Note: It is with deep sadness that we announce the passing of Judy Alter (July 22, 1938—July 13, 2024). As per her wishes, this website will continue to serve as a digital legacy, celebrating her life’s work and literary contributions. We invite you to explore her books, writings, and the impact she made on the world of literature. Thank you for your continued support and for helping to keep her memory alive.
Blatant self promotion to lead off a post about cozy mysterieswith the cover of one of my own, but Dame Agathadoesn't need the sales, and I do Happy Birthday today to Dame Agatha Christie, the queen of cozy mysteries. Christie, who was born in 1890, died in 1976 at...
Last night Christian cooked a roast for us. He likes recipes that he can start in the crockpot in the morning and let simmer all day, though he often gets behind himself in the finishing touches—tonight it was getting the dripping to thicken. He finally put them in a...
Jordan's chicken Caesar wraps AS we go through life, I think all of us develop little rituals. I’ve thought about this a lot lately because some are so repetitive they annoy me—sometimes when I brush my teeth in the morning, I think with a sigh that it just has to be...
Sue Ellen Learns to Dance and other StoriesOne of my often overlooked booksand the only collection of short stories I haveAvailable on Kindle for ninety-nine cents The question startled me. It came from my son’s friend, a man in his early fifties who retired two years...
A quick note from my publisher, the TwoDot imprint of Globe Pequot, sent me checking listings for my forthcoming nonfiction title, The Most Land, the Best Cattle: the Waggoners of Texas, due out October 1. To my joy, it is available for pre-order on Amazon, Barnes...
Owen Wister Award for Lifetime AchievementWestern Writers of America I’ll just put this right out there: there is now a Wikipedia page about me and my career as a writer. Makes me feel like one of the grown-ups! I’ve used Wikipedia a lot, never scorned it was much as...
We’re getting a lovely, soft, gentle rain this morning, and it’s supposed to last all day. Good day for books and naps and a pot of soup. I was talking recently with a longtime friend who will be moving into an arrangement like mine—a cottage on her daughter’s...
Now available in paperback, digital, and audio editionsYou're bound to love Henny and laugh at Irene The other night I started a blog on how to write a mystery, because I’d discovered a new and unorthodox method. Since it seems to be going well, I’ll try again and...
As I write, my eyes are on the TV, watching the Kentucky Derby. All I need is a mint julep, which would send me to my bed almost instantly. I do love them, but I am sensible and have a glass of white wine. I’m not much of a racing fan and I often think racing is cruel...
Sometimes my experiments in cooking alarm even me. Last night it was fiddlehead ferns. Central Market sent out an email advising that they are available only briefly in the spring. Get them now while you can! Well, who can resist that kind of salesmanship? Surely not...
Texas caviar “I do not like to write — I like to have written.” That oft-quoted saying has been attributed to everyone from Mark Twain (who I always thought really did say it) to, gulp, Gloria Steinem—really? Well, I have a new twist on it: I do not like to write—but...
(I know this has nothing to do with books, writing, or cooking, but this holds dear to my heart and I wanted to share this with everyone, especially those in the Fort Worth, Texas, area.) As a lifelong dog person, I am terribly distressed by all the pictures of lost...
Into the Sunset Spent much of the day working on an entry on Electra Waggoner Biggs for the Handbook of Texas Online Special Project on Women. Electra has long interested me. Born to wealth as one of the heirs of the largest ranch under one fence in this country, she...
This greenest of holidays all year seems to cry out for an Irish dish. Corned beef and cabbage is the traditional, of course, and I’ll be fixing a pot, though I’ll sauté the cabbage in butter, rather than boil it, and then finish with salt, pepper, and a good dollop...
Yellow fin tuna Who knew that the subject of tuna salad was fraught with so much emotion! Yet a long—and I do mean long—thread on the Facebook New York Times Cooking Community page demonstrates the intensity of feelings. As someone who has eaten tuna all my life,...
Salmon croquettes I am amused that on Facebook you occasionally see a picture of a platter of salmon croquettes, with the caption, “Does anyone still eat these?” I am here to shout, “Yes!” A childhood memory and still a favorite food today. Just made a small batch—one...
Our house on the second day of snowmageddon So many are in so much worse condition than I am that I wouldn’t think of complaining. I have power and water—cold, but not hot. But I have devised a dish-washing method—heating water in the electric kettle and using my...
The house of my growing years Last night I was reading the opening of Jacqueline Winspear’s memoir, This Time Next Year We’ll Be Laughing, when I came across the passage where she talks of the land of our growing and how it is filled with meaning for each of us....
When my children were little, we spent many a happy weekend—and sometimes a week at a time—at a guest ranch near Ben Wheeler, Texas owned by good friends. Charles Ogilvie taught radiology at the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine, and his wife, Reva, ran the...
For nineteen years, Story Circle Network, an international online organization that encourages women to write about their experiences, has published an anthology, Real Women Write, choosing a different theme each year. For the 2020 anthology, the choice of theme was...
A post on the New York Times Cooking Community this morning got me thinking about frugality. A woman wrote that she had cooked an Asian meal and, presumably for the first time, used water chestnuts. But she had half a can leftover—not, she said, enough to freeze (do...
Jordan fixed me a lovely lunch-- salmon salad, her potato salad, tomatoes, and hearts of palm Call me spoiled. A few days ago, I posted that Jordan has been more interested lately in cooking and learning some techniques. For my weekly recipes today, I want to share a...
Note: This first appeared today, Friday February 7, 2020, as a guest post on the Mysteristas blog. It is reprinted with their kind permission. I was surprised to see Debra Winegarten’s name come up on my phone that morning in the summer of 2018. I knew her but not...
Jordan has it firmly fixed in her mind that there’s a connection between wintry weather and chili. Let there be the slightest forecast of snow, ice, sleet, even freezing rain, and she issues a call for chili. So far, today’s predicted storm has missed us, though it’s...
One of the blessings of my life is that I usually sleep well at night—and frequently in the daytime too. But last night about three o’clock, I woke and then my busy mind kept me from falling back to sleep. I’ve been known to write great fiction at such times, but the...
