My Blog
Sharing my thoughts and providing real life stories for my readers to think about.
Fall and Other F Words
Fall is finally here. Thank God. The heat of summer is less and less appealing to me the older I get. I shudder to think I used to find it fabulous to drive to Palm Springs in the middle of summer to lie by the pool all day. Fall is fabulous. Fall ushers in—not in any...
My Active Brain
I have a secret to reveal. My brain never shuts off, even when I sleep. Day and night my brain churns out thoughts after digesting events and facts garnered from the day or week before. I used to think I was the only person in the world with this problem, but I have...
Revelations
I discovered a new quality about myself this week. Something I always knew I possessed but never specifically defined or acknowledged: I absorb and catalogue life stories from everyone I meet. Interestingly, most of the time I’m not even consciously aware that I’m...
Storytelling
It should come as no surprise to those who know me that I love to write. So, when I was asked recently why I love to write, I simply answered, “I love telling stories.” But as soon those words left my lips, I realized why I love telling stories. I learned the art from...
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...