The above picture is of the CLOUD NINE, my father’s fishing boat. The one I worked on for a few years..great times! I use those times often in my writing, they take me to a place I’ll never forget. Yes, the past was a great place-a place I personally like to visit but not live.

I’m presently finishing the last (at least for a while) book in my murder mystery series-ALL THESE LITTLE THINGS, and have been doing some research into my  next novel. It will be set in the 60s and so that’s where my head will be for a while. I sort of dread it because though I think I had an extremely cool childhood, I do not want to live there. I’m a little scared about going in that direction, but am compelled to do so. Drat and damn the life of a writer…these feelings of being compelled to do something drive me nuts.

QUOTES:  I realize there’s something incredibly honest about trees in winter, how they’re experts at letting things go..Jeffrey McDaniel

The past is a great place and I don’t want to erase it or to regret it, but I don’t want to be its prisoner either..Mick Jagger

WRITING TIP: Everything is fodder. Do not be afraid to explore and use it.