I wrote the first Coot Long mystery in between double hip replacements.
My left hip was replaced in January of 2015. As I recovered (once I got to the point I could focus), I lay in bed flat on my back so the new hip wouldn’t wrench out of the socket, and I read mysteries.
Before I went under the knife, I’d solicited mystery...
Most people read blogs to learn from them. But it works the other way around too: the person writing a blog learns from the process, the readers, the stats, the comments. Today, I’ll share with you some of the pearls of wisdom I’ve learned from writing this blog:
If you put “naked” in the title of a post, you get a LOT...
HARBORING EVIL has gone to acquisition editors at publishing houses.
Now the editors have to read it.
And like it.
And want to buy it.
The flame burns hot.
She was young, the same delicate age as my vulnerable grandson is now. Full of pip, but spindly arms and legs, no bigger than a minute. All she’d ever known was the lapping of the Gulf, innocent of actual waves. Even so, had she grown up with the Atlantic, it wouldn’t have mattered.
A riptide is a riptide.
We were exploring our...
Oh, y’all. I’m worn out. In the last 3 days, I’ve incorporated massive revisions to HARBORING EVIL that were sent by the agent. I’ve also revised its long synopsis, drafted a short synopsis (shorter is SO much harder.) Drafted a long synopsis for Harboring Malice, hopefully the second installment in the series, and drafted...
I just sent the revised HARBORING EVIL manuscript to my agent. She had some great suggestions for improving the plot, which sounded simple when she described them, which didn’t turn out to be simple at all. But I feel the story is more mature, the characters more memorable. We shall see if she agrees.
HARBORING EVIL is a traditional mystery....
Each time we appeared in public, we wore fewer clothes. My sister, my cousin and I – Redbird Brain Productions – hit Capital Street the first time in long dresses, flouncy skirts and, for me, a full-length carrot costume. We were “Goon With the Wind,” a walking-float in the annual St. Paddy’s Day Parade. When we rounded the corner, 75,000 people...
I pride myself on being independent. Ever since I was a little girl, my mantra has been, I can do it myself. Or more accurately, let me do it my way. Which often leads to forging new paths, which often means doing it myself. But a miracle in my literary life has occurred: I’ve gotten an agent, and I don’t feel so all alone.
My...
I like flowers that stink. But then, growing up, I loved the smell of dry cleaning fluid that seeped through my grandparent’s Everyready Cleaners. Driving to their house, when we passed the linseed plant, I’d roll the window to suck in the sickly sweet air. Unwatched, I’d crawl into the back dash of Mamo’s Dodge to get close to the hot cardboard...
Carson McCullers? Eudora Welty? What better company could I ask to be in?
Take a minute and read the wonderful review Susan Cushman wrote on THE HART WOMEN. Plus, read all the way to the blog Comments on for more on this gem:
“An intergenerational story set in Mississippi, I was intrigued from the first page and finished the entire...
