Why It Was Difficult to Interview Fellow Author (And Friend) R.G.Belsky

I didn’t think it would be difficult to interview R.G. Belsky. He’s the author of the Clare Carlson mystery series. Book #5 in the series, It’s News To Me was published a month ago. I raced through it the same way I did the others in the series. Naturally, I was delighted when The Big Thrill , the online magazine of the International Thriller Writers association, asked me to interview him for the November 2022 issue. Continue reading “Why It Was Difficult to Interview Fellow Author (And Friend) R.G.Belsky”

When Your Swashbuckling Hero Fails You: And, I Don’t Mean in Fiction

Like countless kids in the 1970s, Margaret Sullivan decided to become a reporter because of the breathtaking — and breathless– coverage of the Watergate scandal in the pages of the Washington Post.

She was barely a teenager, when Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein chronicled the corruption in the Nixon administration and its cover-up. So, it wasn’t till the 1976 movie, All The President’s Men, that, she says, “journalism began to look downright fascinating.” And, “glamorous,” she adds in her new book, Newsroom Confidential: Lessons (and Worries) from An Ink-Stained Life. Continue reading “When Your Swashbuckling Hero Fails You: And, I Don’t Mean in Fiction”

A Monster, A Horse & My Mother’s 100th Birthday

That was my week, last week.  I read Geraldine Brooks’s outstanding novel, Horse; I binge-watched the nauseating docudrama Dahmer- Monster: The Story of Jeffrey Dahmer , and on September 26, I reflected that my mother would have been 100 years old had she lived.

Oh, and yes, the first feature I’ve written for The Big Thrill magazine appeared on the cover of its October issue. Continue reading “A Monster, A Horse & My Mother’s 100th Birthday”

Why Nelson DeMille’s The Maze Was An Amazing Mid-Summer Gift

The most amazing mid-summer gift fell into my lap last week. Yes, of course, it was a book. Not just any old book though. It’s the latest from Nelson DeMille. Titled The Maze, it’s scheduled for release in October.

I’ve been waiting for it for a while since its protagonist is retired NYPD homicide detective, John Corey who was introduced to us in 1997 in DeMille’s bestseller, Plum Island. That thriller was set on the North Fork as is my own latest thriller, Fool Her Once. In The Maze, DeMille was expected to bring John Corey back to the North Fork. To say I was waiting impatiently would be an understatement. Continue reading “Why Nelson DeMille’s The Maze Was An Amazing Mid-Summer Gift”

Jimmy The King: A True Crime Classic About The Dirtiest Cops on Long Island

There’s a paragraph in my new novel, Fool Her Once where the protagonist’s husband, Zack, has this to say about one of the fictional cops in the story: “There was something smarmy about Brad… a psychopathic vibe he gave off … Zack wasn’t surprisedIt was common knowledge that there were certain professions that attracted psychos, just as it was well known that the police force had its fair share.

I didn’t conjure up the last sentence out of thin air.

As a long-time resident of the East End of Long Island, where FHO is set, I was aware, at the time of writing, that there were plenty of Suffolk County cops who, if not always psychopaths, were liars, thugs, bullies, and lawbreakers. Continue reading “Jimmy The King: A True Crime Classic About The Dirtiest Cops on Long Island”