That Girl and Me

That girl in the photo is me in 1970 at 16 years old. It pretty much sums up my attitude during my adolescence: wary, protective, and kind of ticked off. Don’t get me wrong. That

Where’d You Go, Nan Vining?

You may have noticed that most versions of my Nan Vining Mysteries are no longer for sale. The E-books are unavailable and many of the paper copies are in limited supply. This is temporary. Nan

Life Blooms. The Writing Life Too.

The world is somewhere within the Covid-19 pandemic. Yet springtime blooms and writers write. This writer (me) has at last finished the standalone semi-autobiographical novel that I’ve been laboring over for a few years. Strange

Still Writing…

In my last blog post, I wrote about the deeply personal standalone novel I’ve been working on for (cough) three years now. Well, folks, I’m still working on it. Several trusted friends and great readers,

Choosing Fiction to Tell the Truth

The book I’m working on now is different from anything I’ve written before. I’m taking a break from my Nan Vining series and writing a semi-autobiographical standalone novel about life with my mentally ill mom. In

Lying Blind Pub Day and PJs

Lying Blind (Nan Vining #6) is now on sale! This is my twelfth published book and publication day never gets old. My baby is released into the world at last. Of course, I hope that

Slow Down, It’s August

So I could do a whole lot better as a blogger. My last blog post was in 2015. Where does the time go? Writing books. Living life. In the photo above, I’m goofing around with

Dianne’s White Lightning Chili

Cooking is one of my favorite things to do to decompress after a long writing session—or to avoid facing that blank page. I made this favorite chili recipe last Sunday during a rainy weekend. It’s

The Comeback Character

Five years have passed between my last Detective Nan Vining mystery and my latest one, Killing Secrets, the fifth in the series (out July 21, 2015 by Alibi/Random House). During that time, I was busy