1994, Grave Talent won the Edgar award for Best First Novel. Nonetheless, the sub-editor in charge of the…
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Part of February’s month-long celebration of A Grave Talent, the Edgar-winning first novel about SFPD Inspector Kate Martinelli that started a writing career. ** I wrote a few days ago about my beloved first agent, Linda Allen, the woman who got me started as a writer. The agent is the person who knows the industry,…
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A Grave Talent, as my first book was dedicated to my husband, Noel–in Hebrew, which is only right between two scholars. Amos 3:4 means, more or less, Can two people walk together unless they be in agreement? I know, scholars are really romantic, right? Now, there are two mysteries here (beyond the mystery of…
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Part of February’s month-long celebration of A Grave Talent, the Edgar-winning first novel about SFPD Inspector Kate Martinelli that started a writing career. One of the things I had fun with in writing A Grave Talent was crafting a series of reviews of the work of Eva Vaughn, the artist at the center of the…
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Part of February’s month-long celebration of A Grave Talent, my Edgar-winning first novel. ** A year after A Grave Talent was published, my first venture into publishing took me to the annual Mystery Writers of America Edgar Awards banquet, when it was nominated in the Best First Novel category. I went with my daughter (then…
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Part of February’s celebration of A Grave Talent, the Edgar-winning first novel that started a writing career. ** If you have ever tried to take a good picture of yourself—not just a grinning selfie with friends but the kind of photo that says “thoughtful, intelligent person with a trace of humor and wit”—well, all I…
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Once upon a time, children, publishers used to promote mid-list authors and build the careers of newbies. That’s right, my publisher took out a quarter-page congratulatory ad in the New York Times back when Grave Talent won Best First and Minette Walters won Best Edgar. My original publisher decided to pass on the paperbacks of…
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Part of the 30-year anniversary celebration of A Grave Talent. Like most first novelists, I had no clue about how to run my life as a business. In 1993, the only people who did self-publishing were the desperate souls who just HAD to have a volume to put in the hands of family and friends.…
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