Here you’ll find progress on current books, behind-the-scenes insight and story inspiration, as well peeks at my life on rural, (usually) rainy East Hawaii Island.
The Blog Menu Dropdown highlights three categories, Hawaii Life(pretty self-explanatory), Stories I Love (also pretty self-explanatory, but includes books, movies, and TV), and Magpie Moments (bits I snatched from real life and incorporated, magpie-like, into my fiction).
Interested in something else? You can also Search for something specific—the little icon is at the end of the header—or just dive in and start scrolling.
I’ve mentioned before on the blog that the Stories I Love (use the Category dropdown to read all of the posts) are those where I feel a real connection with one or more of the characters. Not only that, but character trumps all for me—it’s much more important than the plot. That was driven home once again last week when we watched the latest recommendation from my Facebook Page: Endeavor. (Thanks, Maureen!) Endeavor is an ITV/Masterpiece series chronicling the early years of Inspector Morse (from the Colin Dexter books and the previous ITV series), the years before he became a Read more…
I mentioned in last week’s Blog Post that many of the books cluttering up my nightstand (and my desk, and the floor) are research books for my next project. First of all, I have to get this out of the way. Please don’t throw your mouse at me because I won’t feel it, but the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Technology might come for you… My next book is probably not going to be a Sydney Brennan book. Don’t hurt me. I love Sydney, and I have a bunch more adventures in mind for her (one scene in particular Read more…
I’m generally a fiction reader, but I’ve been hitting the nonfiction hard lately. I go through phases where I dip into half a dozen or so different books scattered around the house. A few hardcovers and an ereader will be stacked on my nightstand (along with a couple of notebooks, and pens, and receipts, and whatever else hasn’t fallen off yet). No more than one book from the “currently reading” pile will be fiction; I am constitutionally incapable of reading more than one fiction book at a time. The nonfiction books fall into subject clusters—often a book or two about writing, and the Read more…
You may remember, from when the lava stopped short of engulfing Pahoa or from the cover reveal for the previous book, that I’m not Super Stitious, but I am a Little Stitious. (I’m not a fan of The Office, but I still love that mug). Except I’m starting to think I’m more than a Little Stitious. Writers have a reputation as a superstitious lot. Because I had nothing else to do (like write this blog post) I looked up this fun list of writer superstitions (along with a gif of the Michael Scott quote). Some of the rituals of yore—number of/lucky Read more…
Check it out—me reviewing the Braving the Boneyard paperback proof at the beach recently. Yes, that is what passes for a beach in East Hawaii: a handful of black sand over hard lava rock, with a smattering of ironwood needles. (Which is why I didn’t stay there very long, lying on my thin pirate towel.) That means, barring anything crazy, you should be able to purchase the paperback from Amazon sometime next week. In the meantime, you can get a better look at the full cover on my Boneyard Pinterest Board. Careful readers will notice that we (my cover designer Read more…
