<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" version="2.0"><channel><title><![CDATA[Jill Blake]]></title><description><![CDATA[https://www.authorjillblake.com/]]></description><link>https://www.authorjillblake.com/case-files</link><generator>RSS for Node</generator><lastBuildDate>Fri, 11 Sep 2026 00:46:38 GMT</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://www.authorjillblake.com/blog-feed.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><item><title><![CDATA[What Makes Cozy Mystery Towns Feel "Cozy"?]]></title><description><![CDATA[It's been years (okay, decades) since I read Agatha Christie, but I still remember St. Mary Mead, where Miss Marple solved murders by paying close attention to the behavior of her friends and neighbors.   What made the town so memorable? The people. Quirky characters are essential to a giving the fictional town in a cozy mystery that "cozy" feel--especially important for those cozy mystery towns that have a higher-than-average death rate.   So if you're reading (or writing) a cozy mystery,...]]></description><link>https://www.authorjillblake.com/post/what-makes-cozy-mystery-towns-feel-cozy</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a99d5f7950c73fdcf77b810</guid><pubDate>Thu, 03 Sep 2026 20:34:04 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/7345c6_d6c35b67a2bc43a98053931fa5a460f9~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Jill Blake</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[When Your Brain Needs a Crime Scene Makeover: Lessons from the LAPD]]></title><description><![CDATA[In my twenty-plus years working as a doctor, I got used to having my patients come in wanting to tell me things. What hurts and where, when it started, what makes it better or worse. Family members often add helpful details like "She's already tried heat and massage and acupuncture, which helps for like an hour, but then it comes right back." We're all on the same team, working together to solve the puzzle. Mystery writing flips that whole paradigm. People on the page of a cozy mystery—even...]]></description><link>https://www.authorjillblake.com/post/when-your-brain-needs-a-crime-scene-makeover-lessons-from-the-lapd</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a7376688cda33f4341cde5e</guid><pubDate>Wed, 19 Aug 2026 20:32:01 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/7345c6_42f969eee1154917b4b6c9e4bb2cedda~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Jill Blake</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Living a double life]]></title><description><![CDATA[Doctor by day, writer by night. For years, that was me. I published my 1st contemporary romance novel in 2013, and by 2019 I had 11 books out there. Mostly medical romance, with a few other tropes thrown in. My colleagues and patients had no idea I was leading a double life (Jill Blake is a pseudonym, under which I continue to write). My family and a few close friends were in on the secret—and were often gracious enough to be my sounding board, beta-readers, and all-around cheerleaders as I...]]></description><link>https://www.authorjillblake.com/post/living-a-double-life</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a7379e483bd56b51ff179fe</guid><pubDate>Wed, 05 Aug 2026 18:28:04 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/7345c6_533bf971f5604e0d832678b069b0a62e~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Jill Blake</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Where are the books??]]></title><description><![CDATA[When my daughter—an incoming ninth grader—showed me her school’s summer reading list, I was appalled. There were short films, poems, short stories, and essays—but no actual books. Then we started working through the list. We watched a TED Talk about social contagion. We saw The Last Repair Shop, a documentary about LAUSD’s musical-instrument repair program and the way music connects the people who restore the instruments with the students who play them. We read the poems, stories, and essays....]]></description><link>https://www.authorjillblake.com/post/where-are-the-books</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a666020b59210289e922c79</guid><pubDate>Sun, 26 Jul 2026 20:03:34 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/7345c6_0a07437b754b46c49c559fdd07098e0a~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_853,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Jill Blake</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[From SOAP notes to SOUL: a (doctor) writer's guide to interiority]]></title><description><![CDATA[Interiority is what your characters are thinking and feeling. It's that inside peek into their psyche--how they react to the dead body in the parlor, not just that they found it.]]