I have a very busy few weeks ahead. Malice Domestic next weekend. The release of FATAL REUNION. Pennwriters Conference. And everything that comes with real, live events.  But first, there's the preparation. Since I'm often asked about what it entails to be a writer and published author, I thought I'd post a diary of sorts here, and share what's going on behind the scenes.  Yesterday, I received my proof pages AKA galleys AKA PDF ARCs. That's a lot of letters. Basically it's the PDF file of the book with the pages laid out the way you'll see them once it's bound. Or on your e-reader.  The galleys aren't just a sneak peek for me. This is the final chance I have to fix things. Not big things. That ship has sailed. But typos, missing words or punctuation. That sort of thing. The sneak peek is one of my favorite parts of the process. Trying to find those nitpicking errors is one of my least. I've enlisted a couple of eagle-eyed friends to help, but th...

It's here! The cover for Fatal Reunion, the 11th Zoe Chambers mystery! I have to share a secret. In my mind, it's now the Zoe Adams mystery series. After all, Zoe has a new job, a new home, and a new husband in this one. But I didn't want to confuse everyone too badly with a name change. So for the sake of continuity, Zoe is keeping her maiden name.  "What's this one about?" you ask.  Here's the back cover copy: As Monongahela County’s new coroner Zoe Chambers-Adams gears up for a third day searching for a missing woman, she receives the news she’s been dreading: a body has been found. What she discovers at the scene leaves no doubt—the missing woman was violently murdered. Worse, the manner of death mirrors the Monongahela Strangler case that terrorized the county when Zoe was in high school. Those murders stopped, but the case was never satisfactorily solved. And with people arriving in town for Zoe’s twentieth high school reunion, the memories of those ...