Climbing Trees In the Rain - Encouragement for Your Writing (and other) Goals. Writing is a journey - a put one word in front of the other adventure. And it takes persistence. Lots of persistence. I thought I might share with you this story about my daughter's service dog as a way to illustrate what that means. When Bear was a very little bear, he set out on his hero’s journey. As his “mom” it was my job to give him the tools for success. Two of the major tools for a DAD

People often ask writers where they get their ideas. The answer is “everywhere.” Here’s one specific example: I read a marvelous article in the Richmond newspaper about twin brothers who made moonshine in the 1950s and 60s when it was illegal in Virginia. Being identical twins helped whenever they reached a courtroom, because witnesses couldn’t identify the accused for certain. Which brother was it? They couldn’t say for sure. That gives me a good idea for a plot device: havi

I’ve been writing crafty mysteries for awhile now. I’ve noticed that some folks tend to disregard “cozy” mysteries, and especially craft-themed mysteries. Once I had a lovely conversation with a writer at an event and later when he visited my book table, he picked up my book, put in back down, glanced away awkwardly, and left my table. I’ve seen him a few times since and he never really speaks to me. And you know what? It hurt. But I’m over it. Just like my mom used to say, “

I incorporate a lot of forensic science into my novels. Lots of readers like the CSI stuff, but for anyone interested in writing crime fiction, knowing the standard techniques for establishing the time of death for your victims and the post mortem interval (PMI) are important. Note that the two are not always equal. Establishing the time of death has its own methodology (such as: rigor mortis, algo mortis, livor mortis, etc.). To establish PMI, the time interval is restricted