Posts by Lisa Unger
The Lost Girl
The theme of “the lost girl” is something I find surfacing in my work again and again. She turns up missing, murdered, abused, neglected. She’s helpless, powerless, unable to circumvent the horrible things that befall her. In earlier novels, my protagonist true crime author Lydia Strong* has an obsession with lost girls, never realizing until…
Read MoreAm I Really Blogging About My Blog?
Currently, I blog the way I take supplements, that is to say infrequently but with great earnestness and optimism. I enjoy the idea of blogging, the concept that I might muse about the issues I face daily – the writing life, the mother-writer balance, the joys and pains of my chosen profession. Notes from the…
Read MoreThe Talented Ms. Highsmith
Patricia Highsmith In some ways, I suppose I have always felt a bit alienated by noir fiction, although I adore that smoky, mysterious atmosphere — the hourglass-shaped dame half in the shadows, the cigarette dangling from pouting lips, the impossibly virile man with a gun and a low ball of whiskey. My early exposure to…
Read MoreAspiring Writer to Published Author | The Journey
I used to give this talk with some regularity when I first went from being an aspiring writer to a published author. I chose this topic because my journey is somewhat unique, because I have a great deal of experience in the publishing industry, and because initially people weren’t that interested in hearing from an…
Read MoreEnemy At The Baby Gate
Like generals heading into battle my husband Jeffrey and I prepared for every possible condition in readying ourselves for the arrival of our daughter. Overwhelmed by the horror stories of those who’d headed into the fray before us, there was no attack — from colic to breastfeeding issues, from sleep deprivation to sexual starvation —…
Read MoreA HELL OF A WOMAN: An Anthology of Female Noir
When Dave Thompson, owner of one of my favorite independent booksellers in the country, Murder by the Book in Houston, asked me to contribute to a forthcoming anthology called A HELL OF A WOMAN, I jumped at the chance. A HELL OF A WOMAN: An Anthology of Female Noir will be published by Busted Flush Press…
Read MoreRidley Jones Crosses the Pond
Ridley Jones is a globetrotter, we know this. One might find her in France, Germany, The Netherlands, to name just a few of the places publishing her adventures. Thanks to the stellar foreign rights people at Crown, BEAUTIFUL LIES and SLIVER OF TRUTH have been sold in 26 territories and counting. So I am thrilled…
Read MoreBlindsided by a Diaper
Ocean Rae … a delicious, juicy strawberry of a child, a Tasmanian devil, a tumble of kisses and hugs, my own tiny hurricane. I worship her, dream about her, can’t remember who I was before she arrived. It has been nearly eighteen months since our daughter was born and to say nothing has ever been…
Read MoreBooks That Changed My Life
Late last year I was asked to write a piece for The Sun-Herald in Victoria, Australia about the books that changed my life. I have loved so many types of books since I was a child that I found this very difficult – as though I’d been asked to say which people in my life…
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