We had a fabulous teen author, Jack Gantos, at the Schaumburg Twp. Library not too long ago. He is class personified as well as funny, a very skilled writer for different ages, and an artist. On the days we took him to the high schools and grade schools, he got up at 3:30 to do his writing for the day. Yes, I mean A.M.

I know I do not have that kind of discipline, yet I handle many freelance projects and my library deadlines professionally. I suppose I am then the type of person who…

Mystic Skies is an occultish type of genre' with some twists on a young boy named Frank. He discovers that his family is into the occult, but the twist is, who actually is his father? After finding out his heritage, he comes against some heavy duty questions on life, as well as, what is in this world... seen unseen.

I plan on making this into a series of books and possibly making it a 60,000 word books. Will work out what comes up.

Mixed Identity is about cloning and the consequences. A thriller based novel in rough draft at the moment. Cloning has been going on for years as they have been cloning various things... now it has come to the minds of men to clone people. Some scientist say they've done it already! My novel is about society, clones, the mistakes that happen with cloning and the "What ifs" questions that occur.

Mixed Identity is now in the "editing" process and getting ready for publishing. I…

Posted by Lorraine (L.L.) Bartlett

We were headed off for the Labor-Day weekend. At the last second, Frank decided we should deliver the wire I’d promised my Dad--not just leave it for him to find when he came over to feed the cats. That short trip delayed our departure by no more than three minutes. As we pulled out of Dad’s driveway, I saw a UPS truck pull up ours.

We stopped at the end of our yard and I hollered to old Brown Shorts, asking if he was making a delivery.…

For five years now I've been reading advice from publishers, editors, agents, and fellow writers about how to succeed in the business of selling a book. I have had some success, but I also feel at times like I'm buried in advice.

Don't start with a prologue! You must have a hook! Format exactly as the industry demands! Number your pages on the right! No, number on the left, next to the slug! Make the first line block style! Indent EVERY paragraph! Ban widow/orphan control! Make your…

I don’t know about other writers, but I get most of my really good ideas in the shower. There’s something about standing dead-center in a stream of hot water that dissolves blocks, brings characters to life, turns mental pictures into streams of words,

and generally makes me feel as though there’s literally nothing I can’t

write. Improve the opening of Dickens’ “Bleak House”? No problem.…

Hello:

I'd like to announce my second mystery story to go live in the Amazon Shorts program.

It is entitled, "No Going Back," and is the tale of a journalist who makes a fateful decision in dealing with a traumatic event.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000VJAYIS/ref=dp_bib_1/105-2981074-7253258

Hope my fans will take a…

Interview with Margot Justes

September 3, 2007

What's the title of your book and what's it about?…

Posted by Sheila Connolly

Alfred Peet died this week. To most of the world that means nothing, but Alfred has been a daily part of my life for close to thirty years. Alfred Peet founded Peet's Coffee.

I first encountered Peet's coffee when I moved to the Berkeley area in the late 1970s. I found a dead-end job at the University of…

I've left it till now, but today has been one year since my father passed away, aged 83.

I was there by his hospital bedside, as he ebbed away, peacefully in his sleep. His health had been deteriorating for the last 2 years, and it was only after we managed to get him hospitalised, that we discovered that apart from the diabetes, that we aleady knew of, we found out he also had pancreatic cancer.

Between myself and my brothers, we thought that his weight…

It's bad enough that I still say that I roll down the car window and dial a phone number. We old folks still talk about records and tapes even though we have nothing in our music cabinets but CDs. It's acceptable to say something in writing and type on a computer. We park our cars in the driveway and drive them on the parkway.

If you think about it too much, words can make you crazy. I guess the thought came to me because it's…

This is your chance to win a copy of crime mystery SILENCED CRY. The voting page for AUGUST Book Cover of the Month is up and the cover of SILENCED CRY is awaiting your vote.…

My next novel, Heroes Often Fail, is due out September 28th!

Here's the cover: