Summer on the Table

This post originally appeared on Murder Is Everywhere. Summer is supposed to be done. I know this because I see big yellow school-buses on the freeway, and the Staples office supply store is full of families loading up on binders, notebooks, and pencils. But may I make a public service announcement that it’s still summer out … Read more

Summer in the City

This post originally appeared on Murder Is Everywhere. In Spring of 2017, I hired a man to dig out the grass in front of my Baltimore, Maryland house. He thought I was crazy to pay him for that, but I had the idea of replacing the grass with a lot of perennials that are native to … Read more

Death in the Newsroom

This post originally appeared on Murder Is Everywhere. Last week’s mass shooting of the five employees at the Capital Gazette in Annapolis made headlines around the world, but especially here in Maryland. These premeditated, cold-blooded murders are a tragedy for the families and friends of Gerald Fischman, Rebecca Smith, Wendi Winters, Rob Hiaasen, and John McNamara. … Read more

Deadline!

This post originally appeared on Murder Is Everywhere. My comments this week will be my briefest yet. I am on deadline with Book 2 in my Perveen Mistry series. A writer is always working on a book, but there are many times in the early days of a novel that it must be handed back and … Read more

Badri Narayan, the Story Artist

This post originally appeared on Murder Is Everywhere. A couple of years ago, I spent a thrilling day shopping for art in galleries the Kala Ghoda district of Mumbai. The upshot is I came home with a gorgeous modern abstract painting found in a an old British Raj building on Rampart Row in Mumbai, very close … Read more

India Underfoot

This post originally appeared on Murder Is Everywhere. It’s too easy to twist your ankle while walking through India. Streets and sidewalks have irregular surfaces, and there are many distractions, ranging from speeding cars and motorcyclists creating their own laws to horses and goats. So I only feel like my footing is truly firm indoors, and … Read more

A Mushrooming Obsession

This post originally appeared on Murder Is Everywhere. After we had a dead elm tree cut down last year, little white mushrooms sprang up on the wood-flecked ground.  I was nervous because we had just taken in a Yorkshire Terrier puppy with an appreciation for organic material. Daisy snuffles up berries, pods, pinecones and black walnuts … Read more

A Writer’s Lament, Revised

This post originally appeared on Murder Is Everywhere. A ragged, handwritten sign has been taped to my study wall for about a year. I love this job! A quarter-century ago, I was working full-time in university public relations and desperately longed to be a fiction writer. It seemed like an impossible dream, to stay home all … Read more