This post originally appeared on Murder Is Everywhere. On my recent sojourn in India, I kept a lookout for animals. This is because I’m striving to write a lot more about animals in my books. They may not solve a crime or talk (thank God!) but they will be characters. In my book-in-progress, Perveen Mistry 2, … Read more
This post originally appeared on Murder Is Everywhere. Kitab is the Urdu/Hindi word for book and is pronounced just as it sounds. I find it a lovely word. So too was my recent book tour in India for A Murder on Malabar Hill, A Perveen Mistry Investigation. You might notice the similarity in title to The Widows of Malabar Hill, … Read more
This post originally appeared on Murder Is Everywhere. When women began posting accounts of sexual assault a few months ago, I listened. I counted myself fortunate to make it through a little more than a half century without rape. Also, I haven’t experienced workplace harassment. But as the #MeToo stories have continued, some uncomfortable memories … Read more
This post originally appeared on Murder Is Everywhere. January has been a big month for Murder Is Everywhere writers. After cheering for the long anticipated launch of Jeff Siger’s An Aegean April, Anna Maria Alfieri and I had the crazy good luck to share the same pub date, Jan. 9, for our new historical mysteries. On Pub … Read more
This post originally appeared on Murder Is Everywhere. Watching standup and skit comedy shows became a kind of medication for me in the last year. Mental health maintenance, you know? I feel empathy in the jokes made by Stephen Colbert, Trevor Noah, Samantha Bee, and the cast of Saturday Night Live. But there’s also considerable relief in … Read more
This post originally appeared on Murder Is Everywhere. Mixed families often double their holidays. Which means the culinary options are rather excellent. Take Christmas. I grew up the daughter of a German mother who still makes hundreds of beautiful cookies each year. I have learned to bake some of these cookies, but I can’t hold a … Read more
This post originally appeared on Murder Is Everywhere. Dollhouses have a shelf in my life. I played with dolls and miniatures for a very long time—longer even than my little sisters. Our house had a tall, narrow built-in bookcase on the second floor landing, and I set up rooms for my tiny doll family on five … Read more
This post originally appeared on Murder Is Everywhere. When times are frightening, worry comes easily. It’s much harder to be the one to step forward into harm’s way. Recently, my attention was drawn back to World War II and one of its greatest heroines, aka the “Spy Princess.” I am thankful for what she did—and I … Read more
This post originally appeared on Murder Is Everywhere. It seems like yesterday, but it was last summer. I was dutifully working on edits when I got a surprising email. My editor, Juliet, had informed me about a Christmas mystery short story anthology scheduled for October 2017. Soho Press authors writing mysteries set in different parts of … Read more
This post originally appeared on Murder Is Everywhere. I thought I was done with babies fifteen years ago. But there’s a baby in our Baltimore house again—a fur-baby. The adventure began when my college student daughter was scrolling Facebook and found a frantic post from a woman overwhelmed with four children and two dogs. The … Read more