Writing
Mommy Writer
I was on my way to New York a couple of weeks ago on the 6 AM flight, looking ahead to a day of meetings. I left my five-year-old daughter back in Florida, which I rarely do. So she was very much on my mind — mainly because she put the screws to me for…
Read MoreThe Truth about Fiction
My blogger pal Erin Faye recently asked me an interesting question on Twitter. When I sat down to answer her, I found I couldn’t do it in 140 characters. Having just read DARKNESS, MY OLD FRIEND, she wanted to know if a restaurant in the novel, called Grillmarks, was a real place in New York,…
Read MoreMy First Time
Once upon a time, I was a secret writer. Writing had been my passion for as long as I could remember. But when I graduated from college, I knew I had to get a “real” job, as my father called it. (A “real job” is defined as one that pays, if not well, then at…
Read MoreUnlikely Friends
A long time ago I stopped thinking of characters as creations of my imagination, and started to understand that they are more like people who I’ve met along my colorful, complicated, ever-changing fictional journey. They come to me as they are, with their own names, personalities and spirits. Sometimes I love them, sometimes I endure…
Read MoreIt's Not Me, It's You
Like most writers, I’ve had my share of bad reviews. I’ve also had more than my share of glowing raves. Early in my career, there was so little attention to my work that the good reviews could make my day. And the bad ones could send me to bed. Over the years, after having experienced the full range of…
Read MoreClosing the Door
There’s a village in my computer — friends, fans, readers, and colleagues. It’s a populous, sometimes chaotic little burg always bustling with news, gossip, opinions and potential excitement. It’s very attractive to the writer, the quiet, semi-recluse who is often alone in her own head. When the words dry up and the blank page seems a mile long,…
Read MoreThe Heart of the Story
Once upon a time, an editor I respected and from whom I had learned quite a bit suggested, as she turned down my novel, that I make some decisions about myself. In fact, what she said precisely was, “Lisa, you have to decide what you are. Are you a literary writer? Or are you a mystery writer?” I…
Read MoreFamily Affair
Today, I was featured in the New York Times “Frequent Flier” column. Naturally, it’s exciting for a lot of reasons. But the thing about it that thrills me the most is that without Jeff and Ocean it wouldn’t have happened. The three of us do most things together, go most places together. And while this is…
Read MoreWhat's In A Name?
In DIE FOR YOU, I did something I’ve never done before. A few months before I started writing it, a librarian in Pittsburgh contacted me, asking if I would be willing to auction off a character name in my next novel. The proceeds would benefit The Friends of the Library, one of my favorite organizations.…
Read MoreInspiration for DIE FOR YOU
How well do you really know the man you married? My new novel DIE FOR YOU was inspired by the five weeks I spent in Prague during the summer of 2007. I went for a vacation with my family, intending to take some time off between books. But I was so inspired by that magnificent city, that the…
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