About Me

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My literary taste runs the gamut from Shakespeare, Poe, and Austen, to Elizabeth Lowell, Toni Morrison, and Jo Nesbo. Though I often read tales that plumb the inner demons of tortured souls, I prefer to write lighter books that my readers can have fun with.

Growing up, my sister and I lived next door to three French girls, who were like sisters to us. It was our friendship that gave me the idea of writing a book series about a group of five girls, plus the wonderful time I spent in Santa Barbara in my 20s.

Set in Santa Barbara, the Cota Club books tell the stories of each of the five friends and reflect the genres that fit each of the characters. That’s why Kristi’s story in Love and Money is a mystery, whereas Carla’s story in The Offering is romantic suspense. Tate’s story in Love and Hate is a thriller. I don’t know yet about Izzy’s, but Gwen’s will turn to the world of the supernatural.

The Madness of Crowds (Chief Inspector Gamache #17 - 2021) Louise Penny

 All shall be well. And all shall be well. And all manner of thing shall be well. It was a quote from one of Gamache’s favorite writers, the Christian mystic Julian of Norwich. Who’d offered hope in a time of great suffering.


Here was someone who would consider before he acted. It was rare, she knew, to have some space between thought and action. Most people didn’t. They thought they did, but most acted on impulse, even instinct, then justified it. Professor Robinson knew that that gap, that pause, meant the person had control over their actions. Had choices. And with those choices came power.


“‘I’m sorry.’ ‘I was wrong.’ ‘I don’t know.’” As he listed them, Chief Inspector Gamache raised a finger, until his palm was open. “‘I need help.’” Beauvoir looked into Gamache’s eyes and in them he saw something else that was new. It was kindness. It had so shocked him that he blushed. And blustered. And practically fell out of the car in his hurry to get away from something he didn’t understand, and that terrified him. But he’d never forgotten. That moment. When he’d met kindness for the first time. And been shown the path to wisdom in four simple, though not easy, sentences. Jean-Guy had ...more


And now here is my secret, a very simple secret. It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye. Armand wondered if Florence understood that line from The Little Prince.


But correct and right were two different things. As were facts and truth.


Ça va bien aller. One day. There was no overstating the importance, the power, of that phrase. And now this academic, this professor, had co-opted it. She was using it to attack the very people it was meant to hearten.


One of Gilbert’s favorite quotes was from Henry David Thoreau. The question is not what you look at, but what you see.


What had Abigail said? Scientists might appear rational, but they were in fact completely at the mercy of their emotions. Because most never learned to face them.