All Blog Posts (12,730)

Catching Up

It's been a while, I know. Summer appeared rather abruptly, offering its various distractions. Plus, I've been trying to catch up on my reading, which has been lovely, to be honest. I'm getting ready to head east for a week or so, first to visit family and then to travel to New York City for ThrillerFest, as well as a reading event at the New York Center for Independent Publishing.

The NYCIP event will be Wednesday, July 11. It's called…

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Added by Bill Cameron on July 1, 2007 at 6:15am — No Comments

John Dunning - Funniest Dark Scene Ever

I'm listening to John Dunning's "The Bookwoman's Last Fling" on CD.

Amazing narrator, great story...and main character, Cliff Janeway.

There's a scene in this book that I would like to nominate as one of

the darkest and funniest and most real scenes I've ever "read."

It's the scene when Cliff is stuffed in a car trunk. I know,

somewhat routine idea but the execution here is over the top, the way

he wakes up and starts to try to put the pieces together of where he… Continue

Added by Mark Stevens on July 1, 2007 at 5:59am — No Comments

Which Came First, the Story or the Title?

In a posting on the Inkspot blog a couple of weeks ago, Nina Wright, the charming and witty author of the Whiskey Mattimoe mysteries, wrote: “[C]hoosing a title is generally one of the last details of the book-writing process.” Yes, that’s how it usually works. My Dot Dead had a working title of Maid Dead until just before submission. The contract I…

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Added by Keith Raffel on July 1, 2007 at 3:14am — No Comments

Darkness - Patricia Highsmith

I'm in the middle of a wonderful biography of Patricia Highsmith,

"Beautiful Shadow" by Andrew Wilson. I have always liked the darkness

in Highsmith's writings. My favorite titles are "The Story Teller,"

"This Sweet Sickness," the Ripley books, and "Strangers on a

Train." There are many more interesting novels in her collection,

too. What really strikes me about her writing is how much of it is

based on a very dark interior life. Anybody who reads it will… Continue

Added by Mark Stevens on July 1, 2007 at 1:01am — 4 Comments

Rejection, but no so

I recieved a rejection today that really is only a rejection if I choose to not take the editor's advice.

I actually liked what the editor had to say. It resonated with me and because I truly want my books to be their best I will take her advice and resubmit. Which she said I could do.

So it isn't really a rejection letter, but a revision letter with no guarantees.

But I'm still sad. Though I feel I shouldn't be.

And I know it will pass and by tomorrow I'll be…

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Added by Chris Redding on July 1, 2007 at 12:53am — 1 Comment

Now blogging Fridays at KILLER HOBBIES

Update! I'm now the regular Friday blogger over at KILLER HOBBIES: http://killerhobbies.blogspot.com/

My "hobby" is Diet and Exercise, natch. Stop by and visit!

-- Kathryn Lilley

Added by Kathryn Lilley on July 1, 2007 at 12:14am — No Comments

Sand walking: a killer workout

Oh. My. God.

I discovered sand walking this week. Talk about a killer workout.

Before sand walking, I was doing brisk-but-not-brutal walks along the boardwalk by the Pacific Ocean, five mornings a week.

I usually set off on my walk around six a.m. This is a time of day when only die-hard joggers, dog walkers and the occasional urban wastrel can be found along the…

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Added by Kathryn Lilley on July 1, 2007 at 12:12am — 6 Comments

A genre is born: Feline Noir

A CAT'S TAIL

I knew it was going to be bad when I found the head at the bottom of the stairs.

“The neighbors reported hearing a scuffle, then a scream, then nothing.” The uniform paused to flip the page in his notebook. “Then they said they thought they saw a tall man with dark hair running off."

I climbed to the top of the stairs and examined the body. She was wearing a long housecoat and other than missing a head, looked rather peaceful. There… Continue

Added by Evil Kev on June 30, 2007 at 1:40pm — 3 Comments

Will it never end?

I was re-drafting my query today for my novel HURT and got a brainstorm: What if this character dunnit, not the original? Oh, stop, I told myself, but it was too late. I was thinking about it. Then I started to write the thoughts down. And I realized that this potential revision could solve a number of niggling problems I had with the story. It could strengthen a couple of weak characters, cast light on others' motivations, take out the tired old serial-killer motif and focus on a…

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Added by Christa M. Miller on June 30, 2007 at 12:49pm — 3 Comments

So... Everybody died this year and when I finally get in the mood to pick up a book, people keep dying... What's a guy to do? Overwrite... or just get over it?

So he got run over by a car. Thump! End of story? She was beheaded by a news chopper. Finis...........

What is this death? .........

