I will admit it . . . I was completely jazzed when I learned there’s a Sherlock Holmes movie coming out on Christmas day. Holmes! The world’s most famous detective! MY favorite detective of all times! Holmes is the reason I started reading mysteries, the reason I started writing them.
Oh yes, [...]

A couple weeks ago, I published the winners of a newspaper contest on making up new words. And that got me thinking about how language is constantly changing and how all of us–as readers and writers–need to keep up with the latest and the greatest.
In keeping with that thought, here are the newest words [...]

There’s a lot to be said for having multiple personalities.
That is, if you’re a writer!
As an author, I’ve had a chance to write both historical and contemporary romance (as Constance Laux and Connie Lane), YA horror (I was Connie Laux and Zoe Daniels for those gigs), and even a book for kids (written under the [...]

I’m too busy to write this.
You’re too busy to read this.
So let’s just leave it at Happy Thanksgiving!

These are just too much fun not to share. Here are the winners of the Washington Post neologism contest in which readers were asked to supply alternate meanings for common words.
1. Coffee (n.), the person upon whom one coughs.
2. Flabbergasted (adj.), appalled over how much weight you have gained.
3. Abdicate (v.), to give up [...]

Our instructions were really pretty simple:
#1 Stay together with your investigation group. After all, we were in a city cemetery in the middle of the night. It would be easy to get turned around, and easier still to slip or trip on a headstone hidden under the fallen leaves.
#2 Don’t provoke. Although a lot [...]

Do you believe in ghosts?
Last Sunday night, I met up with a group called The Shadow Seekers who are not only believers, but they’re working to prove the existence of spirits. They were kind enough to invite us along on a paranormal investigation at a historic cemetery.
For the record (and as if you don’t [...]

Since ghosts inhabit my Pepper Martin mystery series and Halloween is my favorite day of the year, it only seems fitting to run a quiz all about the holiday! Try your luck and see how much you know about October 31.
1. Is a pumpkin a fruit or a vegetable?
a) fruit
b) vegetable
c) Can I saw “all of [...]

Back from Bouchercon, the World Mystery Conference, and so glad I went! It was a hectic couple days, and because of a book signing in Cleveland on Saturday, I had to leave early, but it was well worth the drive to Indianapolis for such a great conference.
My favorite parts? Well, I got to [...]

What could be more perfect for an author who writes books set in cemeteries than to sign books in a cemetery?
I had the chance–and a perfect book signing–at Monroe Street Cemetery in Cleveland this past Sunday thanks to the Monroe Street Cemetery Foundation, a dedicated group of volunteers who work to keep the 13-acre cemetery [...]