Anyone who studied American history in grade school or high school will have experienced disgust and sorrow. Those in the Donner Party braved a terrible trip in want of a better life in California, where they were headed. Unfortunately, they decided to take a short cut. They were fathers, mothers, and children and not desperadoes. The tragedy and the will to survive was unimaginable.
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...
As a crime writer I was always going to be influenced by my own loves, by my own history. Of course throwing a bunch of references into a book is self-indulgent, but self-indulgence is a lot of fun sometimes. Here are a few that snuck in.
Sometimes, when I terrify myself writing murder scenes in my dark, creaking house in the middle of the night, I have to give the lab puppy by my side a little pat. I've adored labs and their golden retriever cousins since I puppy-raised Jiny, a Golden...
I admire the ancient cultures of the Americas very much and I am always happy when a story gives me a chance to highlight their achievements and the things they have to teach the rest of us. In Catacombs, I continue with that theme by centering the book around a conference celebrating indigenous art that brings together people indigenous to the Americas with immigrants and descendants of immigrants from Asia, Africa, and Europe. Humanity has created so many things worth celebrating.
I just sit down and write watching my characters evolve. I do not have much of a plan for the place, characters, and plot before I begin writing. I also do not sign up front contracts. For heaven’s sake I am eighty years old and didn’t start writing until I was 65. After five years, at the age of seventy, by a string of miracles, my book was picked up by a literary agent. I have been writing ever since.
