BIG NEWS: "SLEEPWALKER" nominated for an Edgar Award by the Mystery Writers of America.

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Wendy Corsi Staub's Blog (286)

Let's NOT Talk Politics!

You can’t avoid it. Wherever you go, there they are: Obama and McCain, Biden and Palin, consuming the airwaves, the headlines, mailboxes, conversation, even the parade of Halloween costumes last night.

A friend theorized, the other day, that we tend to absorb and grow up to reflect our parents’ political views. That’s possibly quite true in most cases, but not in my own. My parents encouraged independent thinking, and I embraced it. Thus, I was born into one political party–my dad… Continue

Added by Wendy Corsi Staub on November 1, 2008 at 3:12pm — 2 Comments

THIS JUST IN...

Here it is, at last! The cover for my May thriller, along with the stepback art (inside cover). What do you… Continue

Added by Wendy Corsi Staub on October 27, 2008 at 4:00am — 5 Comments

Seventeen Years Ago Today...

And we are living happily ever after. :-)

Happy Anniversary, Mark.

Added by Wendy Corsi Staub on October 26, 2008 at 3:00pm — 5 Comments

Lily Dale

October usually brings media interest in the paranormal novels I've written, and this year is no exception. I just taped a segment for News 12 Westchester that will air on Halloween. The anchor, Matt Sampson, is a friend of mine and he wanted to know all about my novels set in Lily Dale (the upstate New York spiritualist community): both the adult thriller IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE, and the young adult series LILY DALE, which includes the titles… Continue

Added by Wendy Corsi Staub on October 24, 2008 at 5:00am — 3 Comments

Criminal Minds

While I was researching my upcoming thriller DEAD BEFORE DARK, I drew on knowledge I had gleaned having already read volumes upon volumes on the topic of criminal profiling–I’d been interested in it since I took a sociology class in Deviant Behavior way back in college. But for this book, reading about the FBI wasn’t enough. I needed to talk to someone who could tell me exactly what it was like to be an agent, on a day to day basis.

Luckily, an author pal put me in touch with a… Continue

Added by Wendy Corsi Staub on October 22, 2008 at 4:30am — 7 Comments

The Wino and I Know

I’m Italian and grew up in a huge family where the food and wine flowed on every imaginable occasion, from Saint Joseph’s Day to ordinary Sunday dinners. As kids, we sipped wine in church when we got communion, and I’m sure my grandfather would have given me a splash in a jelly glass with my spaghetti had I asked. I never did. He always had cherry soda for us and that was just fine with me.

I don’t pretend to be a teetotaler–my friends are laughing, ha!--but it recently struck me as… Continue

Added by Wendy Corsi Staub on October 16, 2008 at 6:30pm — 2 Comments

Cent Anni!

Thanks, everyone, for the kind thoughts about my grandma. She’s been in and out of the hospital and is doing a little better, though my living 450 miles away makes it hard for me to really get a handle on things. I haven’t been back to my hometown since Fourth of July weekend and unfortunately can’t get there till the end of the year. I have always made it a point to get back at least every couple of months but this year that hasn’t been possible.

Things are complicated in part by my… Continue

Added by Wendy Corsi Staub on October 14, 2008 at 6:30am — 1 Comment

TT

The last few days, my Grandma hasn't been doing so well. I've spoken to her a few times and haven't liked the way she sounded. Last night my father called to tell me she had been taken to the hospital. I had a hard time sleeping.

Grandma is my mom's mom and has always been a huge part of my life--lived two doors down from us when I was little. My sister and I were the first grandchildren of… Continue

Added by Wendy Corsi Staub on September 25, 2008 at 6:30am — 4 Comments

In The Blink of an Eye!

I just got this brand new redesigned cover art for my 2002 thriller IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE. It's going to be reissued by my publisher, Kensington, in a special $4.99 edition this coming April with an excerpt from my new May thriller, DEAD BEFORE DARK, in the back. What do you think of the… Continue

Added by Wendy Corsi Staub on September 24, 2008 at 2:15pm — 5 Comments

Seven Years Later--Share your memories

Above: my boys and my nephews at the World Trade Center (Ground Zero) site last week.

On a weekday early in September, 2001, I brought my children to the Museum of Natural History in Manhattan, a short train ride from our suburban home. Friends were in town from L.A., and the boys and I spent time with them walking around on the Upper West Side. The sun was out, the sky was blue, and the city on that day struck me as more… Continue

Added by Wendy Corsi Staub on September 11, 2008 at 1:30pm — 4 Comments

Full Bloom and Beautiful Boys

Mark and I have both written here about our personal tragedy: losing both our moms to breast cancer over the past 8 years–both just in their early to mid-sixties and both doting grandmas to our children. (And about losing his dear aunt to the same disease, when she was even younger) In both cases with our moms, death came to us, and to them, as a horrible shock–they had both beaten the disease,… Continue

Added by Wendy Corsi Staub on September 9, 2008 at 8:30am — 9 Comments

Silver and Gold

Remember the old singsong Brownie rhyme: “Make new friends but keep the old, one is silver and the other gold”??

