DIANE VALLERE

I like to listen to personal growth podcasts. I see this less of an admission of a weakness than a statement of fact; I have never claimed to be perfect and I like to think of myself as constantly striving to improve. The theme of personal growth trickles into my fiction, most present in the characters of Madison Night and Samantha Kidd, but really, it's in all of my series. The way I see it, if someone finds a dead body and ends up solving the related murder mystery, there's

Confession: I'm not all that into football. I haven't watched a game in over ten years. But on Sunday, Feb 4, I'll be rooting for the Eagles. Here's what being an Eagles fan says about me (and probably a lot of people): 1. I'm eternally hopeful. Rooting for the Eagles is like saying even if I don't succeed today, I'm going to try again tomorrow. Listen, we've been here before, and things haven't gone our way. But that doesn't mean they can't change. 2. I will always consider

I've become a big fan of binge-watching TV shows, but not for the reasons you might expect. I think of the time spent as if I'm taking a master class in story telling. Consider this: fiction writers are advised to read widely within our chosen genre. This helps us learn pace and timing. When you hold a physical book, you know you're dealing with a finite amount of time in those characters' lives. You can internalize when the story picks up or lulls based on the pages turned.

I am in the ridiculously happy place of having just turned in a manuscript and having zero trips on the calendar for July. Which means I'm not stressed! And while I have a monster list of things that I've been putting off until July, I also know that I can let the whims of the day take me wherever they want (at least for now.) And because I'm excited about July, I want YOU to be excited about July, so I whipped up a contest. Which I have handily named TGI July. (I love that i

I received an email in late March that asked if I was interested in participating in an upcoming episode of a show on Investigation Discovery called "Nightmare Next Door." The email set off all of the emotions you'd expect: adrenaline, fear, excitement, self-criticism. A quick glance at my calendar allayed a lot of that; I was already booked for the Sisters in Crime Hollywood Conference during the dates in question. But. This being my year of Costanza Marketing, I recognize

Lately I've been thinking about what it means to be a strong woman. I like to think that I am one, but I don't think it's the first thing people think when they meet me. It could be the exclamation point use on social media or the bright color palette I wear or the tone of the books that I write or my generally positive disposition. Or it could be my shoes. Who knows? Being a work-in-progress, I can admit that I'm only strong part of the time. There are difficult conversation

I've joined up with 31 other authors to offer a giant promo: 32 free ebooks. Find mystery (my giveaway is DESIGNER DIRTY LAUNDRY), suspense, and thriller among them. Click here to be taken to the promo and here's hoping you find your next great read! #dianevallere #free #freeebooks #instafreebie #promotion #shoescluesclothes

When I started blogging again, I did so for the main reason of holding myself accountable for personal growth in a public forum. This wasn't because I thought my life was all that interesting, but because a) that way I can't be lazy or lie, and b) maybe my efforts will inspire somebody else to identify their own areas for self-improvement. This particular post deals with my need for a non-writing hobby in order to be a well-rounded person. When I worked full time, writing wa

I have a fear of flying. When I was a retail buyer I traveled regularly, and I wrote my first book during flights to and from market week. The distraction helped but it was a temporary solution; I wanted to write so instead of dreading flights, I anticipated them. (Okay, there was a little dread. I'm not going to lie.) Last year one of my friends and I were brainstorming ideas to promote my various series. I said I was limited to events that I could drive to because of the ex

I love hearing about people who actively try to improve themselves. I think about personal growth a lot, and while there are times when I'm relatively happy with who I am and where I am, there are also times when I realize how much opportunity there is for me to improve. I'm self-critical in many aspects, I have an ingrained sense of competition that often pits my accomplishments against those of others, and I sometimes feel I'm destined for a life of mediocrity. That is th

Every book that I write is the result of a whole bunch of different influences fed into my brain and combined with what is already there. In a way, it's a cocktail of random thoughts and implosions of the will, and most of the time when I'm writing the draft, I have no idea how it's going to turn out. Masking for Trouble was influenced by several different things: the millennium project in Hollywood, the likelihood of an earthquake being triggered by construction, the three i

Just like the concept of perfection, I have a hard time with the concept of failure. To me, it's like giving the world an excuse to notice my flaws and shortcomings. Growing up as a competitive swimmer, sometimes not winning felt like failing, while in reality, failing probably should have been not completing an event. Still, failure. Not something I've ever embraced. Sara Blakely, founder of Spanx Hosiery, recently landed on the cover of the June 2016 Forbes Magazine as one

It's release month for GRAND THEFT RETRO, #5 in the Style & Error mystery series! I'll be celebrating all month long (after all, May IS Samantha Kidd's birthday) with giveaways and fun trivia about the book. This book was particularly interesting to write because it finds Samantha not unemployed or job-challenged like previous books, but in a work-intensive position that affords her (and her cat) some of the nicer things in life. Wasn't that what she had way back in Designer

About a month ago, Kim Kardashian created an attention blitz over the latest in a string of naked selfies she's posted on Instagram and Twitter. Now, whether or not Miss K wants to post pics of herself in the nude is not what interested me. The fact is, Kim K has a great body and she knows it. She's a media sensation, and her naked selfies get attention. So, aside from the idea that shocking behavior gets attention (which we all know, right?), why am I still thinking about it

As part of my year of trying different things and basically doing the opposite of what I've done in the past (in terms of marketing, though this has already spilled onto other avenues of my life), I decided that I would hand deliver deluxe launch party invitations to the media around Los Angeles. This is so far outside of my comfort zone that it might as well be Mars. My comfort zone is right here in this chair. There are entire days when I don't leave my apartment and that's

This is how it starts: I read a book. Jen Lancaster's Bitter is the new Black. I'm a fan of Ms. Lancaster's writing. Whenever I read one of ther books, I find myself turning to my preppy/ Jackie O side: pearls, twinsets, plaid, argyle. Pretty much anything endorsed by the Preppy Handbook (hooray, too, for Lisa Birnbach, who helped me with my college prep with Lisa Birnbach's College Book, plus wrote a book about Barbie! She's my kind of gal.) So, reading Bitter is the New Bla

It's December 17, and I can't stop thinking about 2016. I know, I know. There are fourteen more days to 2015, and a lot can happen in fourteen days. Even just today I approached somebody about something that now looks like it's going to happen. In 2016. I get giddy this time of year--the possibilities of the new year all shiny and exciting like the pile of wrapped presents under the tree. I reviewed my 2015 list, and am pleased to note that as of yesterday, I completed nine o