New new new...

Today my new website is live!

New. Fresh. Clean. I love new. The smell of tissue paper that comes in a new pair of shoes. A candle that has never been lit. The fizz of a fresh bottle of seltzer. New is a start, a fresh start. This time of year we’re doing lots of lasts… finishing things up, closing the books. There’s something satisfying about that as well, but new… there’s just not like new.

I just love new.

Winter's Coffee Obsession

Americans are obsessed with their coffee. I can’t count the times every day that I thumb through social media or Pinterest and see some design in that white foam. Don’t get me wrong. I LOVE my coffee. Growing up, my mom owned a coffee cart inside San Francisco’s federal building. These were early days of the latte—before Starbucks was born. Can you think back that long? But Peet’s was around and when I started drinking coffee (sneaking it as a sophomore in high school and loading it with half and half and sugar), I was drinking Peet’s. And not just Peet’s, which is still the strongest coffee I’ve ever tasted—my dad made it with extra heaps of coffee. “If the spoon doesn’t stand up, it’s not coffee.”

In the summer months, I drink a cup or cup and a half and, by then, the day is warm and coffee loses it’s appeal. I’m not an iced coffee drinker, thank goodness. I would literally pound that stuff and bounce off walls.

But in winter…. I’m OBSESSED. It was mochas, then lattes, then peppermint mochas, then vanilla lattes, then soy vanilla lattes, then cappuccinos. Now, it’s a turmeric latte… huh? I’m afraid it’s not at Starbucks (yet!), but it’s kind of like chai only not as sweet—turmeric and cinnamon goodness, it is truly a new type of heaven.

Until the next thing, of course…

Am I'm stubborn? Or determined...?

As a kid, I was told I was stubborn. Mostly this declaration came from my parents and coaches or teachers but occasionally by others as well. My parents’ friends, people in church, folks at the grocery store, babysitters, in clothing stores, at the gas station and the convenience store… well, you get the picture. I was told this A LOT.

This was NEVER a compliment.

Now I’ve got one of those myself—a stubborn son. He’s almost 17. He’s supposed to be stubborn, or that’s what I tell myself when I want to tear out my hair.

But the older I got, the more the terminology shifted from “stubborn” to “determined” or “persistent.” (My husband will still call me stubborn.. and of course my parents. And they aren’t totally wrong… ;)

At what point does stubbornness shift balance to determination?

Is it like the thing where, as a kid on your birthday, you always hoped people would guess you were OLDER than you were… and if they do that to me now, I’m like, “OH, NO YOU DID NOT!!”

Who is that baby?

It was 19 years ago today that I deposited my first royalty check as an author. It probably goes without saying that it wasn’t a very big check. It wouldn’t cover a month of rent in San Francisco today and it barely covered much back then.

But… my husband and I went to dinner at the Outback Steakhouse to celebrate. I was pregnant with our daughter and craving a blooming onion. If you’ve been to the Outback Steakhouse, you know exactly what I mean.

Hard to believe it was 19 years ago and then I look at my first publicity photo and think,

Who is that baby?!?

1999 Publicity Photo

Huffing for Stuffing

The holidays are about to launch…

My new book proposal is off to my agent(!!)

My daughter is on a plane, heading home from her first semester of college

I’m madly processing laundry and organizing the house (I’d say cleaning but that would be total fiction)

The next week is about reading, relaxing and spending time with close friends because our families are far away, spread across the two coasts…

Our sweet town has a run on the morning of Thanksgiving in support of the local food bank. Huffing for Stuffing. My family usually travels east for the holiday so we’ve never been able to attend. This is our year!!

I figure it I run 5K, I can have a second piece of pie… right? 

Because let’s be honest…

It’s all about the pie.

Too old to dress up? Impossible!

I LOVE dressing up for Halloween. Maybe it’s because my brain is always full of crazy characters and it’s fun to act them out. Or maybe it’s because I spend my days alone in the basement which leaves me starving for human attention.

Whatever the reason, I LOVE LOVE LOVE it. But I have a problem with following directions. (This is true in other areas as well.)

In Halloween costuming, it means I throw something together. I find a crazy feather wreath and turn it into a hat or buy a pair of fake leather pants on super sale and need a way to wear them… Attach a black crow to my arm (not a real one, mind you)

This is SO much fun for me until that moment when someone dressed as an Incredible or a Minion or Peter Pan asks, “What are you?”

To which, I have no good answer… “Uh… crazy raven witch? Bird lady in mourning? Post-apocalyptic Sandra Dee?!”

