Liar, Liar

Why do people lie?  Let’s start with you.  When’s the last time you told a lie?  And I don’t mean a big one.  I mean a little one, say to protect a friend’s feelings, or to spare yourself embarrassment.  I consider myself an honest person, but I occasionally lie.  My daughter believes in Santa Claus…

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Closing 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,…

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The 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…

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Changes

I’ve said on an earlier post and in several interviews that I could not have written BLACK OUT if it weren’t for my daughter. Motherhood changed me, naturally. How could it not? It changed my view of the world, and so it changed my writing. It also made me more paranoid than ever before –…

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