My wife Robin leaves today for a two-week road trip, during which time she’ll visit friends in eastern California, Utah, and Colorado, and spend a couple days eating and gambling her way through Las Vegas (don’t worry; she only plays 25-cent video poker). It’s always a bit odd when she’s gone. When you’re used to having someone around the house, it’s strange having it to … Continue reading When the Cat’s Away…
Readers, for the daily double jackpot prize (our unbridled enthusiasm and gratitude), we Chicks want to know: What movie-based-on-a-book (or vice versa) do you feel most strongly about–positively or negatively? **Extra points if you give the answer in the form of a clue!**
Continue reading “Chick Chat – Best (or Worst) Book or Movie Adaptions for 5 Thousand, Please”
Yesterday marked the summer solstice, the longest day of the year (at least for those of us in the northern hemisphere), as well as the official first day of summer. Summer? What’s that? we may be asking ourselves, after having last year’s pretty much taken away from us by the pandemic. But now that so many in the country have been vaccinated, we’re finally venturing … Continue reading It’s Summer—This Time for Real!
As some of you are no doubt aware, my wife and I split our time between two homes, spending half the year in Santa Cruz, California, and the other half in Hilo, Hawai‘i. I’ve lived in Santa Cruz since the mid-1970s, and my love for the locale inspired me to create my Sally Solari mysteries, which are set in the once-sleepy fishing and retirement community, … Continue reading Writing from Afar
Sue Grafton loved to explain that she kept her private investigator heroine, Kinsey Millhone, locked in the 1980s so that Kinsey wouldn’t have the luxury of such technology as cell phones and laptops to assist in her investigations. And I have to say, I sometimes wish I’d done the same with my sleuth. In fact, at the time I was writing the first in my … Continue reading The Trouble With Tech
Journeys in publishing (and life) can be rocky. Sometimes we need an extra sprinkle of fairy dust or luck to make it.
Today, we talk about how luck has—or hasn’t—played a role in the publishing and non-publishing aspects of our lives.
My mother, Smiley Cook Karst—who passed away on January 3rd at the grand old age of 91—was perhaps my greatest inspiration as a writer. Sure, my law professor father, author of three books and many dozens of articles about Constitutional law, was far more famous. But notwithstanding that I, too, worked as an attorney, I was never drawn to writing about the law. No, my … Continue reading Like Mother Like Daughter
Season’s greetings, beloved readers! We wish you and yours the happiest of happy holiday seasons and a bright New Year. We’ll see you in January – the 4th, to be exact – but thought we’d celebrate the end of a year by revisiting photos from each Chick’s early beginnings – including our newest Chicklet in the nest, Jen! Leslie Karst Ellen Byron Lisa Q. Mathews … Continue reading Happy Ho-Ho-Holidays!
No, we, alas, won’t be hosting meals for twelve people crammed around the dining room table this year, but I imagine most of us will be preparing a Thanksgiving meal for our “bubble” of two or four. And although the get-togethers will be small, they’ll still be joyous and delicious. And come Thursday night, “stuffed” is how the majority of folks in the country will … Continue reading Stuffed
My law professor father used to like to say, “There are only two times I’m miserable—when I’m writing and when I’m not writing.” And I have to agree. Because when you’re in the middle of a book, you’re nervous about getting it right and angsting that you should be working on it whenever you’re not. But when you’re not in the middle of a book, … Continue reading Starting From Scratch
I’m one of the lucky ones. Several of my friends lost their homes to the CZU Lightning Complex fire north of Santa Cruz (so called because it was started by a dry lightning storm) which began in the early hours of Sunday, August 16—and is still burning. The city of Santa Cruz, was thankfully spared. But on Wednesday, August 19, Robin and I awoke to … Continue reading A Values Clarification
We Chicks just love our creative spaces. Really. Can you match the Chick with her writing coop? (It’s easy, actually, since our photos are right next to them…)
