Hello, folks. How are you? You getting through these very strange days with ease or with struggle? Likely both, I imagine. Have you been connecting more, reaching out to those you haven't talked to in awhile, just to ask them the simple question you okay? Me too. Over...

Personal stuff
Writing in Extraordinary Times
You've heard me go on and on about my favorite band James, whose lyrics I've used in my last two books and, hopefully, the next one as well. Their latest album, Living in Extraordinary Times, was released a year and a half ago, and is essentially a protest album (the...
Screen Time Makes Me a Better Writer
I pay attention when another author's book captivates my attention. I'll analyze the detail, pace, prose, and voice, and try to figure out what exactly it was that grabbed me. (Sometimes the opposite is true: I'll read a terrible book and obsess over how it became...
Gratitude
I contemplated skipping my post this month, because, frankly, I'm tired. And I have edits due to my publisher. And I need to do Christmas shopping. And... Excuses, excuses, excuses. When I think of all the things that make life busy and chaotic, I realized most of...
Halloween Highlight Reel of Terror
Rejoice, as the Halloween highlight reel is here. As my long-term readers know, each year I comb though video footage to collect the choicest screams from my Halloween house-staging. This was the first year I moved the set from the porch to inside the garage, allowing...
My Halloween Theme
One of the best parts of Halloween is I have guaranteed newsletter content for a quarter of the year. In August or September I write how I'm stressed out that I haven't yet decided on a theme. In October I reveal the theme. And in November I always provide a recap...
Why So Dark?
My readers know what I write: dark psychological suspense, sometimes tinged with horror. The space of fiction in which I exist is a cold, barely lit world where paranoia rules and people quite occasionally die—a place where trust is a rare commodity, hope is even more...
Give Me Halloween Ideas
Mid-July is when the Halloween nightmares start. The recurring dream is that it's 6 P.M. on Halloween night, kids are walking toward my house, and I totally forgot to decorate. I haven't put out one goddamn thing. My body is frozen in place, so I can't even get a...
Introducing: The Dead Girl in 2A
I know I've been teasing it for awhile now, but behold the official unveiling of my upcoming thriller, The Dead Girl in 2A. We're four months out from the launch of my sixth novel, so I've refreshed my newsletter and website to showcase the new book. You'll be hearing...
My annual ghost-hunting trip.
Happy New Year, friends. I ended 2018 with my annual ghost-hunting trip at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado. For those of you unfamiliar with this tradition, for the past five years I've gone to the famously haunted hotel to do some writing and search for...
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