Meet Sloane Skipper
Last time in Beyond the Series, I shared the rules of The Killing Loop. Detective Sloane Skipper is trapped in a repeating day. The murder victim comes back. The evidence resets. Everyone else forgets. Sloane remembers. But a time loop is really only the mechanism of the story. Sloane is the reason I think […]
The Books I Never Forgot
There are books I’ve enjoyed, closed, placed back on the shelf, and eventually forgotten most of the details. Then there are the others. The books where years can pass and I still remember something. Maybe it’s a character. A scene. A twist I never saw coming. Sometimes I can’t even remember every detail of […]
Bake Along With Us: Lemon Blueberry Scones
Our search for the perfect Secrets and Scones scone continues. The first contender was cinnamon, warm, cozy, and exactly the kind of thing I could imagine sitting behind the glass at Claire’s Curious Confections. But we can’t make this competition too easy. So Scone #2 is heading in a completely different direction. Lemon blueberry. 🍋🫐 […]
Building the Trail Sam Will Follow
I already know who Samantha Hayes is hunting in Buried in Silence. Sam doesn’t. And that creates one of my favorite parts of writing a thriller. I have to build a trail between them. Not an obvious trail. If I make it too easy, Sam catches him in fifty pages and we have a very […]
When Reading Makes Me Want to Write
One of my favorite things about reading has nothing to do with being an author. I simply love books. Long before I started publishing my own stories, I was a reader. I loved getting pulled into a mystery, trying to figure out what happened, following investigators through clues, and telling myself I would read […]
Bake Along With Us: Cinnamon Scones
Last week, I told you Skip and I were starting a very important bit of research for Secrets and Scones. Scones. If Claire is going to serve scones at Claire’s Curious Confections, I don’t want to simply type “scone” into the manuscript and call it good. I want to know what she’s serving. So we’re […]
Before the FBI: Who Was Samantha Hayes?
When readers meet Samantha Hayes, she already knows how to watch a room. She notices the hesitation before someone answers. The tiny shift in posture. The expression that disappears almost as quickly as it appears. She pays attention to what people say, but she’s just as interested in what they don’t say. It’s one of […]
The Rules of The Killing Loop
Last week, I introduced you to one of the standalone thrillers I’m working on: The Killing Loop. The premise starts with a murder. Detective Sloane Skipper arrives in Laurel Run to investigate the death of a young woman. She works the case, follows the evidence, and tries to figure out what happened. Then the […]
Reading the Authors Who Made Me Love Thrillers
Welcome to the first Diana’s Reading & Writing Nook. I spend a lot of time talking about the books I’m writing, the characters taking up space in my head, and whatever mystery I’m currently trying to untangle. But long before I was a writer, I was a reader. And I still am. So I […]
What Kind of Scone Belongs in Willow Creek?
When I decided to call the next Willow Creek mystery Secrets and Scones, I created a small problem for myself. Now I need the scones. Not just any scones, either. If they’re going to come out of the ovens at Claire’s Curious Confections, I want them to feel like something Claire would actually make and […]