My Blog
Sharing my thoughts and providing real life stories for my readers to think about.
Churning of ideas gets creative process going, and the writing just flows
I’m often asked by friends and acquaintances how I create the characters in my novels and where my ideas come from. Well, it’s complicated. But, simply put, my brain never stops working. No vacations or sick days. No pauses whatsoever in processing thoughts and ideas....
Vigilantes’ efforts at justice for predators resonates with fictional Lisa Benton
Real-life vigilante cases resonate with San Clemente author Rochelle Kaplan whose protagnoist Lisa Benton, seeks out sexual predators for Benton’s own style of cosmic justice.
Blogless No More: Why writing fiction took precedence over marketing
To blog or not to blog; that had been the question I’d been asking myself for the past year and a half. Sadly, whether it was conscious or unconscious, I had chosen not to blog. For that omission, I owe my audience an apology. From this day forth, however, I will...
Author offers “equal opportunity” for evil female characters
Sometime last year between waiting for my first copies of Persona Non Grata and beginning writing its sequel, Day of Reckoning, I was listening to the radio and heard a news clip about a young mother and former Mrs. Orange County who’d been arrested for producing and...
Real life “Lisa” in Texas sends perverted relative to jail
Life Imitating Art “Are you listening to Gary and Shannon?”my husband breathlessly asked when he called me last week, referring to a radio show on our local talk-radio channel in Los Angeles, KFI. “They’re talking about a woman in Texas with almost the exact story as...
For the record, I love dogs. And beer. In their proper contexts.
Raise your words, not your voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder. -Rumi Attila the Hun Lives! I’ve been agitated lately about one thing or another, but nothing in particular. Nothing I can put my finger on. That is, until very recently. That’s when I...
How random acts can alter our perspectives
Surviving Random Acts I survived a fairly violent 4-vehicle traffic accident recently as I was en route to my bimonthly West Coast Swing Dance in Long Beach. I got hit on the right front side of my SUV by another, smaller SUV traveling at about 60 m.p.h. What does...
How my dad influenced my search for wisdom
Search for Sagacity When I was a young adult, I looked forward to getting older because I wanted to be as knowledgeable and wise as my parents’ generation. Seriously. I could listen for hours on end to my parents’ and their friends’ life stories: their experiences...
Second Amendment applies to all in U.S., straight or gay
Political Blog I am struggling with my thoughts as I contemplate writing a politically-tinged post, trying as hard as I can to avoid it. Respecting different points of view and political leanings, I am absolutely steadfast in my beliefs, though I try to keep an open...
Evil-ution and other thoughts on violence
Evil and Violence Never have I sat down to create fiction with the intention of writing happy, fun and lighthearted prose. Never. But don’t misunderstand me. I am not a morose person seeking to transmit my melancholy onto paper as a cathartic exercise, as if by doing...
Serial killer fascination stems from real-life incident
Serial killers have always intrigued me. They are typically loners or outcasts from society, and invariably derive sexual satisfaction from perpetrating their abhorrent deeds on others. While I never feared I’d be the victim of one, I yearned to know more about what...
Author channels ideas as PNG sequel unfolds
This is what it's like inside my head I don’t get distracted. Really, I don’t. It’s just that at times, I have conflicting writing agendas in my brain that are competing for attention; I have difficulty deciding on which one to concentrate. It’s kind of like zipping...