Normally thought of as a fly-over state, my home state of Iowa has been a wonderful place to grow up and then raise our three children. I love it so much that all of my novels are set here and include a mix of real and fictionalized Iowa locales. In celebration of...
Trying to write an original serial killer story is a nightmare. Thomas Harris’s novels of the eighties are a touchstone for this thriller sub-genre, and hundreds of authors have attempted to replicate his gothic formula of gruesome murders by deviant,...
When I’m looking for writing inspiration, first and foremost I’ll turn to my bookshelf. But second? I’ll turn to my television. Movies and prose fiction are close relatives, in my opinion, and there’s much that writers can learn from their silver-screen...
When my British mother slipped on an apron, four active, hungry children knew food was on the way. And her shout to don our hand-stitched “pinnies,” was as clear a call to dinner as any bell. As I write this, I realize something obvious but never questioned. My...
When I was a little girl, I used to watch "The Perry Mason Show" with my stepfather, and I was not allowed to say a word until the commercials. My stepdad was a lawyer, and apparently wanted to hear every word. Even though I didn’t understand much of it, I fell in...
Let’s go with the old journalism five Ws. What: You know them, collective nouns, also known as terms of venery, are those singular words we use to label groups of things, like a pride of lions, a school of fish or a quiver of arrows. When they are familiar we...
