Gotta Read
I gotta read every day. Can’t seem to help myself. I usually have two or three books going … one on my Kindle so I can read before I call it a night, one on my back porch … because it is important to read…
What’s Love Got To Do With It?
Nifty looking cover. Makes me want to give it a read! Flash Point by Luna Joya Gotta love a paranormal/supernatural/spooky/romancy/story. Right? Luna has me intrigued. And I get to post a cover reveal of this new book. About the Book:Banish the demon, stop the prophecy,…
She Sends Shivers
It is my pleasure to host this stop on Courtney Maguire’s Blood Pact blog tour. Recently released, the book is a bit paranormal, a bit romancy, and all of it fun. Here’s the teaser: About the Book: In Hiro’s world, youkai are a supernatural story…
DOGS IN COMMON
I met Yvonne Navarro in 2006 at the World Horror Convention in Chicago. I was there with my buddy Gene Wolfe, sat on a panel with him, and I had the pleasure of hanging out with Neil Gaiman … who was a buddy of Gene’s.…
The Cauldron Stirs in a SF Bonanza
Gene DeWeese was a marvelous man. Brilliant, funny, generous, a pleasure to work with, and one of the most-respected Star Trek novel authors. I was thankful to call him a good friend. I met Gene a long while ago when I organized a mass book…
Tell Me a Story
I’d read Steven’s Creature Feature and found it delightful. Then I decided to listen to it. I don’t listen to many audiobooks, mainly because my husband does not like them. When I’m playing one, he asks me to instead turn on the radio, as he’d…
HAPPY TO JOIN THE LEGION
ATINA Basically a hippopotamus, the description in the source material said. Cool beans. I could wrap my imagination around that, a hippo-like species with extra eyes and overlong arms, intense, jovial, curious, adventurous, bent on exploration. Yeah, that was my species. I’d been invited to…
23 Books Skidoo
It’s an old expression, 23 skidoo. I remember my mom using it … though I had no idea what she meant by it. I heard it yesterday on a sports broadcast and still was clueless, but the announcer had mentioned running backs with it, so…
Altered States of Middle Illinois
I lived in a dumpy apartment in a sketchy neighborhood after I graduated from college and moved to Quincy, Illinois. It was what I could afford on the starting salary of a news reporter. I didn’t know anyone when I moved to the town ……
Greg Cox is Tied-In
THE MAKING OF A MEDIA TIE-IN WRITER (AS IF I EVER HAD ANY CHOICE) A guest-blog by Greg Cox on sale now How does one end up writing new stories about other people’s characters? Looking back, it seems as though I was always destined…
Tied In With Keith
Keith DeCandido is one of the authors who contributed stories to Turning The Tied, the IAMTW’s charity anthology that releases in March. Keith R.A. DeCandido has written novels, short stories, and comic books in more than thirty different licensed universes over the past two-and-a-half decades,…
Reddick Mansion and Me
I was a guest speaker Saturday night at the Galena Library’s Lit Fest. It was a lovely online program. An annual event, it had previously been held live. I’d been invited because I won the Illinois Author Project Soon-to-be-Famous Award for my thriller, The Bone…
Black Heart of the Dragon God
It’s an awesome feeling to have a book released. Giddy, excited, a dash of proud. Black Heart of the Dragon God comes out at midnight. Oooooh! I want to hold a copy in my fingers. It has a gorgeous cover … with a dragon on…
Blonde not Blonde
My Kenosha buddy Miya is a daring soul who often colors her hair in vibrant colors. They look good on her. Since the Covid lockdown, I’ve been doing that too, trying on different shades (courtesy of a sale on such hair products on Amazon). They…
A Box of Rocks
I am a box of rocks sometimes … especially when it comes to technical things with web programs, macros, codes, and the like. More, I’m sometimes savvyless (yeah, it’s not a word, but it fits) when it comes to presentation. So I’ve been taking a…
Listening to the Night
I’ve always enjoyed jigsaw puzzles, giving me time to play with the pieces while I mentally plot whatever book I’m about to dive into. Lately, however, I find it fun to play with the puzzle pieces while I listen to a book. Never used to…
Oh, Horrors!
My buddy Steve Sullivan (Stephen D. Sullivan) has an AWESOME NEW BOOK OUT (Dr. Cushing’s Chamber of Horrors) and I read it and LOVED IT. And Amazon won’t let me post a review because they say I am biased and too-connected. Okay, they might be…
Finding Faith
SPELLS FOR THE DEAD available July 28 … Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and more Nell Ingram faces a dark magic with no known origin in the newest pulse-pounding paranormal procedural in the New York Times bestselling Soulwood series. Nell is a rookie PsyLED agent, using…
Just Wanna Write
I have all these ideas bouncing around in my head about ghosts and mysteries and murders and working a dog or two in a story and trying to figure out who the villains are and what to do to mess with the lives of the…
Feeling Good
It is wholly wonderful to finish a novel and send it into production. Makes me feel good, awesome really. Makes me want to go outside and toss tennis balls to my dogs until it seems like my arm will fall off … and that’s just…
Salty Stilettos, Fluffy Chickens, and Big Hairy Dogs
One of my favorite authors has a new book out: Salt & Stilettos, and I am blessed that she stopped by my blog today. Janet Walden-West is a marvelous writer. Crisp dialog, engaging characters, great plots. Reading one of her books keeps all the bad…
Snoopy Dancing
I entered a contest this past spring, the Soon To Be Famous Illinois Author Project. My buddy Don Bingle told me about it and encouraged me. AND … pretend you hear a drum roll … I won. Two categories for indie-published authors, Adult Fiction and…
The Lawn Chair is Empty
Wrinkles Lord of the Lawn Chair Oct 20, 2006 – Sept 16, 2019 My feet are cold; there is no dog laying across them. He was always there, Wrinkles, from the first day he arrived at my house. Always at my feet, drooling on my…
Dog Tired and Trying to Write
I have an old dog with health issues, and I get up during the night to check on him. I have a puppy that’s not yet housebroken … a youngling that needs to go outside every couple of hours. I get up for her, too.…
Five Questions (and answers)
One of the hosts for my The Dead of Summer blog tour emailed me five questions to answer. Then something happened and he couldn’t make the post. Well … I figure I might as well post it here. If you could give “Past You” one…
Back to Back to Back
I probably could have written two chapters in the time it took me to finalize what I wanted on the back cover of The Dead of Summer. I devoured posts about creating sell copy, tips for what to include and what not to include, and…
I am a FAILURE
Everyone wants to be a success, right? Succeeding is important. As a writer, I hope to produce a successful book (trying to finish the third Piper Blackwell adventure right now). In general, I want to succeed at life. But as a foster dog-mom, I am…
Writer’s Block Walks on Four Feet
I subscribe to Tim Waggoner’s newsletter. He’s a great writer, and there are always some grains of wisdom I glean by reading his missives. He tackled writer’s block in one of his recent issues. Great advice, he offered. If you’re a writer or a fan…
Judgmental Judy
Bruce and I celebrated our anniversary at the end of February with a trip to Peoria, Illinois. Nothing exotic, eh? No tropical breezes. I sooooooo would have liked a tropical breeze to chase away this hanging-on winter. But we had a great time. There was…
I am a Fish
Just try to catch me I swim in a sea of short story submissions. I’m reading the slush pile for Galaxy’s Edge Magazine. It’s a wonderful publication edited by my friend Mike Resnick. I love reading slush. It provides a nice break from writing or…