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
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
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
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
This post originally appeared on Murder Is Everywhere. On a hot Saturday afternoon in early October, I was in the Mumbai Harbour, taking the slow tourist boat back from the cave temples on Elephanta Island. The water journey had been almost two hours, and I had only a few drops of water left in my bottle. … Read more
This post originally appeared on Murder Is Everywhere. Did anybody ever tell you that it’s easier to raise three children than two? I am fine with the two that I have, but I’m beginning to believe the saying could be true. Especially when I think about books. If each book a writer births is like a … Read more
This post originally appeared on Murder Is Everywhere. “Wear all black,” the woman said over the phone. Come at eight-thirty, and don’t carry too much. Be prepared to go from the Supreme Court of the United States to the offices of senators. Last Sunday, I learned the Women’s March organizers were a series of actions this … Read more
This post originally appeared on Murder Is Everywhere. Bouchercon in Florida! Here’s a glimpse of how I spent the convention. Like the birdie, I was a bit on the outside, commuting through the tropical St. Petersburg landscape from my hotel three-quarters of a mile away. British writers are rumored to like Florida, and there were dozens … Read more
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
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