In the recent CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, I have a review for ISLAND OF EXILES. It's by David Montgomery, more's the joy, for not all reviewers were created equal. This mystery reviewer is GOOD! So I feel immensely flattered and very grateful for the attention. And now, here it is:

I.J. Parker's latest is the fifth mystery to feature Sugawara Akitada, a nobleman in medieval Japan with a knack for solving crimes. Island of Exiles is a superior effort that ranks as…

Posted by Lorraine (L.L.) Bartlett

Here at Casa Ivy Bend, we've been living in a computer crisis, so following Sheila's lead, I thought I'd blog about it.

My husband is self-employed as a cartographer, and his Mac G3 has been dying a slow and painful death. We really had no choice but to…

Exposing one's writing to the world is more terrifying than all the chainsaw massacre movies put together. Emily Dickinson said it: "How can you print a piece of your soul?" And yet, there is a compulsion in those of us who write to share that writing with others. We are tentative at first, but we can't resist handing that "piece of soul" to another person, hoping that he or she will say, "This is good." Often we're even okay with "This isn't too bad."

My first time story: I shared my…

You still have a couple days to get your panel ideas in to the LIM Board! Go to the site by November 1 and submit your panel and presenting ideas. There have been more than a few times at LIM where I've heard someone speak then I've gone to get a couple of their books and then had them signed. Speaking on a panel is great for marketing. It can also be fun.

Fellow librarians and Readers Advisory experts Marlene Leonardi from the Palatine PL and Susan Gibberman from Schaumburg Twp.…

Girl is really into the Bermuda Triangle right now. She wants to take a boat to the edge of it and flay a paper plane into it. Her big thing now is

"teaching" in her classroom, and of course I am the inept pupil. Her

earnestness is so cool, and she's obviously modeling her second grade

teacher. And I get to trick her into improving my math skills.

Got…

Posted by Sheila Connolly

I am writing and sending this post from my new computer. To most of you out there, this should be no big deal, but this is the first computer I have researched, purchased, and set up all by myself. I am patting myself on the back.

I know, most kids today could do this while watching television, listening to their MP3 player, and eating lunch, but for me it’s a major achievement. I remember life before computers (gasp).

Back in the Dark…

A friend and I exchange manuscripts from time to time, and her latest is, to use an overused word that actually applies here, riveting. That got me thinking about pacing.

Sometimes a book reaches out and grabs you by the throat and won't let go. You need to know what happens to the protag, need to know why he/she's in such deep trouble, need to have the whole story. You hear people say they stayed up half the night to finish a book, and it's understandable. You become so…

It's been some time since I dropped a line and had a chance to read other blogs and posts at Crimespace. Mea Culpa.

I head back to the island of Antigua in the Caribbean--was invited to attend the Antigua and Barbuda Literary Festival that will be held the first weekend in November. Though meant to celebrate Caribbean authors, I've been invited because of my novel-in- progress, Murder Visits Antigua, a Golden Age mystery, and because of my Amazon Shorts story, "Antiguan Memories."…

October has been a good month so far. Granted, it's my favorite month out of the year 'cause of a certain holiday that falls on the final day, but the rest of it hasn't been anything to sneeze at either. Why am I so jubilant? Several reasons:

1. My Masters creative writing thesis committee has been assembled and it's my dream committee. All four professors I asked to participate agreed and I didn't need to resort to the runners up list.

2. My creative writing thesis project has…

This is my favorite kind of day. It's raining -- just sprinkling a bit right now -- and I'm kicked back catching up on email and a few other necessary chores. Nancy Drew & The Hardy Boys Season Two is playing on the DVD player -- and I do need to post my thoughts on this favorite TV show of my misspent youth over at Girl Detective one of these days. It's so...different than I remembered.

I finally got to preview the cover…

By guest blogger Sue Ann Jaffarian

Silly me – when I first started writing mysteries, I had no idea there were so many subgenres. To me, a mystery is a mystery is a mystery. When I put my fingers to the keyboard and pumped out my first mystery, Too Big To Miss, I was writing a mystery – period. I didn’t write for a particular label or to avoid being labeled. I wrote from my gut, the labels came later and were purely superficial.

Although many readers consider my Odelia…

The lovely and talented ladies of Poe's Deadly Daughters have asked me to guest blog, Saturday October 28th. How cool is that? Check it out at http://poesdeadlydaughters.blogspot.com/

Cheers!

Ro