The thriller writing checklist
This thriller writing checklist is a simple route through the process of planning and writing a thriller. It’s hard to be a writer and, if you aspire …
9 nonfiction lessons for fiction writing
I learned to write as a journalist researching nonfiction about current events. Since then I have applied what I learned about writing to my …
Fear the monster in China Strike
“There are very few monsters that warrant the fear we have of them.” The French Nobelist André Gide might just as well have aimed his phrase at …
The Damascus Threat: How my Syria thriller got ICE in its veins
From a kids playground in Jerusalem to civil war in Damascus, the story of how I came to write my Syria thriller ‘The Damascus Threat’. My …
My Syria thriller: Meet the guys who want to kill you. Yes, you.
My Syria thriller The Damascus Threat introduces a new ICE agent hero I met a lot of guys who’d like to kill you, dear reader. Not just anyone, but …
The music of my Mozart thriller
In a Mozart thriller, the music is naturally one of the most important elements. You might even say it’s one of the leading characters. Certainly it’s …
Mozart’s Vienna: the locations of my Mozart novel
I went to every place in Mozart’s Vienna that I included in ‘Mozart’s Last Aria,’ my novel about the great composer’s …
Caravaggio’s trail: Researching my novel about the Italian artist
I went all over Europe and North America on Caravaggio’s trail, tracking works and the places that touched his life. But in particular to Rome, Naples …
Inside Nablus: The city of my second West Bank mystery
Nablus is my favorite Palestinian town. Yet when I set my third novel The Samaritan’s Secret in Nablus, I discovered many Westerners had never …
My Caravaggio novel: St. Catherine made me write it
How a portrait in Madrid inspired me to write my Caravaggio thriller On the upper floor of the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in central Madrid, I wandered …
Caravaggio’s works in my historical thriller
Here are some of Caravaggio’s works featured in my novel A Name in Blood Young Caravaggio’s self-portrait is second from the right. 1595, age 23 …
Behind the Book: Mozart’s Last Aria
My historical thriller ‘Mozart’s Last Aria’ grew from an idea I had in the place where the great composer’s sister lived …