What's It Worth to You?

In the controversy over e-book pricing, it might be important to recall that when you buy a book, the form it takes is the least important element of the purchase.  You are buying a story, a work of art.  It takes the author a year (or sometimes much longer) to create something that will transport,…

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So You Want to be a Writer …

I spent this past weekend at Sleuthfest, one of Florida’s best writers conferences.  It was a dynamic gathering of writers, professional and aspiring, as well as some of the most important agents and editors in the business.  I was struck that it’s probably one of the best things you can do as an aspiring writer, spend…

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The Ones That Got Away

I take the business of endorsing other authors very seriously, because I feel so fortunate to have had support from some of the most important writers working today.  Harlan Coben, Lee Child, Michael Connelly, Laura Lippman, Karin Slaughter, Tess Gerritsen, Lisa Gardner, Jeff Abbott, and other fantastic authors have all taken the time to read…

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FRAGILE has been optioned for film by TNT!

TNT has optioned FRAGILE to be part of its new Mystery Movie Night!  On November 29th, Scott Turow’s Innocent will launch a series of contemporary crime dramas that will include Lisa Gardner’s Hide, Sandra Brown’s Ricochet, Richard North Patterson’s Silent Witness, April Smith’s Good Morning, Killer, and Mary & Carol Higgins Clark Deck the Halls.…

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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…

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The 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,…

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My Secret Identity

In a little more than three weeks, my tenth novel DARKNESS, MY OLD FRIEND will go on sale.  You didn’t know I had ten novels, did you?  Well, once upon a time I was someone else.  I was a nineteen year old writer, going to college in New York City.  I was also someone who had…

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My 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…

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Non-Fiction

Last week, I started The Wave: In Pursuit of Rogues, Freaks and Giants of the Ocean by Susan Casey.  I found myself immediately drawn in, blown away by the utterly fascinating nature of her subject matter and her beautiful, impassioned writing.  I loved her last book, The Devil’s Teeth, and her newest is every bit…

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Read Women

Before writers are anything, we are readers. Those early books we held in our hands, the ones our parents read to us, they formed us.  And I often think about that as my husband and I, both readers, read each night to our daughter.  Books are such a gift, doorways into other worlds, other minds. …

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