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...
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....
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...
Today, in Memphis, we met a fun new couple who have been leaders in Memphis for decades and live in our downtown neighborhood. How? We went to a coffee shop, in Memphis.
Today, in Memphis, I had lunch where one of the most accomplished, energetic, enthusiastic women I’ve ever met, and we plotted to end homelessness and world domination...
I spent eight years assisting those who were experiencing homelessness to get their voices into the world. So I am acutely aware that in my short story, The Yellow Line, I am writing in the voice of a woman whose experiences I cannot actually know. But Leroy Scott, one of the authors of Writing Our Way Home: A Group Journey Out of Homelessness,...
In the last five days, I’ve:
Approved the final back cover for MODEL FOR DECEPTION, my next and second novel I’ll be releasing, and worked with the graphics person on formatting its content and taming a Table of Contents that, when properly formatted, ran on for 5 pages….sheesh.
Finished the final manuscript revisions to THE HART WOMEN, the...
I have been grappling with—what the hell, that makes it sound so sophisticated; I’ve been moping around the house wondering—the “Why?” question. Actually, it’s a “What?” question. What am I doing with my life right now that matters?
When I was facilitating the Door of Hope Writing Group, the answer to this...
I have lived in shock for a year. I could not believe that a man who put himself at the center of the universe and tore down everyone around him in the ugliest manner possible had been elevated to the presidency. The vote of my fellow and sister Americans sanctioning his behavior felt like gaslighting, an attempt to convince me that all I saw...