I haven’t been a Brownie in decades, but that ditty has been ringing through my ears lately–especially now that we’re home and the boys are gearing up to go back to school.

Teacher and team assignments came in the mail late last week from their respective schools. Phones all over town immediately began ringing as my children… Continue

Added by Wendy Corsi Staub on August 25, 2008 at 3:30pm — 4 Comments

Home Again

As promised, I have uploaded some photos from our trip. Above you can see us in San Francisco on the (sad) last day of our trip. Yeah, we're pretty much huddled together for warmth...it was pretty brisk in the Bay area, let me tell you!

We snapped about a thousand pictures, between three cameras, so this is just the tip of the iceberg. You can find… Continue

Added by Wendy Corsi Staub on August 24, 2008 at 2:00pm — 2 Comments

ON THE EDGE

ABOVE: I am not holding my children's hands, I am clenching them for dear life!

I had heard all about the Pacific Coast Highway here in California–about how beautiful it is, and also how frightening it can be to drive on a road that winds high above the Pacific Ocean without guard rails. I even rode on it a few years back–for a short distance, near L.A., going north–in other words, the drop-offs were on the other side of… Continue

Added by Wendy Corsi Staub on August 12, 2008 at 11:30am — 2 Comments

Greetings from San Francisco

(above) my three favorite guys and the Golden Gate Bridge

(above) me in front of the famous painted ladies on Alamo Square

Hi Everyone! Just a quick note to say I didn't fall off the face of the earth. I've been in northern California for a few weeks. What a trip! I'll update soon. Hope everyone is having a great… Continue

Added by Wendy Corsi Staub on August 8, 2008 at 1:00am — 1 Comment

PLAYING HOOKY

One recent morning--as I was sitting in my un-air-conditioned office under the sun-baked eaves, trying to think of a line of dialogue while sweating profusely and staring wistfully at the gorgeous day out the window behind my keyboard--the phone rang.

It was my younger son’s friend, asking if he wanted to go sailing on their boat on the Long Island Sound. I said sure–if Mark could go, too, to keep an eye on him, as he has been known… Continue

Added by Wendy Corsi Staub on July 20, 2008 at 9:00am — 5 Comments

Hanging with Readers and Authors

With me from left to right: Jon Land, Robert Liparulo, R.L. Stine

Thrillerfest--and conferences like it--are a rare, welcome opportunity for those of us in the lonely business of writing. As I frequently tell my readers (and reporters) who ask what my least favorite part of the job is–-unfortunately, we really don’t get out much because our jobs require long days of "alone" time. No water cooler morning chats for those of us in the… Continue

Added by Wendy Corsi Staub on July 13, 2008 at 9:30am — 4 Comments

Ghostly Thrills at Thrillerfest

I’m currently in the midst of Thrillerfest–the annual conference for one of my writing groups, International Thriller Writers–where the list of headlining authors reads like a bestseller list Who’s Who: James Patterson, Clive Cussler, Sandra Brown, David Baldacci...

A number of my author pals are in town for this event, and I can’t wait to reconnect with them. Last night, I had the chance to catch… Continue

Added by Wendy Corsi Staub on July 12, 2008 at 9:00am — 1 Comment

ON THE ROAD AGAIN

Remember back in May, when I was craving my own coffeepot, my own bed, and some down time at home? Yeah, well, I got my fill of all that in June, so now that July is here, the old highway’s (and skyway’s) a’callin’.

I’m writing this on my laptop (with 30 minutes of battery time remaining) from the front seat of our small Saab that’s packed to the gills… Continue

Added by Wendy Corsi Staub on July 8, 2008 at 5:00pm — 2 Comments

Summertime...and the living's not easy

I’m probably in the minority, but lately, I’m not a big “summer” person.

Not that I don’t enjoy sunshine and blue skies, backyard barbecues, swimming laps at the pool, lounging on the beach with a good book. But those aren’t things I (or most people) get to do on a daily basis during the summer months, unless we’re on vacation. So--don't shoot me!--when I’m stuck inside at the keyboard, I’d just as soon have a cold rain–or better yet, a good… Continue

Added by Wendy Corsi Staub on June 29, 2008 at 9:30am — 3 Comments