Kim McMahill

I finally went to my first haunted house. It was awesome. I’m not saying I was overly scared, but I couldn’t help but be impressed by the staging. The sets were authentic, the sound and special effects were excellent, and the actors did a believable job. Hopefully my writer’s critical eye even learned something about how the tiniest detail can make any scene feel more realistic.

St. Peter's Square Part of a well-crafted, believable story is the author’s ability to create a sense of place so strong the reader feels they are there or is left with an overwhelming desire to explore even if the setting is fictional. No one does this more successfully than Dan Brown. On a recent visit to Rome I timed reading Angels and Demons to correspond with my sight-seeing. The book made my visit more exciting and gazing directly at the monuments described in the novel added a tangible dimension to the story. I always strive to create settings in my stories that take the reader on a journey of discovery and I gauge the success of a story by how deeply I can immerse the reader in an interesting culture or place. I hope Deadly Ruins has encouraged readers to explore Cobá on Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula. And, while there I hope they follow the heroine’s path through the ruins to find the spot where she venture’s further into the unknown and take a moment to ponder what lay b...

Sometimes I get discouraged. I know my work is as good, if not better, than much of what’s out there, but each small success is so hard won. I’ve read some early work from a handful of today’s top writers and it’s not great, yet someone took a chance on these once unknown writers and helped to mold them into great writers. How do you find someone willing to see the potential and take a chance? It’s a common ailment across all artistic genres. Every time I see a group or artist that’s really good and I think about those superstars who can’t carry a tune, I know I’m not alone in my frustration. I may have mentioned before that every time I see the Randy Rogers Band I wonder why they aren’t a household name. And, recently I listened to Fork in the Road at a nearby casino and thought, why not? They’re excellent musicians, song writers and all the covers they played sounded as good the original. While I continue to ponder the mystery, I’ll continue to write and encourage all those out there...

Nothing provides inspiration quite like a few weeks in the Tetons.

Bookstore, 109 N Bent St, Powell, WY The Bookworm, 8702 Pacific, Omaha, NE Hotel Terra, Teton Village, WY Teton Mountain Lodge & Spa, Teton Village, WY The Wild Burro Bookstore, Hot Springs, SD Probst Western Store, Greybull, WY Cooke City Store, Cooke City, MT For all book titles, ISBN numbers or publishers’ websites see post on May 27, 2011. Books can also be purchased at Amazon and Barnes and Nobel and Deadly Ruins is now available in Kindle and Nook formats.

I love my tiny garden. Most people would find it laughably small, but by the end of June I had enjoyed lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, peppers, a host of herbs from lemon grass to basil, rosemary, mint and chives, and enough zucchini that I was able to share with friends. I recently watched a show on Cuba. It appears things are slowly changing for the better, but during the strict days of Communism subsistence farming was prohibited. Wow – why wouldn’t a government want its people to try and feed themselves? I’ll leave that perplexing question to those who understand politics. I tend to look at things through a more logical lens, and as we all know, politics no matter what the system and logic seldom belong in the same discussion. So, for now I’ll continue to appreciate the bounty of my small garden and the freedom to grow it.

A free outdoor concert on a beautiful evening at a great venue featuring Incendio, a Latin guitar world fusion group, had the crowd dancing. The combination made for a night to remember, and made me itch to get on the road and explore.