If you’ve read 72 Hours or On the Edge, you’ve met Carmen. She’s the heroine of DG3. (Which does have a title I love, but I’m neither saying it out loud nor writing it down, because it never fails—as soon as I acknowledge my love of a title, somebody else uses it. It’s like a […]

Gallagher: You do realize if you do the helicopter chase scene, you’re going to have to do research. I know what all the switches and buttons do, so you’ll have to know, too.
Shan: Not if I do it in Carmen’s POV. She doesn’t fly a helicopter, so I can say things like “stick […]

Adam: You know, I reckon there are a lot of women out there a sight more agreeable than Rebecca over there.
Becky: It’s Miss Becky, you horse’s ass.
Adam: Like hell it is!
Adam: *dodges shoe*
Shan: Rebecca—*ducks*—Becky, I really need you to confess your undying love for Adam now.
Becky: To quote the eloquent […]

Shan: What the hell are you doing here? I thought we made it clear after 72 Hours you’d be at home making slice-and-bake cookies.
Grace: Alex does the baking now. And what do you expect? You crashed the plane practically in my back yard.
Shan: And let me guess—Danny’s with your parents?
Grace: […]

Buenos Friday! Did you miss me? Shannon has been keeping me very busy working on our secret project and Becoming Miss Becky and the third Devlin Group book. But as you can see, there is always time for frolicking at sunset with a cowboy.
Wait. Do you hear that? How am I supposed […]

(AKA: current Devlin Group pain in the ass)
Gallagher: Miss me, babe?
Me: Oh yes, ever so desperately.
Gallagher: Even though you’re working on other stuff, you’ve been thinking about me a lot lately. Makes me all hot and bothered.
Me: Back the ego truck up. See, the shipwreck part isn’t enough to carry the […]

*cellphone rings showing a number I don’t recognize*
Me: Hello?
Strange man’s voice: Hello.
*pause that drags on*
Me: Who is this?
Strange man’s voice: (Tall kid).
*long pause while I, a victim of too much TV and too many thrillers, wonder in a panic why a grown man is pretending to be my little boy*
Strange man […]

I probably shouldn’t use the category tag “conversations with characters” for this entry, but my boys are characters.
We watch Jeopardy every night before the kids go to bed. The tall kid’s starting to hold his own. The short kid just parrots my answers, so when we’re right he gets the glory and when we’re […]

Shan: What the hell’s going on here? One minute I’m writing a love scene and in the next we’ve skipped to you holding a shotgun on the sheriff.
Eliza Jane: It seemed like the thing to do at the time.
Shan: But there’s nothing at all in your background to suggest you can wield […]

Shan: Thou hast forsaken me.
The Bitch Muse: Shakespeare? Listen, doll—even 1970’s maternity pants weren’t that much of a stretch.
Shan: You’re a cruel and fickle mistress.
The Bitch Muse: What do you expect? After the icky flu stuff and the icky tax staff—math for god’s sake—and your hour-long rant on the […]