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This is a page of random nonsense! You'll find various short articles, essays, and a unicorn or two. Okay, maybe not the unicorns, though the possibility remains! I've listed the title, along with a short description. Click on the title/link and you'll be taken to the page of interest.

Spirits and Butterflies: A true story of an experience I had with a family member's approaching death.

Max's Song: I'd been asked to name a song that made me think of my novel Into The Light. This is my reply.

Murder As Entertainment: My ruminations on why I write suspense.

Writing Is Like: My thoughts on what writing is like for me.

The Stories Behind The Novels: On this page, I share the inspiration behind my two Michael Sykora novels - No Justice and Beyond Salvation.

Lyrical Inspiration: Song lyrics that inspired a minor character in my novel Enemies and Playmates.

The Power of Words: A blog post I did on the things we say and write and why they matter more than we sometimes think.

Does Size Matter?: Thoughts on our preferences for particularl book lengths and the word count restrictions placed on authors.

Books In Flames: A brief history of book burning as a method of banning books and controlling what people read.

Why I Write Suspense: In April 2011, aobibliophile named me Mistress of Suspense. I love that title! As part of that honor, I was asked to be a guest on his blog and talk about why I write suspense. This is what I shared that day.

Fleeting Thoughts: I have late-stage, chronic Lyme disease and it wreaks havoc with my memory, among other things. I wrote this one day as a way to deal with my frustration with continually losing my train of thought.

Thoughts On Writing: I wrote this after I'd finally published my first couple of books. I needed to poke fun at myself for my fairy tale view of what a writer's life would be.

Alone: This is a poem. I used to write a lot of poetry, most of it horrible teen angst stuff that I keep hidden away in a bottom drawer no one but me looks in. Alone is the last poem I wrote, many years ago, back in 1999.

Burned Alive: An overview of the practice of burning people alive as a form of capital punishment. (PDF file)

Female Sex Offenders: An overview of female sex offenders and their treatment within our justice system. (PDF file)

The History of Lie Detection: A look back at the creation and evolution of our lie detector machine. (PDF file)

Beheading and The Guillotine: The history of beheading as capital punishment and the invention of the guillotine. (PDF file)

Human Trafficking: Lives Bought and Sold: A brief examination of the facts behind human trafficking. (PDF file)

Crucifixion: A History: Article on crucifixion as a form of capital punishment, from early times through modern times. (PDF file)

Death By A Thousand Cuts: A brief look at the gruesome practice of cutting as a form of capital punishment. (PDF file)

The History of Alcatraz: A glimpse at the history of one of the most famous U.S. prisons. (PDF file)

Mental Illness In The Prison System: Thoughts and facts about our current practice of locking away the mentally ill in prisons. (PDF file)