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).
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Last month, I had an email from an always insightful marketing guy talking about Brussels sprouts. He’d believed he hated the vegetable until a girlfriend convinced him to try them at a restaurant. The verdict: amazing. Now, properly prepared, he considers them a treat. (By the way, the itty bitty brassicas are actually Brussels—not brussel—sprouts, as they were named for the Belgian capital. You’re welcome.) I’m okay with Brussels sprouts and just about any other vegetable, but I generally don’t love fruit. (Lychee and dragonfruit are exceptions.) Shocking, I know, but it’s not like I’m a chef or nutritionist. I Read more…
I’m participating in a giveaway with a bunch of other authors–almost fifty books in multiple genres (mystery, sci fi, urban fantasy, romance) that are all free. You don’t have to join a mailing list to download the books. Just pick them up for free from your favorite retailer. Among the stories on offer is my own novel, Back to Lazarus. The first book in the Sydney Brennan PI mysteries, it is regular $3.99 but now free for a limited time. She’s investigating a suspicious prison suicide. Someone’s determined to hide the truth… North Florida, 2004. Private Investigator Sydney Brennan cut Read more…
The next, long-awaited installment in the Sydney Brennan PI Mysteries, Memory Lane, is available for pre-order. Woo-hoo! Until its release, I’ll be continuing the Getting to Know Sydney (Again) campaign here at the blog and in my Newsletter, wherein I re-introduce you to your favorite Tallahassee private investigator. I’ve been pinning old—I mean, classic—posts about the series to the top of the blog as I reread the books. Be sure to check those out. But since I’ve been focused on Book Two lately, I feel like there’s something I need to add to the conversation. Let’s call it an authorial Read more…
Hey, remember me? I know it’s been a while, but I wanted to drop in and let you know that I’m still here. Mostly. How many of us started January with confidence and optimism, or at least the thought that, surely this year has to be better? You may recall that even after 200+ inches of rain here in 2021, I was trying to be cautiously optimistic about the future. (See Dog Pee and Avocado Blossoms.) That is, until the shit show that is 2022 exploded all over us in earnest. Not to make light of the ongoing global atrocities, Read more…
Aloha, my daydreaming snowbound friends! Last post, I shared a bit of the reality of living in East Hawaii with you, specifically that we received (there’s that deceptively grateful word again) 17.5 FEET of rain last year. Seriously. Well, in true contrarian fashion, our normally rainy January has been quite dry. So dry that I’ve started regularly (dysfunctionally?) laying a hand against our catchment tank to check the water level when I feed the fish in the evening. (Don’t worry—we still have plenty of water; I just like to be reassured that we still have plenty of water.) It has Read more…
