My Blog
Sharing my thoughts and providing real life stories for my readers to think about.
Killing Me Softly
If you’ve read my novels, you will have noticed I like to incorporate murder into all of them. Indeed, killing a character—whether a protagonist or an antagonist—is a form of psychotherapy for me. It is subconsciously cathartic. In fact, each “killing” probably equals...
What a Character!
Choosing what I like better—creating characters for my novels or developing the actual storyline—is akin to a asking a mother to pick her favorite child. No doubt, she would likely say it depends on the day and her mood. Clearly, gripping characters drive a novel’s...
Reading Hiatuses
A friend of mine I will call “Sam,” who is an avid reader, confessed to me the other day that she hadn’t read a book in quite some time. In fact, she’d completely lost interest in reading. What??? She’d always have novels lined up, reading one after the other. She’d...
My Covid Comfort Zone
Lockdowns can bring out the best and the worst in a person. Take me for example. I had no problem hunkering down and writing for a least an hour each day. I also had no problem hunkering down and snacking every evening. Orville Redenbacher’s Movie Theater Butter...
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...