Category Archives: books

My First Official Appearance as a Mystery Author

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San Diego Mystery Club Appearance

This was taken at the San Diego Mystery Club meeting in November.  I’m happy to say I’ve lost a full dress size since then, but quite pleased with how cleverly (and kindly) the photographer (thank you, Bill!) hid my butt with a copy of the book cover.   I’m gonna have him photoshop all future unflattering photos!   This picture was taken five minutes after arriving at the hotel restaurant where SDMC holds their monthly meetings.  We were fresh off the plane, which was delayed over an hour, and our Avis rental car.  I drove in record time from Charles Limburgh Airport to Hotel Circle South, arriving at the meeting minutes before dinner was served.  The lovely hostess took one look at my frazzled expression and handed me a glass of wine, which you see in my hand. 

Gearing up for the Great Blog Book Tour of 2008!

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Dang me, this blog book tour thing is a lot of work!  I was told by the Yoda of Blogbooktour.blogspot.com (that would be Dani) that I need to put a sitemeter on my blog.  The secret of adding this sitemeter is hidden somewhere in my WordPress dashboard, possibily under ‘widgets.’   I have gone my entire life without the need for widgets (which rhymes with ‘midgets’, ‘fidgets’ and ‘gidgets’, doncha know…) and suddenly I’m forced to explore this strange new world of cyberstuff.

Widgets.

Feh.

Upcoming Blog Tour

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Yes, that’s right.  I’m actually going to DO this blog book tour I’ve been dropping hints about for the last month!  It’s going to start the Monday of the third week of January.  If I had a calendar nearbye, I’d give you the date.  but I don’t and I have felines lounging on me and can’t get up to check.   Does this make me lazy?  Perhaps.  Or does it make me a good mother?  I prefer to look at it that way.

So I’m gonna be doing interviews and guest posts at…six different blogs, hosted by six diversely talented writers and bloggers.  Still working out the logistics, but we will be having several drawing for free copies of my book, MURDER FOR HIRE: The Peruvian Pigeon.  If you win, you’ll have to bake your own chocolate chip cookies to eat while reading it, but the book itself will be free.

I will be posting a schedule with the dates and urls of the blogs I’ll be visiting and hope you’ll stop by all of them and check it out!

It’s Meme Time!

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I’m still not entirely sure what a meme is (I could google it, but I’m too lazy…), but I’ve been sent one by Dani at HotButtonPress and I have vowed to do this.  And then it will be sent to other bloggers.  HAHAHAHAH!!!!!    So…now it begins.

What have you just read?

I have just read the first two Bloodline books by Tanya Huff, Shopaholic and Baby by…by the gal that writes those books and my mind is blanking…, A Latte Trouble by Cleo Coyle, and lots of other books.  I read on the Muni every day, read when I walk anywhere and lose track of what I’ve read.

 What are you reading now?

Now I’m reading… what am I reading?  Ah yes, Designer Knockoff, a fun mystery set in Washington D.C. with reporter  Lacey Smithsonian as the protaganist.  It took me a while to get into it, but now I’m loving it.  Lots of cool vintage clothing details, a sassy heroine reminiscent of a Hepburn character, and an intriguing plot.
Do you have any idea what you’ll read when you’re done with that?
The next Tanya Huff Bloodline book.

What’s the worst thing you were ever forced to read?

Urm…  I have never been forced to read anything.  I actually seek out bad writing.  We’re talking SHOWGIRLS bad.  So bad that it’s fun.  I have a book by D.B. Patterson (a zombie book) that’s so badly written, it’s now a party game with my friends.  We open it and read a paragraph at random.  Bliss…

What’s one book you always recommend to just about anyone?

well…Murder for Hire, of course!  🙂  Seriously, it depends on the person, their interests and the genre.  For horror, WHERE THE CHILL WAITS by T. Chris Martindale.  It inspired my very first (one of two) fan letters.

Admit it, sadly the librarians at your library know you on a first name basis, don’t they?

Even MORE sadly, no.  I just started going to the library in San Francisco.

Is there a book you absolutely love, but for some reason, people never think it sounds interesting, or maybe they read it and don’t like it at all?

Nope.  I have impeccable taste.  Good AND bad.


Do you read books while you eat?While you bath?
While you watch movies or TV?
While you listen to music?
While you’re on the computer?

Yes to all of the above.  I love to read.  If the movie is really good,  I won’t read.  But I read when I walk.  I love to read and find every opportunity possible.


When you were little did other children tease you about your reading habits?

Nope.


What’s the last thing you stayed up half the night reading because it was so good you couldn’t put it down?

Sigh…the last Harry Potter book.


Have any books made you cry?

If I’m in the right (or wrong) frame of mind, anything will make me cry.

Okay then.  Time for me to tag my blogger pals!

Reliving my childhood

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Or at least parts of it.  The parts when I was shy and awkward.  I used to be a very friendly, open kid who’d make friends anywhere.  But after a few negative experiences dealing with the kind of casual cruelty that kids specialize in, I became a lot more hesitant about approaching people and spent quite a few parties hiding out in corners.  I outgrew that over time and have had relatively few awkward moments in my adulthood as far as interacting with strangers, but today at the Mystery Writers of America/Sisters in Crime holiday party at M is for Mystery Bookstore, I had about an hour of pure, agonizing shyness, straight out of grade school.  I clutched my glass of wine with one hand, Dave’s arm with the other and felt my heartrate speed up as I began to hyperventilate and wonder what the hell I was doing there.  I vanished behind a long row of bookshelves and tried to get control of my breathing and stop myself from making a hasty escape back to the car.

It got better.  A very kind woman, Susan S. (webmistress for MWA) took me under her wing and introduced me around to a few people.  The ice melted, my breathing returned to normal and I ended up having a great time.  Sold a few books, bought some and had them signed by the authors, and am really looking forward to the next SinC event.   But tonight was an object lesson to me that we may grow older, but we never really leave our childhood behind, both the good bits and the bad. 

Morning Glass, Adventures of a Legendary Waterman, by Mike Doyle

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I just finished the above titled book by Mike Doyle, legendary surfer and all around waterman. Doyle was one of the original crowd at Malibu and, as I found out from reading his autobiography, the book and subsequent movie BIG WEDNESDAY (directed by John Milius) were based on Doyle and the other surfers at Malibu during the uncrowded, halcyon days of the late ’50s.

I loved this book. Written in a matter-of-fact, totally non-judgemental voice, Doyle captures the joy of surfing and shares the adventures, triumphs and failures of his life in an honest and inspirational way. I would recommend MORNING GLASS to surfers and non-surfers alike – anyone going through a life crisis will benefit from Doyle’s story. He’s living proof that you can change paths at any point in your life and find happieness and success. A real testiment to ‘follow your bliss and success will follow.’

Unfortunately the book is now out of print and copies are going anywhere from $50 to $200 bucks. I lucked out and found a copy for $20 on Half.com, but it was the only one below the $50 price point.