We are solidly in the DEAD of winter. Every year, I reach a point where I proclaim (or mutter or yell, depending), "I'm sick of winter." Surprisingly, it hasn't happened yet this year. All I need to do is look at the news about what the rest of the country is going through--California is burning, snow blankets New Orleans, the southern Atlantic coast is freezing--and then I look out my frosted windows at a mere few inches of snow, which is pretty mild by Pennsylvania standards. Yes, it hit -11 yesterday morning, but I didn't have to go anywhere. Neither did my semi-retired husband. Our furnace kept the house comfy.  I have nothing worth complaining about.  Granted, that rarely stops me.  Today, I do need to set foot outside. I have kitchen scraps that need to go to the compost heap. I have a bag of trash that needs to go out to the can. I haven't made the stroll to the mailbox yet this week. But it's supposed to go "up" to 27 degrees, which will ...

There’s a lot up in the air for the coming year. I have two books (#3 and #4 in the Detective Honeywell series) coming out, but I have no titles, no covers, no release dates. I blogged last week on Writers Who Kill about how the only thing we authors have control over is writing the next book. While I will be writing #5 in the series this year, it’s not due to my editor until December, which leaves me with some wiggle room. As I teased in yesterday’s post, I have a plan. I’ve been outlining and starting to draft a standalone novel. I’m calling it a domestic suspense wrapped up in a police procedural. My intention is to have opening chapters and a synopsis ready to hand over to my agent in March, so she can start shopping it around. Then, in April, I can jump back into Matthias and Emma’s world for the rest of the year. I don’t have a lot on my “events” schedule yet. In February, I’m doing a reading with my friend Bill Gormley in Pittsburgh, but I don’t have any real details yet. In A...