SinC NorCal got lucky. Jane Friedman, whose publishing advice is invaluable, was in town to address a publishers group. We got some of her time. Clear, concise, and totally approachable, she offered a big picture—and lots of graphic slides--of where publishing is going. We were … [Read more...]

James L’Etoile, whose latest crime fiction is Darkness Falls, presented Sisters in Crime NorCal and friends with a “master class” in how prisons work. His father worked in the California Department of Corrections and, before he devoted himself to crime fiction, James did, too, as … [Read more...]

Catriona McPherson, whose books and personality are full of humor, really knows how to plant clues and red herrings. In her Sisters in Crime NorCal talk, McPherson “clued” us in with lots of great examples of when and how to plant those gems that keep us turning pages. Most … [Read more...]

Four of us Sibylline Press mystery writers got together at Left Coast Crime, one of the big mystery conferences. This year LCC was held in San Francisco. Next year’s LCC will be in Santa Fe and I’ll be there with Deceit in the City of Masks, Book 1 in my 16th-century Blood & … [Read more...]

In addition to writing 16th-century mysteries set in the eastern Mediterranean, I’m on the steering committee for the Silicon Valley chapter of Dayenu: a Jewish Call to Climate Action. I presented a program showing what we’ve been doing to protect our climate. One of the bills … [Read more...]