My blogmates and I at The Lady Killers (www.theladykillers.typepad.com) started a list of our favorite places, either because they inspired a good mystery or because they helped us to relax enough to free our brains for future creativity, or just because they were so fabulous!

If anyone would like to share his or her favorite place with me, we'll post them in a special feature we're doing this summer called virtual…

Got so involved with The Gifting synopsis & timeline last night that I decided to miss “New Tricks”, though I have videoed it instead for later. This part of the process is taking longer than I thought, probably as it’s a longer novel, I imagine, and I’ve put a lot of different strands in it. The timeline is helping sort out a few oddities too – as I knew it would. I’m keen to finish by the end of this week before Lord H and I go on holiday – being a true OCD (Obsessive…

Yesterday we learned Simon & Schuster was (again) setting the publishing world abuzz with a strategy to involve the public in the publishing process. Brent Stinski, from Media Predict – the company…

Well its BAFTA time again and all the glitterati of the media world trooped down to London yesterday (Monday) in black ties and ball gowns for their annual bean feast.…

Posted by Lorraine Bartlett

And so I've been cleaning out my office closet this past week. It wasn't pretty stuff. Not at all pretty. I managed to whittle down an 18-inch stack of paper to about six inches. (Yee-Ha!) I actually FILED all six inches of paper. (Who remembered that so many people have read all or part of the third installment of my Jeff Resnick mystery series? Mind you, the second installment won't even see print until June 2008.)

I chucked old candles; cassette…

Received a charming (err, not …) email in my inbox last night from my cousin – whom incidentally I haven’t heard from in nigh on twenty years – telling me what a bad person I am to not be attending the family get-together in July and what good and holy people the rest of my family are. He also very helpfully pointed out what some of my crimes actually were (goodness, how sweet!) and, as the piece de resistance (sorry, can't be arsed with the accents ...), crowned the whole self-righteous,…

I live in a truly wild and wonderful place that is rich with characters and loaded with varied and spectacular scenery.

Please don't be offended by my observations; I really do love living here. I have found a very welcoming atmosphere among many friends. I admit to a certain feeling of "culture shock" having lived in the city so long.

West Virginia is not only home to the Mountaineers but also, Our Lady of the Perpetual Yard Sale, Property Tax Capitol of the World (even your…

Posted by Sheila Connolly

Herewith the last of the posts inspired by my recent excursion to the Halls of Academe (that's my daughter's college, folks). After many years away from a classroom of any sort, I found myself sitting in on a graduate class on Aztec Manuscripts (which my daughter was taking), described in the catalog as focusing on "Sahaguntine illustrated manuscripts of the sixteenth century. Painted by Aztec artists, they record extensive narrative…

I'm chuffed to say that the 6th Cooper & Fry novel THE DEAD PLACE has just been nominated for the UK Crime Novel of the Year Award, sponsored by Theakston's Old Peculier.

This is the only UK award that allows readers to vote for the winner.…

I have finally received my $50 payment for my contribution to the Teacher Miracles anthology. Woo-hoo!

Hey, money is always well received at my house.

My shorts keep bouncing back with nice comments but no sale. I must push on.

The Second Novel (Reunion Day) is now past 60,000 words and on the downward slide to completion. I'm looking to have it market-ready by July when the major conferences begin (PNWC, Willamette, Bouchercon, Surrey). Trying…

It is so tempting to start this consideration of THE DARK STREETS, the latest Jack Liffey novel from John Shannon, by resorting to The Rant. The Rant, as most fans of Shannon's work know, is our howl at the injustices of an ignorant and uncaring universe where John Shannon's superb work slips into oblivion shortly after publication when it ought to be on national best-seller lists and the subject of breathless critical evaluations and appreciations of what the modern crime novel ought to be.…

Stoop, the Thief

(A Biography)

Part One: Stoop and Clyde…

Have worked like the proverbial today and have now done my entire first pass through the Gifting edit - hurrah! I even think it might hang together okay, but then I always think that at this stage. It doesn't mean anything. And at the same time, I think it's pants - but that's normal too. It's probably both - simultaneously. That wouldn't surprise me either. It's panned out at 124,215 words long, which is 401 double-spaced pages. Aha!



My head is now packed with ideas for…

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