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.
Sausage skillet supper It’s predictable. Every year after the holidays, the other adults in the Alter/Burton compound go on a diet. So I wasn’t really surprised when it happened this year—nor am I completely out of sympathy. I know that they seem to feel better when...
Today is what I’m calling a soft launch for a reprint of one of my early novels about Texas, So Far from Paradise. But I’m sharing the story behind this one, because I think it’s kind of interesting. I hope you will too. In 1986 a kind of fervor swept Texas as the...
I went to a reception last night, book launch if you will—for a simply magnificent book from TCU Press. It’s The Art of Texas: 250 Years, Ron Tyler as editor and contributions from well-known scholars, art historians, and curators. At 456 pp, measuring 10 x 12, and...
Sunday night seems a good time to share good news. This past week I signed contracts with Globe Pequot Publishers for a new book—and five reprints. The new book is a study of one mega-ranching family in North Texas and Fort Worth, with a feminist approach to the...
I’m in danger of the big head tonight. I just got home from the biennial induction ceremony for the Texas Literary Hall of Fame, sponsored by the Friends of the Fort Worth Public Library. Hors d’oevres, wine, and the presentation ceremony. It was my great privilege to...
Anyone have any need for a “never before used” set of notes for a talk on Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, as seen from Etta Place’s point of view? I just happen to have such. My calendar said I was to speak on my book by that title next Wednesday, but I had heard...
Today was launch day for my third cookbook, Gourmet on a Hot Plate: Tiny Kitchen Tips and Recipes. The tips and recipes combine my lifelong love of cooking, wisdom and practicality of my mom, and my experience of cooking in a tiny kitchen for over two years. No stove,...
Our chilly damp weather continues. Yesterday afternoon it occurred to me that it is definitely soup weather. So I made a clean sweep of the freezer, scooping up a bit of corn, both beef and chicken broth, a serving of beef and barley soup, and I’m not sure what else....
I was a recluse today. Just me, Sophie, and that pesky squirrel on the patio. If I had to choose a day to be a recluse, this was a good one. Dark, rainy, stormy this morning. We had those proverbial sheets of blowing rain. Not much thunder, but enough to keep Sophie...
Apologies in advance for a whiny post, but my latest Kelly O’Connell Mystery, the eighth, Contract for Chaos, was snake-bit from the beginning. The manuscript was finished, ready to go in June, with publication scheduled for early September. That left the summer for...
Today is the publication date for my eighth Kelly O’Connell Mystery, Contract for Chaos. I published the first in that series, Skeleton in a Dead Space, in 2011, so that makes fourteen mysteries in seven years—not quite two a year, a record that makes me look back. I...
My mom has been gone thirty years, and yet she’s still in the kitchen with me. I’ve been proofreading my new cookbook—Gourmet on a Hot Plate, due out in November--and there are reminders of Mom on so many pages—recipes, household hints, etc. I can’t tell you how many...
I’m slowly proofreading my cookbook—a chapter at a time. Wow! Sure different from proofing a novel. I’m finding lots—maybe I have changed my mind about this dish or that. And in some recipes, the instructions were left out—I’ve had to go back and reconstruct. Slow,...
Story Circle Network, an international online organization designed to encourage women to tell their stories, has a small work-in-progress group, so small that those of us who participate regularly feel part of a close-knit circle. We laugh, celebrate, weep, and wail...
No, silly, not a novel I’m reading. One I’m writing but had put aside. Today was a stay-at-home and work day. I planned to put together the June Poohbah, the newsletter I do each month for my neighborhood, and then work on my memoir. But it was close to noon before I...
Had a delightful lunch and experience today with a group of ladies who, gulp!, like my books. A few days ago, I got an email from Joyce M. who wrote that she belonged to a group of ladies who became friends at a now-vanished Curves exercise studio and have stayed...
Launch day has been fun, which shows me you don’t have to do a signing or an online party. Just put the word out there. Thanks to all who have reposted my notices, sent congrats and good wishes. I hope you all read the interview by fictional Anastasia Pollock (Lois...
My very first book, After Pa Was Shot, was published in 1978 by William Morrow & Co., then a major NY publisher, now swallowed up by conglomerates. It was reprinted by Ellen Temple Books in Texas, went out of print, and now sees new life as a digital and paperback...
I am excited to tell you about the new Blue Plate Café Mystery, Murder at the Bus Depot, due out as an ebook and in paperback print on April 6. You can pre-order on Amazon now. Here’s the cover and a brief synopsis. Is the depot a symbol of the worst episode in a...
Okay, I confess. I didn’t blog last night because I was lost in a book and desperate to finish it. No, it wasn’t one of my own, though I sincerely wish I could tell you it was my current work-in-progress. No such luck—I’m only halfway through that one. I was nearing...
When I was ready to go to bed last night, this is what greeted me—a dog happily settled on my bed and not inclined to move. We sat and loved together for a bit, but when I started to pull back the covers, she hopped down. Sometimes if I get up in the night to use the...
I’ve always said I write mysteries because I love to read them. But I am also the child of parents with a strong Protestant work ethic that they passed on to me. I have this conviction that I must be doing something to contribute to the greater good of the world....
*UPDATE* The giveaway has ended. Thanks to those that signed up! Originally posted on 9/5/17: Goodreads and I are having a giveaway: Three signed books of my recent book, The Color of Fear! It ends on September 10th. Won't you try your luck and enter the giveaway?...
Surprise! My latest book, the sequel to The Perfect Coed, is titled Pigface and the Perfect Dog. It will be released on September 7th, 2017, so keep an eye out for it. If you're feeling a little bit curious about it, here's a free excerpt to satisfy your curiosity....
I have recently moved into a lovely cottage and just wanted to share it with everyone. Here are some pictures of my cottage. I talk a little bit about the cottage on my personal blog (among other things), so please come by for a visit. Judy's Stew (the blog). Cottage...
