Welcome
Welcome to my web site, where you'll discover some of the ways that a writer works and how a writer thinks: how some stories come to be.
When I was growing up, I yearned to be a baseball player or a writer — especially a mystery writer. I had no thought at all of writing about baseball, and certainly not about women in baseball. But things turned out otherwise.
Once I was an adult, the decision of what to write first was difficult. I opted for a baseball novel first, a mystery novel second. Thus She's on First and Dirty Proof were my first two novels. At the same time, I was writing nonfiction and also children's books. In addition to loving adult fiction, I particularly enjoy early readers. And I particularly enjoyed creating two of them —Waltur Buys a Pig in a Poke and Other Stories, and Waltur Paints Himself into a Corner and Other Stories — both published by Houghton Mifflin.
The world of publishing has undergone gigantic changes in the last few years, and one of these changes is the growth of self-publishing. Like many other writers, I participate in both worlds: the world of traditional publishing, and the world of do-it-yourself publishing. Since 2010 I have used self-publishing to reprint She's on First and Dirty Proof, and also to publish new works such as Charlie Chan's Poppa: Earl Derr Biggers, and Cookie the Cockatoo: Everything Changes, and Guide to Writing the Mystery Novel: Lots of Examples, Plus Dead Bodies.
I guess it stands to reason that, because I write for many different age groups, I would one day write a YA novel. That process began a couple of years ago, and now my first YA, The F Words, has been published by City of Light Publishing (September 15, 2021). I'm very excited about this novel and hope that readers will be, too.
Readers, regardless of their age, enter the book through its words and get swept away by its story. When you love a book, its characters live with you forever. I hope that some of my writing may live with you. Thank you for visiting.