I was delighted to share the prologue of Last Sunset in San Miguel on July 20 at the prestigious Sunday Reading Series at the very hip jazz bar the Hungry Brain.

At the CWA conference in March I was honored to appear on the "From Life to Fiction: The Journey of First Novels" panel with Samantha Hoffman, Jeremy Wilson and Randy Richardson. We had a lively discussion about the challenges and creative processes behind fiction writing.

Fun night back in May at the annual Novel Affair Benefit for Ragdale, the magnificent retreat where I wrote most of both of my novels.

I was delighted to co-host the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame fundraiser for the third year this February. This event is so fun. The theme was The Man with the Golden Amaretto and, dressed in '40's regalia I had the privilege of reading quite an in-your-face-excerpt from The Man with the Golden Gun by Nelson Algren.