Introducing The Weekly Thrill – A Newsletter

My husband is constantly telling me, “Please don’t take anything else on.” As in, he wants me to say “no” to whatever “extra” creative project I’m considering, because he’d like me to take a break between projects. I took on a new podcast in 2020, something I’d been wanting to do for several years, and I just couldn’t say “no” when the opportunity to team up with my podcast partner and partner in “true” crime, Author Kris Calvert, presented itself.

That true crime podcast, Kentucky Fried Homicide, is now in full swing, and Kris and I (along with our brilliant producer) work really hard at making sure we put out new episodes every week. And it’s work, that’s a fact. But it’s truly rewarding work. It can also be counted as research for the novels I write. And let’s not forget that it’s so much fun!

Also, I just released my nineteenth novel, Secret is in the Bones (Book Three of the Paynes Creek Thriller series). And honestly, that book almost didn’t happen. Everyone knows 2020 was difficult in many ways. I’m thankful that my family and I are safe and healthy, but I struggled creatively in 2020.

When I told my husband I was thinking of dusting off the ol’ blog and starting a weekly email called The Weekly Thrill, I honestly think he considered taking my laptop away from me. Until I laid out all of the reasons why…

First, why blog? Blogs are dead, aren’t they?

Then again, do I care? I have always enjoyed blogging.

I came across an old quote in my journal last week:

“I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking, what I’m looking at, what I see, and what it means.” – Joan Didion

What Joan Didion said in that quote really resonates with me.

And as a CPA during the months of January through April 15, I spend a ton of time in front of a computer crunching numbers and completing tax returns. During that time, I think about the next novel I want to write. I don’t actually write it, but I develop characters and plot ideas. I let ideas percolate. And I make lots of notes about potential subplots and scene ideas. Then, when April 15 comes and goes, I’m ready to actually write the story.

But writing is very much like our physical bodies. Just like I can’t take three months off from exercising and expect to jump right back into a hard workout on April 16, I also can’t expect to take three months off from writing and expect to jump right back into writing a 300-page novel without a little warm-up.

So, I’m going to continue to exercise those muscles, and keep the creative part of my brain working, by writing on the blog. And I’m going to use the blog as a way to discover what interests me and what those interests mean. A lot of that is for me and my practice of writing. But it’s also a way to talk to you about things that interest you.

The Weekly Thrill, on the other hand, is a way to put that writing and other interesting information from around the internet in front of you in the form of links. You can pick and choose the links you’d like to click on. The links will include things I’ve written, things I’ve watched or read or listened to, or simply something funny or entertaining.

Now… Regarding the subject matter that I might cover… As you probably already know, I write thrillers and I podcast about true crime. So don’t be surprised if I link to other thriller novels or true crime documentaries. But I also write romance and quirky small towns. And I’m interested in everything from how the creative mind works to playing chess to travel. In a lot of ways, I’m going to figure this out as I go. So jump on board, and let’s see where this takes us. You can jump off — or unsubscribe — anytime.

If you’d like to take a look at the first edition of The Weekly Thrill that went out last Friday, you can find that here. But don’t forget to subscribe. I’ll send out another edition of The Weekly Thrill this Friday.