I am traveling this week, my dears–off to Malice Domestic in the Washington DC area (Bethesda, to be accurate) and then to NYC! I’ll be appearing at Malice and also doing a reading in NY at Lady Jane’s Salon at Madame X on May 2, so please check the links on my Appearances page for…

If you’re in the DC or NYC areas, I’m heading your way! I have a panel discussion and signing on Sunday, May 1, at Malice Domestic. Monday, May 2, I’m reading at Lady Jane’s Salon in NYC. Check out the details in the links on my Appearances page. Hope to see you there!

I am getting ready to hit the road, folks–a perfect time to take a reader question on the subject of travel. A reader from Twitter who posts as Jasmine and Ginger asked: You’ve covered quite a few eras. What inspires you about them? How do you keep track of characters who overlap? Writing in both…

Just an extra post because I went on a little rant on Twitter and decided it was worth putting up here as well. Mother’s Day, my dears. It’s almost here, which means that the internet is awash with listicles suggesting gifts. And they are dire. I saw one featuring narwhal slippers–giant stuffed animals you wear…

I received an email from reader Nancy a few years back which prompted me to write about Elizabeth Bennet–a character I love so wholeheartedly that I gave my daughter “Elizabeth” as a middle name. I even love her in PRIDE & PREJUDICE & ZOMBIES. She is, in short, a most admirable creature. Here is how…

I am at a writerly retreat this week, doing writerly things, so it’s a good time to answer reader questions. Jenae tweeted: Your characters are so beautifully complex. How do you develop them? First, thanks! Very kind. Second, I don’t think of them as characters, I suppose. They’re not two-dimensional to me, and they don’t…

This week I’m at my very first writers’ retreat, hopefully planting fields and fields of tidy, cultivated prose for you. Can you tell I’m excited? I get to geek out and play with WORDS, y’all. I have packed all my writing kimonos–yes, I know that’s not the proper plural–and several different projects I intend to…

Reposting this piece on travel/research because this came up at an appearance I just did, and this is a MUCH more involved response than the one I was able to give. One of the questions I get a fair amount is whether or not it’s necessary to travel to a setting in order to write…

Here’s a question I received from reader Jessica. Reposting the response because it’s actually a question I get asked rather a lot… What’s the process you follow when writing a mystery? Do you know the answer (who done it) and work backwards, or do you let the characters lead to you the answer? For me,…

Nope, not channeling Santa, but a Twitter reader asked if I would give a checklist for polishing a manuscript before querying an agent. Well, certainly! But a caveat: this is what would work for me. Your mileage, as ever, may vary. Nothing I tell you is ever chiseled in stone except as it applies to…