When your heart stops, a sentient sigularity of infinite mass, once worshiped as a Babylonian deity, now mistakenly known by astrophysicists as a black hole, and known to his friends as Manny,sucks all the space out of the molecules in your chest. Cellular membranes shrink like cocks in cold water to cover each likewise contracting testicular… Continue

Added by Otis Twelve on June 30, 2007 at 12:33pm — No Comments

news!*

i will be hosting a virtual book tour for one of our crimespace members in august! check back!!!

Added by Kim Smith on June 30, 2007 at 8:50am — 2 Comments

June Reads

A TASTE FOR SIN - GIL BREWER

Protagonist: Jim Phalen, Liquor store worker

Series?: Standalone (written in 1959)

Setting: Smalltown America

Jim Phalen has a dead end job,lives in a dead end rooming house,and has a dead end life. And he's in lust with Felice, the dangerous young wife of the local bank manager. She's one of the most dangerous femmes fatales I've ever read. This is a nasty nasty book, filled with nasty nasty people. Here's one of my favurite lines:

'She was… Continue

Added by Donna Moore on June 30, 2007 at 5:57am — No Comments

EBMRG - 3 July 2007 Meeting Handout

THE EAST BAY MYSTERY READERS GROUP

DARK CARNIVAL

Tuesday July 3rd, 2007 - 7 p.m.…

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Added by LJ Roberts on June 30, 2007 at 4:00am — No Comments

reading whiplash

Ever read a book that has everything in it you don't like, but you like it anyway? I just did, with Cornelia Read's A Field of Darkness. Trying to put my finger on it took a while over at my other blog - suffice it to say, my Bolshie impulses and hardboiled tastes were appalled, but the writing was too gorgeous to miss.

Added by Barbara Fister on June 30, 2007 at 1:24am — No Comments

Meet me in Manassas

After that big success in Springfield last weekend, I'm very much looking forward to TOMORROW'S book signing at Borders in Manassas, VA. This will be my first time signing in Manassas, but it is the home of the Mystery Lovers Corner - www.mysteryloverscorner.com - so I know that Webmaster Dawn and my other friends there will turn out for me. The Manassas Borders is at 11270 Bulloch Drive, easy to find and fun to visit. And it's one of the big stores, so you can even pick up a… Continue

Added by Austin S. Camacho on June 29, 2007 at 10:25pm — No Comments

New York, New York

posted by Leann Sweeney

That's where I am as I write this blog. New York. I came to here to see my daughter perform off Broadway in a tiny little theater at the Here Arts Center. She is a "performance artist" now, not just a dancer. What I saw was amazing. She combined origami, monologue, dialogue and dance. Don't ask me how, but it worked. At least for me. I am the mom, though. Moms opinions are not what performers are looking for. Just like writers should never rely on beloved…

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Added by Writers Plot on June 29, 2007 at 10:18pm — No Comments

"Come To Heal" takes first place!

My romantic novel, Come To Heal," took out first place in the contemporary sector of the Golden Acorn Excellence in Writing competition. Woohoo! Color me happy!

Added by Babe King on June 29, 2007 at 6:06pm — No Comments

Going to the Cat and Dog contest

Congratulations to the winners of this week's contest. Out of 247 entries, Teresa W. of Toledo, OH won Patrick McManus' Avalanche and Pattie T. of St. Louis, MO won Whack-A-Mole by Chris Grabenstein. The books will be going out in the mail tomorrow.

If you're an animal lover, the contests this week are for you.

I'm giving away mysteries that feature pets, if Midnight Louie… Continue

Added by Lesa Holstine on June 29, 2007 at 1:39pm — No Comments

Kicked out of the bar?

I haven't logged onto CrimeSpace since early June, and this morning, to my dismay, the gatekeeper didn't recognize me and refused to let me in. Is it because I've been AWOL? I had to go through various electronic contortions with Ning and reset my password. Finally I accessed my page, and to my relief, everything is still here.

Seems we're becoming more of a speakeasy than an open bar. I imagine this is Ning's doing, and maybe the security is a good thing. Who knows?

I'm glad…

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Added by Julie Lomoe on June 29, 2007 at 2:54am — 1 Comment

The Anatomy of My Eternal Funk / (Waiting for the coffee to kick in and typing away al fresco at the Blueline in Dundee) / Foreword to Vol. 1

The one-time Vicar of St. Thomas’ Church in Oxford, Robert Burton, said they should probably bleed me. And though he was dead for some 309 years before I was born into my bummer of a life, he was just the sort of guy I listened to. I always ascribed wisdom – no doubt naively – to dead guys who could scribble satirical Latin comedies, identify dried plants, and practice socially acceptable forms of pedantry. Discovering his work, bound in a flayed and lacquered skin of some bovine sort at the… Continue

Added by Otis Twelve on June 29, 2007 at 1:29am — 1 Comment