></description><link>https://www.authorjillblake.com/post/from-soap-notes-to-soul-a-doctor-writer-s-guide-to-interiority</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a21bcf0367ed35011d5d9db</guid><category><![CDATA[Books]]></category><category><![CDATA[Writing]]></category><category><![CDATA[CozyMysteries]]></category><pubDate>Thu, 04 Jun 2026 18:08:15 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/7345c6_d58340e820ca40e48728a79246b98d9d~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Jill Blake</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[On Cozies - why a romance writer turned to mystery]]></title><description><![CDATA[When it comes to writing, I'm inevitably drawn to cozies. I like the lighter tone of cozy mysteries, infused with humor and romance and quirky characters. That's what I tried to write. What came out was...a little bit different.]]></description><link>https://www.authorjillblake.com/post/cozy-mysteries</link><guid isPermaLink="false">639a8423f9d5d09c4652aaf2</guid><category><![CDATA[Writing]]></category><category><![CDATA[Books]]></category><category><![CDATA[CozyMysteries]]></category><pubDate>Tue, 02 Jun 2026 19:09:04 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/7345c6_2a3bc97ff0714c3b97d24f806ee2d518~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Jill Blake</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[A pandemic story]]></title><description><![CDATA[From a doctor, mom, and would-be writer May 2021 Fourteen months into the Covid pandemic, I am finally returning to writing. Why so long?...]]></description><link>https://www.authorjillblake.com/post/a-pandemic-story</link><guid isPermaLink="false">639a920fbb8c19a00b16c3cc</guid><pubDate>Thu, 15 Dec 2022 03:49:00 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/a7343ced0b9e434d9c82754c0f9b2149.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Jill Blake</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Work-life balance &#38; other myths]]></title><description><![CDATA[Is work-life balance really a myth? Well...yes, and no. Here's what I've learned from my years as a physician, mom, and writer...]]></description><link>https://www.authorjillblake.com/post/work-life-balance-other-myths</link><guid isPermaLink="false">5dc27e995f24e000178e9013</guid><category><![CDATA[Real-Life]]></category><category><![CDATA[Burnout]]></category><category><![CDATA[Working Life]]></category><category><![CDATA[Doctors]]></category><pubDate>Wed, 06 Nov 2019 08:25:28 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/7345c6_ad89bf3db7cd45edae02edf7f9a62cd8~mv2_d_2173_2212_s_2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Jill Blake</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Killing your darlings]]></title><description><![CDATA[I'm in the process of doing edits for my latest book, Oh, Baby!--yes, that's the title, peeps, not just my enthusiasm bursting through....]]></description><link>https://www.authorjillblake.com/post/2019/01/06/killing-your-darlings-1</link><guid isPermaLink="false">5c7ca187242dbc001bec160e</guid><pubDate>Mon, 07 Jan 2019 03:12:24 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/7345c6_0f2bfb4364d24c7da673fd3d4b2c2777~mv2_d_4608_3456_s_4_2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Jill Blake</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[And the award goes to...]]></title><description><![CDATA[By nature, humans are competitive creatures. Think about sports, politics, awards shows. We try to impress upon our children that it’s...]]></description><link>https://www.authorjillblake.com/post/2018/09/01/and-the-award-goes-to</link><guid isPermaLink="false">5c7ca1872eaacc001cd8ef77</guid><pubDate>Sat, 01 Sep 2018 20:04:45 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/7345c6_2b63ca76146f4909897ad5db8df0ed3e~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_867,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Jill Blake</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Where do you get your ideas?]]></title><description><![CDATA[Readers always ask where I get my ideas.   With my latest book, The Burnout Cure, I didn’t have far to look. While Wolf, Lily, and the characters who inhabit their world are fictional, the issues of physician burnout, depression, and suicide are very real—as are the sobering statistics that Lily quotes about how many physicians are affected.   The first seeds of this story were planted back when I was a young doctor-in-training. As Lily, the heroine of The Burnout Cure describes in the book,...]]></description><link>https://www.authorjillblake.com/post/where-do-you-get-your-ideas</link><guid isPermaLink="false">5c7ca187c4b4b9001cc96760</guid><category><![CDATA[Writing]]></category><category><![CDATA[Books]]></category><pubDate>Thu, 30 Nov 2017 14:10:00 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/7345c6_55a46e37f4924b3cad891bef50c175aa~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_747,h_856,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Jill Blake</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[For older posts...]]></title><description><![CDATA[For older posts, please visit Jill's blog The Heart of It: Contemporary Romance in a Digital Age on Blogspot.]]></description><link>https://www.authorjillblake.com/post/2017/08/01/for-older-posts</link><guid isPermaLink="false">5c7ca187f123dd001cf29cd6</guid><pubDate>Tue, 01 Aug 2017 20:22:00 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/7345c6_0e4c58b8eb6644d2aa7ece10cfaafa38~mv2_d_3500_2500_s_4_2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Jill Blake</dc:creator></item></channel></rss>