ELISE BROACH

My mom says that when it rains you never feel like you should be anywhere but home.

That was the very heart of friendship...your willingness to help each other in a jam, to take a friend's problems as your very own.

My dad always says, some people will treat you badly and you can't help that. But how you handle it and how it makes you feel, that's up to you.

The funny thing is, though I write mysteries, it is the one genre in adult fiction I never read. I read Nancy Drew, of course, when I was a kid, but I think the real appeal is as a writer because I'm drawn to puzzly, complicated plots.

A great friendship was like a great work of art, he thought. It took time and attention, and a spark of something that was impossible to describe. It was a happy, lucky accident, finding some kindred part of yourself in a total stranger." pg. 287

But really, there are no coincidences. Coincidences are just other people's choices, plans you don't know about.

The most important things in a friendship didn't have to be said out loud.

I wrote my senior essay on the Santa Fe Writer's Colony and my dissertation on sacred landscapes - the Grand Canyon, the Dakota Badlands. As a setting, I love the West. I just love that western landscape.

Mysteries always have the potential for interesting connections between the elements. I'm also most interested in the relationship between the characters. As in 'Masterpiece,' I'm trying to create characters who not only are solving a mystery but are solving the riddle of their own personal relationships.

There is a difference between giving into something and accepting it.

I wrote my senior essay on the Santa Fe Writer's Colony and my dissertation on sacred landscapes - the Grand Canyon, the Dakota Badlands. As a setting, I love the West. I just love that western landscape.

My kids have grown up knowing that their mom made a big investment in making sure there was art and language instruction in school and books in the library. Hopefully, they've internalized that.

Mysteries always have the potential for interesting connections between the elements. I'm also most interested in the relationship between the characters. As in 'Masterpiece,' I'm trying to create characters who not only are solving a mystery but are solving the riddle of their own personal relationships.

The funny thing is, though I write mysteries, it is the one genre in adult fiction I never read. I read Nancy Drew, of course, when I was a kid, but I think the real appeal is as a writer because I'm drawn to puzzly, complicated plots.

My dad always says, some people will treat you badly and you can't help that. But how you handle it and how it makes you feel, that's up to you.

That was the very heart of friendship...your willingness to help each other in a jam, to take a friend's problems as your very own.

But really, there are no coincidences. Coincidences are just other people's choices, plans you don't know about.

My mom says that when it rains you never feel like you should be anywhere but home.

A person's birthday should be a special day, a wonderful day, a day of pure celebration for the luck of being born!

There is a difference between giving into something and accepting it.

A great friendship was like a great work of art, he thought. It took time and attention, and a spark of something that was impossible to describe. It was a happy, lucky accident, finding some kindred part of yourself in a total stranger." pg. 287

The most important things in a friendship didn't have to be said out loud.