Just released! New cozy mystery series!
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Just released! New cozy mystery series!

When you move to a new town people don’t know you yet, the slang and favorite restaurants are different, and you feel very much a stranger. But if you are patient, you come to love the unique pleasures the new town has to offer. As an author, beginning a new series is like that. For…

Malice in Tarnished Spaces – Cover Reveal
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Malice in Tarnished Spaces – Cover Reveal

Peg Quincy is busy–way too busy. She has a new roommate, a new almost-boyfriend, and a dead body washed up on the creek side of an exclusive artists’ retreat. But she is up to the challenge. Or is she? MALICE IN TARNISHED SPACES, the sixth Pegasus Quincy mystery, will be released in early Spring 2020….

How to beat the turkey-feast food coma
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How to beat the turkey-feast food coma

  There used to be a wonderful commercial for Pesto Bismol that had a poor being clutching his/her stomach moaning, “I can’t believe I ate the whole thing.” That’s me today. Thanksgiving was a wonderful feast with good food and good company. And I swear my IQ has dropped 30 points overnight, dealing with the…

A congregation at war with itself
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A congregation at war with itself

Some of you have asked me if the places I describe in the Pegasus Quincy mystery series exist. Yes, many of them do. For example, Peg’s grandfather HT lives in the actual house in Mingus–which is close to Jerome, Arizona 😉 –that used to be a boarding house for miners. It featured a prominent outside…

SILENCE IN WEST FORK is here!
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SILENCE IN WEST FORK is here!

  Book Launch Day is exciting–like the birth of a new baby that you’ve carried for so long. It’s time to let go of the indigestion, the sacrifice of things you’d like to do in exchange for the things you must do, the sleepless nights, the stress, and the angst. Finally these come to an end….

Cover reveal: Silence in West Fork
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Cover reveal: Silence in West Fork

West Fork is one of my favorite places in the whole world. A tributary of Oak Creek Canyon in the Verde Valley of Arizona, this clear stream runs through ponderosa pine and fir trees. Ferns and yellow columbines carpet the ground, and golden eagles nest in its boundary red cliffs. And, for the inveterate mystery…

Storing the precious
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Storing the precious

Can you tell what this is? A walk-in safe. In a used book store! When I asked the owner about it, she explained the old building the bookstore now inhabited had originally been a bank. When the bank relocated, it had been too expensive to move the safe, so it had just been left behind….

The new Pegasus Quincy novel is coming!
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The new Pegasus Quincy novel is coming!

I am so excited! I’m on the final edits of the fourth Pegasus Quincy novel. This one is called PERIL IN SILVER NIGHTSHADE and gets its title from a poisonous plant prevalent in Red Rock State Park near Sedona, Arizona. Soon it will be LIVE in both Kindle and paperback versions. Stay tuned!

12 Easy Ways to Become a Skillful Proofreader
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12 Easy Ways to Become a Skillful Proofreader

We have become a nation of skimmers. We buzz through emails: delete, delete, save, delete. We flip through social media: scroll, like, heart, share. What does that do to proofreader skills? It’s a train wreck waiting to happen. Three minutes after your eBook goes live on Kindle you spot the first typo in the “Look…

Tree pioneers of the Verde Valley
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Tree pioneers of the Verde Valley

When I set out to write the Pegasus Quincy mystery series, I knew the first one, Death in Copper Town, had to take place in a mining town on the slopes of the Verde Valley. To make it realistic, I had to include the Ailanthus trees ubiquitous to that part of the Valley. Apple trees in the…