See below for a close up of my arm ornament which almost put out the eyes of a dozen children. Oops!

Series Sucker...

I'm a sucker for a series...

and I LOVE when I discover one where there is more than one book out so I can dive from book #1 right into book #2. The Rachel Carver series is exactly that kind. Rachel Carver is smart, strong while also tender, in the middle of a huge life transition and a little broken--the best kind of character. I loved getting to know her in AMONG THE DEAD and then it was like having dinner with an old friend in DOWN THE BROKEN ROAD. ('cause i read it in one sitting) 

Check them out if you haven't already. Plus, the author, Jason, is a really nice guy. That matters, doesn't it?! (It should… ;)

Spatter vs Splatter

It's getting to be the end of my writing day. I'm working on the next book in the Dr. Schwartzman series and today, I'm thinking about blood spatter.

Not splatter. According to MW, "splatter" means to fall or drop as in spots. Spatter, on the other hand, means "to spurt forth in scattered drops, as in blood spattering everywhere." Or "to splash with or as if with a liquid."

To spurt forth, to splash. Now apply that to blood. Blood spurting and splashing.

There's an image, right?

Well, that's the one in my mind right now.

And I'm thinking maybe white wine with dinner tonight...?

Career Authors Guest Post

I consider myself a plot-driven writer. Nothing gets me more jazzed than a twisted murder committed by a shadowy villain. That’s no doubt a good thing for a suspense author. After all, plot is what we hear about most often when readers talk about great thrillers—books that grab them from page one and won’t let them go: this happened and this happened, and it was all so fast and furious.

I can come up with sensational, action-packed stories. So that should make my books brilliant. And so easy to write. Yay, me, right? Except that plot—even brilliant plot—is only half of the equation.

Say what?

What your reader still needs

Creating a memorable story requires a memorable protagonist. She need not be particularly likable or strong or smart… or particularly anything, but the reader must be able to identify with her. And most importantly, the protagonist must fit the story.

Think about it. Plot isn’t what makes us fall in love with stories. What engages us as readers is the journey, riding alongside the protagonist. When absolutely engrossed in the story, we become the protagonist. We bond with them. Seem weird? It’s true.

Even stranger, the bond we form with the characters in a book isn’t just in our minds; it actually circulates through our entire bodies.

Come again?

The science of fiction

Science has proven that stories alter our neurochemistry. When fictional characters interact, our bodies release oxytocin, a neuropeptide first found in nursing mothers that turns up whenever humans feel close to each other. When you read a good story, your body creates a bonding transmitter.

Alone no more

It doesn’t matter if you’re home by yourself in the den with a book. The act of reading makes us step into the place of the character—most often the narrator—and we actually experience that other reality. When characters encounter stress or conflict, we release cortisol, a chemical related to stress response. A happy ending in the story makes our bodies release dopamine. We feel what the characters feel.

What does this have to do with plot?

When we are under the spell of a gripping story, we change with the character. Her perspective becomes the way we see the world, too. To make that possible, the reader has to understand the motivation for what a character does—her choices. Only in understanding the protagonist do her actions have meaning. This understanding is what makes us care. The way our bodies react to a Harry Potter book, for instance, stems from knowing Harry’s plight—the death of his parents, the attack that left him scarred, and all that is still at risk for him while, internally, he yearns for family and home.

Character is key

The character is the reader’s guide, the person we accompany in a whirlwind plot. And we won’t join if the character doesn’t fully engage us. Because we don’t bond. Despite all the hoopla about a brilliant plot, story happens internally, not externally. We don’t come to a story simply to watch events unfold.

We come to experience that story through its characters.

You may come up with a hugely brilliant plot. But for it to succeed, you must find the right character to guide your reader, a character who makes your plot come alive, whose quandaries and challenges grip the reader and won’t let go.

Pick your character carefully.

I've lost count...

I'm reworking a book that I published 5 years ago. This is not something I recommend ever doing, but here I am. I don't consider myself a perfectionist. I think it would be near impossible to ever send a book out if I was obsessed with perfection. Which doesn't exist, by the way. There's always some little thing that comes up after the book is out. Or sometimes multiple little things... Like dozens of them.

But this book is different. Written after I left Penguin Putnam and before I came to publish with Thomas & Mercer, it was a lone venture. And I don't recommend those. It takes eyes--multiple sets of them--to make a book great. And it takes another set of hands to pry it away from you so that it can go out into the world.

You're not supposed to look back after that.

But I have to.

Just this once.

And then I'll be done... For real.