1 Nancy Drew Started It All

I blame Nancy Drew for my life of crime. Reading it and writing it, that is. I was ten when I borrowed The Secret of Shadow Ranch from a cousin. It was the first mystery I ever read, and I was hooked. Then, to my delight, I discovered this was only one of a long… Read More

I Can Do This One Thing Pretty Well. The Rest? Not So Much…

I was on the phone the other night with my cousin, who’s the closest thing to a sister I’ll ever have. Anticipating our upcoming trip to the Caribbean, we were both flipping through catalogs full of beach attire. In my catalog was a picture of a woman in a bikini doing a headstand on a… Read More

A Tale of Two Cities

I usually write a series set in New York City at the turn of the Twentieth Century. In CITY OF DARKNESS AND LIGHT, the new book, the 13th in the series, that makes its debut on March 4 I take my heroine to Paris (for reasons I can’t disclose in this blog without having to… Read More

Behind the Scenes with The Dirty Girls Book Club

One of the questions authors are often asked is, “Where do the ideas come from? How do you start a book?” For me, the answer is different each time. Let’s take my Dirty Girls Book Club series (Berkley Heat) for an example. The initial germ of an idea came out of my own book club,… Read More

2 Can a Book by Any Other Title Still Be as Funny?

I need your advice. I’m thinking about changing the title of my first novel. Much as I’ve always personally liked it, I have to face the facts: MRS. GOODFELLER has always had its problems. Concern #1: People seem to have trouble remembering this title, possibly because it’s not a real word or maybe because it’s… Read More

1 I’M A WRITING ADDICT

Hello, my name is Sheila Connolly and I write three ongoing mystery series for Berkley Prime Crime. In my spare time I write short stories and self-publish single-title mysteries. And suspense. And romance, with a little paranormal stuff thrown in. And I am an addict. People look at me and ask, how do you do… Read More

Dragons and Virgin Princesses

Dragons and virgin princesses. I’ve always thought the stories of maidens sacrificed to dragons most unfair. Not just the sacrifice, but that if some hero came to save them they were his prize. After all, it could be anyone! And that was the seed for my story, The Dragon and the Princess, which first appeared… Read More

2 Beauty and the Beast (an erotic re-imagining)

Beauty and the Beast has always been one of my favorite fairytales. I wrote an erotic re-imagining of the story based on the original fairytale from the 1700s – no dancing candelabras or clocks, and no Gaston. 😉 My version is just what I imagined really went on when the Beast has his little Beauty… Read More

2 A Book’s Path…

I’m not sure exactly how it happened, but February 25, my eleventh novel will be born into the world. WHEN SHADOWS FALL is the third Samantha Owens novel, a seminal book in the series, as it decides the course of action for the next several books. Every series has a path, planned or unplanned. When… Read More

His Love Match

Have you ever thought about using one of those dating services?  The commercials for Match.com and eHarmony.com appear every few minutes on some television stations.  When they first began to appear, I poo-pooed them.   But the idea of meeting someone through an online matching service took root in my mind and I came up with… Read More

9 Pretty is as Karma isn’t or doesn’t or Something

Karma has plenty to answer for. These days, I blame it for the noise I make while watching television. When I was in high school I used to tease my mother mercilessly about falling asleep while sitting in front of the TV.  I can’t really say she ever “watched” any programs regularly because typically she… Read More

ONCE IN A LIFETIME

Dear Readers, I did something different this time, something I’ve always wanted to do.  I wrote the Mean Girl.  I wrote her all grown up and grappling with her regrets and mistakes.  I wrote her making the big girl decision to go back and right her wrongs.  She makes a list, checks it twice, and… Read More