This happens a lot! The most recent was when we were in Pacific Beach walking along the boardwalk. The place was alive with surfers, walkers, and gawkers. The atmosphere was so electric that the idea for the Beachtown Detective Agency mysteries came rushing at me. That happened shortly before Covid, which eventually caused me to shift the series from the fictional “Beachtown” to the real town of Carlsbad. However, much of the original idea stuck as I made changes to the setting.

I get ideas all the time from visiting new places. When we toured Yesteryear, a Florida living history museum in West Palm Beach, I thought it would be the perfect setting for a murder mystery. All the actors playing historical figures could be suspects. In Star Tangled Murder, hairstylist Marla Vail and her husband attend a Seminole Battle Reenactment when the town marshal ends up dead, slain with a tomahawk… for real. It sets off Marla’s investigation with a range of suspects based on the characters I met there.

My first book, Maze in Blue, is set on my undergraduate alma mater’s campus. My inspiration for the setting was different physical areas of the University of Michigan’s campus. The inspiration for two key plot points came from actual occurrences while I was a student.

Absolutely! One of the most inspiring places I’ve ever lived was Bristol, England. In the late ’90s, I served as the Chief Engineer for the Royal Air Force’s Fast Jet Training Program and spent about three marvelous years there, right near the British Airways manufacturing plant. That experience sparked the idea for a historical mystery I’ve written—full of atmosphere, struggle, intrigue, and a dash of aviation history. I’m currently pitching it to agents and feeling excited about the possibilities!

says that her very first cozy mystery was inspired by her lousy golf game. Because her husband was a golfer, she took lessons and joined a Ladies 9-hole League. Disaster Loomed! Again and again, her ball landed in the woods. She looked around and said, “his would be a great place for a body”, and thus, the story of In For A Penny was launched.

Most of my books take place in NJ and the NY metro area because it’s familiar territory. However, when I went to Barcelona years ago, I was inspired to send Anastasia Pollack, my reluctant amateur sleuth, to Barcelona on a brief vacation. Of course, she winds up the victim of mistaken identy and is kidnapped! You can read about her adventure in the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mini-Mystery, Mosaic Mayhem. If you sign up for my newsletter, you’ll receive the novella as a free download.