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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Finally, the survey I promised! It’s time to vote for something that really matters and won’t cause arguments with your spouse, neighbor, bus driver, or television… 😉 But first, a little context. The fifth Sydney Brennan book, Braving the Boneyard, is in the edits stage, and I’ve decided to write a Sydney Brennan short story before tackling the next book. But what to write? The possibilities are endless. Some of the ideas I’d like to explore aren’t ripe yet. In other words, there are things that have to happen in Sydney’s world (apologies for annoying foreshadowing) before I can write Read more…
So, now that I’ve sent a draft of the latest Sydney Brennan novel, Braving the Boneyard, off to my editor, what have I been up to over the past week? All Mai Tais and pool boys? Not exactly. (Although I did track down the Mad TV Pool Boy Dance for your viewing pleasure.) I mentioned in the last post (Resolve to be Resolute, Not to Aspire) that I’m working on my writing space, and I have to say: chair mats are beyond me. The sizing seems completely arbitrary. And how does having chunks cut of the corners mean a chair Read more…
If you’re reading this as it comes out, you may have noticed that today is Monday, not Friday. Or you may still be hungover from New Year’s and not even know it’s 2016. Let me type that again to help me remember—it’s 2016. In other words, shh, don’t tell anybody… the blog is late. (Poor modifier—is there any context in which being late is a good thing?) That’s okay—you’re my peeps. I know you’ll forgive me. Especially if you just woke up and think it’s still 2015. And especially because it means I got the fifth Sydney Brennan mystery to Read more…
Hope everyone is having a pleasant holiday! We opted not to travel and to generally be low-key this year, so mine should be relaxing. Unfortunately, I keep watching the clock and calendar, feeling the pinch of approaching deadlines. I have a draft of the fifth Sydney Brennan book due to my developmental editor on January 1st. (My husband and I were brainstorming titles at breakfast this morning.) When we first set the due date a couple of weeks ago, I have to admit that I was a little disappointed, realizing I probably wouldn’t be able to release the book as Read more…
It never bodes well when you disrobe in the kitchen—while making breakfast—because there’s an ant in your pants. Yes, I literally had ant(s) in my pants. It was a fire ant, but the kind that hurts just enough to make you angry for about an hour, not one of the horrible ones. But really, it’s been that kind of week. That’s why this week’s blog post will be light, because of the [cue scary music] Holiday Convergence. I’m sure you’ve all experienced those times, when things come together in your life to make a perfect storm of high stress and low Read more…
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