This post originally appeared on Murder Is Everywhere. Confession: It’s very hard for me to tell a story in less than 100,000 words. A novel provides all the space I need to figure out what’s going to happen. This might happen well after the first half and change focus several times before the final chapter … Read more
This post originally appeared on Murder Is Everywhere. If you read books set in other countries, you care about things that happen beyond your front door. The recent blog posts by Annamaria Alfieri and Cara Black as well as a poem by Karuna Ezara Parikh are powerful testimonies to read after Nov 12-13. What’s on my mind are the … Read more
This post originally appeared on Murder Is Everywhere. One of the perks of East Coast life is the freedom to visit other cities within just a few hours. Recently I caught a 6:30 charter bus to New York City and was midtown by 9:45. I’d temporarily abandoned my peeps in Baltimore to enact a very … Read more
For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been spending up to a half-hour every day with a coloring book and a 48-pack of gel pens. The idea of coloring as a way to get writing juices flowing came from a great blog post on raising productivity for writers by Joanna Penn. I don’t know about you, … Read more
I met my first mystery novel at age twelve. It was The Moonstone, a prescient holiday gift from my father. In the years since, I grew into my life as a mystery and historical fiction writer. Turning bits and pieces of my imagination into something others can read is a thrilling experience. From 1997 to … Read more
It’s almost time for The Kizuna Coast. I’ve finished most of my revisions and am waiting for corrections from my copy editor and some other important first readers who really know the book’s setting: the Great Tohoku Earthquake of 2011. The 11th Rei mystery begins on the muddy, shattered coast, and then moves back to … Read more
Come in out of the rain and make yourself comfortable. I’ll hang up your wet trench coat on the rack next to Libby’s Burberry. Watch that you don’t get clipped by one of the zippers on Zoe’s motorcycle jacket. The weather is wretched–shall I make us both a cup of tea? Really? You’d rather have … Read more
The following is bonus material from Sujata’s latest newsletter. You can subscribe by clicking here. INDIA The Kerala backwaters are hundreds of miles of brackish waterways that you can travel for an hour or days on houseboats. The gateway for arranging all this is in the town of Alleppey (also known as Alappuzha). Fort Cochin, … Read more
I’m making cookies today with a 15-year-old daughter who likes the baking, and a 12-year-old son who always seems to know when they’re ready to come out of the oven. Deciding whether to go chocolate or coconut is a sweet moment that breaks up our non-Hallmark Card life. Peace comes when we are repeating activities … Read more
There was no way I’d get to see Khaled Hosseini. No matter how long I stood, or how high I stood on my tiptoes. The author was there–but invisible. All I could hear was his beautiful Pashto accent, and shake my head at myself for being such a groupie. Last Sunday, I drove through DC … Read more