People sometimes ask, "What are you writing now?" This page gives you a peek at what I’m working on while it’s in progress and also a glimpse into things I've been doing.

NEED YOUR HELP! Before I mention what I'm currently working on, I see that there is a very negative review of WHAT ARE YOU WEARING TO DIE? on Amazon. If you have read the book already, you know it begins with a scene in which Joe Riddley shackles Mac to her desk to keep her from "haring off down to the bypass" to check out a murder. The review was written by a psychologist who rightly points out that using shackles against another person constitutes abuse. What she fails to take into consideration in her one-star review is that this couple have had an equal marriage for forty years, have known each other for nearly sixty, and that in this case both of them know this is a form of teasing, although even Mac knows it has gotten out of hand--which Joe Riddley admits at the end when he fears he has burned up the dearest person in his life with his joke. Anybody who has read the rest of the series knows I am opposed to abuse of women and children, and so are Mac and Joe Riddley.

I am not asking you to respond to her review. She has a right to her opinions, and she makes a good point. But if you like the book, I hope you'll go to Amazon and write your own review--even a sentence or two--so the mediocre ratings may go up.

Oddly enough, to date this book is outselling all the others I've done in the series, so hopefully a few readers are going to enjoy it.

I have finished revisions on DAUGHTER OF DECEIT, the third of my Family Tree mysteries, and am waiting for the copyedited version to arrive. To be released in October, this book tells the story of an Atlanta woman who, while researching her beloved father's military medals, discovers he was fighting in Italy when she was conceived. Already devastated by his death and that of her son and by her husband's brutal divorce proceedings, she .  .  .  Well, I think I'll let you read the book. But I will say this: currently it's my favorite of the mysteries I've written. Deals with some harsh realities, but hopefully you will like it, too.

Now I am turning my thoughts to a book which is a stand-alone and less of a mystery than the story of four women who survive a year of drought, not only in the weather, but in each of their interwoven lives. I haven't written a "straight" novel since 2000, so look forward to giving it a try.

Happy reading! I enjoy hearing from readers. E-mail me at my special readers' address: thoroughlysouthern@earthlink.net

And when you are in your library, please tell them that the Thoroughly Southern series is all available in Large Print editions for sight impaired readers. Thanks!