Digital White-Out

This post originally appeared on Murder Is Everywhere. When the snow fell last weekend, I welcomed it, not just for its beauty, but the way it stops time. I grew up in Minnesota, where children are hardwired to appreciate the beauty of snow and also to expect it as a normal rhythm of the winter, rather … Read more

A Fresh Page for 2019

This post originally appeared on Murder Is Everywhere. I’d love to start everything fresh in the new year. Clear Desk, Clear House, Clear Fridge seem to promise a Clear Mind. But I can’t blank out what’s already going on. For this writer there is my work in progress—Perveen Mistry #3, about 1/4 written—and various contracts for … Read more

Reasons to Be Cheerful: My Personal Gratitude List

This post originally appeared on Murder Is Everywhere. Have you heard about gratitude lists? Writing down what one is grateful for, every night, is said to benefit psychological health, sleep, and relations with others. I’ve been marking small bits of gratitude down in my trusty bullet journal of 2018, a dog-eared book that is entering into its last … Read more

Milano, Milano!

This post originally appeared on Murder Is Everywhere. I send greetings from the north of Italy, where Christmas lights are twinkling and it’s time to buy panettone. It was a grand surprise a few months ago, when my Italian publisher, Neri Pozza, share an invitation to be a literary guest at Festival In Noir, an international … Read more

The Golden State

This post originally appeared on Murder Is Everywhere. The Golden State was the port of entry for me as a very young immigrant from Great Britain. Although my family’s stint in California only totaled three years of my childhood, it has always held a mythic place in my heart. Palo Alto is where I remember collecting … Read more

The Race is Done!

This post originally appeared on Murder Is Everywhere. Two years ago, it was my rotation for blog duty the day after the US presidential election. I planned to write something about it that night—because nothing else seemed relevant. I spent the day buzzing around, feeling anxious yet certain the stress would soon end, and I’d be … Read more