The fifth Alafair book,Crying Blood, is at the printers now, and advance reading copies have been sent to critics and to some well-known mystery authors for review and, we hope, a cover quote. My editor received the first attribution on Friday from the great Margaret Maron. This will definitely be on the cover (which I [...]

I did something today that I haven’t done in so long that I can’t remember the last time. Nothing. Since I finished proofreading the galleys of Crying Blood, I’ve been catching up on all the life things I should have been doing over the past months, (and anyone who’s ever written a book will empathize) [...]

A week from tomorrow, July 28 at 5:30 p.m., I’m going to be speaking on the above topic to the Scottsdale Society of Women Writers at the Marriott Old Town Hotel in (where else?) Scottsdale, AZ. Check out the details on my “Events” page. I asked other authors what they wish they had known before [...]

Why, you may ask, are you so slow in updating this web site, Donis? I shall tell you, Dear Reader. It seems that my new book, Crying Blood, which I assured everyone was nearly finished last month, wasn’t as finished as I thought. I have basically added a new character and side story to the [...]

On Sunday, May 16, 2pm-3pm, Pacific Time, author Larry Karp and I will talk with author-host Don McQuinn, on the Wired Writers Webinar. Larry (for the most part) and I both set our books in the United States of roughly 60 to 110 years ago. Please drop by and hear what we two Poisoned Pen [...]

I’ve finished the first draft manuscript of the fifth Alafair Tucker novel, Crying Blood. This doesn’t mean it’s done. The story needs at least one more go-over before I send it to my editor after the first week in May, and after she gets a gander at it, she’ll have suggestions. At least I hope [...]

I’ve been meaning for weeks to post a more cheerful entry than last month’s, but like everyone else I know, life kept intervening. I’ve vowed more than once this year to update these entries more frequently, but it seems like there’s always something more important that needs to be done right now. But never fear, [...]

It’s been a lifelong tenet of mine that nobody wants to hear your troubles, so I have always made an effort, even when things aren’t going so well, to either keep it to myself, or at least to have a sense of humor about it. I’m not much bothered by things, and I think I [...]

Time passes so quickly that it alarms me sometimes. How did I get anything done at all in my real life when I worked for other people? The truth is that I didn’t, or at least I was only able to do whatever was absolutely necessary to live. Now my work is writing, and work [...]

Yesterday was not a good day. I went to bed Sunday night with a sore throat, and spent most of the night tossing and turning, semi-conscious. You know how it is, Dear Reader. You’re not asleep, but you’re not awake enough to get up, take something, do anything to help yourself. I wasn’t able to [...]