Welcome to my blog!

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.

 

 

2025, The Year of the Chill Compost Rat?

Happy New Year! I can still say that, right? Aspiring to appear here at the blog more in 2025 is my version of losing twenty extra pounds. But a writer can dream. Something else that always cycles back around like clockwork… the rats in East Hawaii. We’ve seen rats intermittently since the one-year anniversary of our great Ninja Kitty’s death. (It’s not surprising that Ninja’s bad-ass spirit—or at least his reputation—outlasted his physical form.) But there appears to be a seasonal aspect to the rodent infestations, by which I mean the times they stick around and set up camp. This Read more…


How a Tech Gremlin Rekindled the Magic of Summer (Or Maybe it Was the Sunstroke)

Hey! Remember me? It’s been a while, but I’m going to do the usual thing I do with friends—pretend like it hasn’t and pick up right where we left off. 😉 So The Hubs and I spent some time traveling recently, three states (I’m counting the District of Columbia as a state here) in what felt like the blink of an eye but my calendar says definitely wasn’t. Most of our journey revolved around family, including a gorgeous wedding with all kinds of warm-and-fuzzies. Though a little too much of the warm bit. 🫠 If you’re considering a formal outdoor Read more…


Six More Mystery and Thriller Shows I’ve Enjoyed, And the Discovery of My Kevin Bacon

I’m back with five more mystery and thriller shows I enjoyed watching recently(ish), plus a BONUS NUMBER SIX. 😉 This is a post I thought I’d written—the list was already in my blog post file!—and yet, here I am sharing it (mumble, mumble) months later. That’s okay because they’re not going anywhere. Most are from the 2020s, but one is ten-plus years old. We watched on a mix of streaming services and (gasp!) DVDs. Some of you remember those, right? (Brace yourself for an admission of even older tech use below.) As always, your mileage may vary, and you can Read more…


Female Detective Fan? We’ve Got You Covered

Today, I have a something fun to help you through your mid-week slump… I’ve teamed up with 35+ fantastic authors to give away a huge collection of Female Detective Mysteries to two lucky winners! Oh, and did I mention the Grand Prize winner gets a BRAND NEW eReader? 😁   You can win books from a range of tones and tempos to suit any given mystery-reading mood, including my first-in-series PI novel, Back to Lazarus. Enter the giveaway by clicking here 👉 https://www.booksweeps.com/giveaway/female-detective-mysteries/ Good luck and enjoy!


A Check-In, with a Two Plagues Return and our New BFF

Hey… you! (This is the awkward bit where it’s been so long since we’ve seen each other, we have to dance around whether we really remember each other’s names.) I know it’s been a long time, but I’ve got some cool stuff coming up, so I wanted to drop in and say hey. Just a quick check-in, so here are some long-time-no-see conversational FAQs. 🌧️ How’s the weather? 🏔️ (That’s what everyone with snow wants to know.) A hot and dry January that left everyone’s water catchment tanks parched has transitioned into a wetter and cooler February. How cool? Our Read more…