Sisters -- and Misters -- Solve Mysteries

All the fine print you could possibly need

Please join me this Saturday, April 21st from 12-4 p.m. at The Golden Bough in Macon, GA — I'm excited to be part of an international event celebrating our community bookstores . . . and maybe even solving some mysteries.

I’ll be working as volunteer staffer at The Golden Bough for a “Booksellers and Librarians Solve Mysteries Every Day” celebration.

The event — produced by Sisters in Crime, an international organization founded to support the professional development of women writing crime fiction — is designed to thank librarians and booksellers for 25 years of support of the mystery genre.

On this day, a select group of Sisters in Crime member authors will be volunteering in bookstores and libraries in their hometowns — from Albany, New York, to Honolulu, Hawaii. In addition, SinC’s more than 3,000 members worldwide are gearing up to go into libraries and bookstores on that day to personally thank the booksellers and librarians they find working behind the counters and in the stacks.

While at The Golden Bough, I’ll be stocking books, assisting customers, making literary recommendations, plus . . . solving mysteries. So if you have one — a mystery, that is — bring it to the store, and I’ll give it my best shot. I won’t have any CSI tools (alas) but I will have a store full of written materials, a really smart bookseller, some crowd-sourced creativity a la Facebook, and several packs of tarot cards.

Look! Another mystery solved!

Just in case anyone brings me a very mysterious mystery.

The Golden Bough is located at 371 Cotton Street in Downtown Macon. The event lasts from 12 - 4 p.m. For more information about the store, you can call 478-744-2446 or visit the store’s website at www.goldenbough.com.

Sisters in Crime is currently celebrating its 25th anniversary year. The organization is made up of more than 3,000 members and 48 chapters worldwide—authors, readers, publishers, agents, booksellers, librarians and others who love mysteries. You can learn more about Sisters in Crime www.sistersincrime.org.

England's Lake Country

Some snaps from our whirlwind tour of the Lake District near Lake Windermere and beyond. There would be more specific captioning, except that I have no clue where we were most of the time. We shared the tour with a Japanese couple with an odd map and very specific ideas about where they wanted to go. Which was all over. Add to that the incessant rain and wind, and the fact that Kaley and I were jet-lagged and James was recovering from food poisoning, and we're lucky we could hold the camera straight. So here you go -- random shots from a breathtaking part of this country, none of which capture the raw beauty and wild glory of the place.

Standing stone at Castlerigg Stone Circle in Keswick

Highland cattle

One of William Wordworth's daffodils

Lone tree against gray sky

A stand of gorse and bracken next to one of the lakes

Rocky waterfall leading under a bridge

The Windblown, Water-soaked Whittles

Tumbling scree leading down to one of the lakes

Darker Than Any Shadow Debuts!

Photo Courtesy Tri-County Monitor

My husband James and Me
Cochran Booksigning at A Flower's Scent
Saturday, March 10th

One of my favorite events when a new book comes out is heading back to my hometown to meet and greet friends and family. It's like Old Home Week when I do, getting a chance to reconnect with those dear people I only get to see at weddings and funerals. And as always, the real star of the show was the fabulous food -- my moms outdid themselves with fruit and cookies and punch and oh-I-can't-even-remember-what.

My daughter Kaley joined us for the afternoon, and the folks at the flower shop provided a backdrop of fresh blossoms. Always a pleasure, always a delight.

Photo Courtesy G. M. Malliet and Sophie Littlefield

Left Coast Crime Panel

Sacramento, CA

Friday, March 27

To the right are the participants of our most excellent LCC panel (minus Clem, alas) -- our topic was "Your Hero Does What?" and we had a marvelous time!

Sacramento - (Photo courtesy of Sophie Littlefield). From L-R, Bill Fitzhugh, GM Malliet, Julie Goodson-Lawes, and Tina Whittle.

Photo Courtesy Joe Rose

Book Signing at Books-A-Million

Statesboro, GA

Saturday, April 7th

Tina Rose (pictured here with my books and me) is one of my favorite people in the world. She's smart and funny and talented and doesn't mind one but if you create a character based on her, change the sex, and then kill that unlucky literary creation. So it goes without saying that she's also a good sport with a great sense of humor.

Something Snaky This Way Comes

Photo Courtesy of Alegri Photos

This is either "fair warning" and "come hither" depending on which camp you're in -- those who hate snakes, or those who love them.

I was very happy to visit In Reference To Murder yesterday and share my love of all things reptile. If you feel the same, please join me for a slithery good time.

You can find my guest blog HERE .

Arizona Beauty

Scottsdale Sunset -- from our hotel room

There's something to this place. The reds and golds and blues and greens. The colors make their own canvas. They give you room that way, to create your own art. This place has more space than any place I've ever been -- the sky doesn't even seem to touch. 

At Chapel of the Holy Cross -- Sedona, AZ

And I was stunned at the life in the desert. I always think of deserts as blank and yellow -- but there was such lush green here too. Succulents and blossoms, tender-looking but tough, like the heroes and heroines of my favorite mysteries. Bloom where you are planted, they say. Look at these gorgeous examples.

In the distance -- On the road to Sedona

On the road to Sedona, just past Scottsdale and Phoenix, these mountains just appeared, like they been sleeping out of sight, and then as if on cue, rose up, stretching, into the sky. The GPS showed nothing but our tiny virtual car, like one of the bitty cars from the game of Life, and green nothing all around us. Only that nothing was something, let me tell you.

And then -- at the end of the road -- this. I mean, look at this.

These are the cliffs at The Chapel of the Holy Cross at the top of one of the mesas in Red Rock country.  A place of grace and beauty and largeness. You are so small here. And you are so grateful to be small that your spirit gets really really big.

I could have spent days here. The few hours expanded me. I look forward to my next desert trip -- it feels like a part of me is still there.

Visit HERE if you like to learn more about the Chapel of the Holy Cross.

Darker Than Any Shadow Has Facebook Page!

If you haunt Facebook as much as I do, please take a second to "like" the new page for Darker Than Any Shadow. I'm excited to be getting the book of the ground, and there will be lots of giveaways and freebies and all manner of book-related goodness. You can find it HERE. Thanks for taking a look.

Dead Ink Review of DARKER THAN ANY SHADOW

I recently ran across this amazing review of Darker Than Any Shadow in the online journal Dead Ink. Written by Ian Caithness, the review is very positive (or else I wouldn't be sharing it -- no dummy, me) but even more importantly, the review itself is very well-done. It's smart, sharp, thoughtful, and engages in ideas about the work and suggested by the work, not just the reviewer's personal opinions of the work. Best of all, it's illustrated with this evocative image.

Look at that! It's like a scene I wish I'd written, all angles and shadows and dark potential. There's even a caramel blonde with a backpack traipsing down an alley (probably sneaking out past the annoyed gaze of her secret agent boyfriend).

You can read the review HERE. And please do. And read the other reviews. Reviewing is an art, a genre unto itself, and I am pleased to see a writer and a publication that supports it.