Groan. The time of year has rolled round once again for getting my car MOT & service done – as I have to renew my tax disc by the end of June. Honestly, I have no idea why they give you only a bare two weeks to get this sorted out – don’t they know people have busy lives and have to book things months ahead just in order to fit them in these days?? Last year, we really pushed it to the wire. And some. Anyway, Lord H has nobly said he’d book the service etc at a garage near him,…

Hope i haven't appeared to be rude...re friend requests...I'm travelling in Tanzania and haven't had running water, much less internet access. In Dodoma for the day at a swanky ($60 a day) hotel so i'm treating myself to a little computer time. My husband and i are helping to fund a library in a small village in central Tanzania. The work is going very well, and i'm planning to post a lot of pix on my website if anyone's interested. (…

Many National SinC members are fortunate enough to participate in

regional chapters. These chapters meet at different places around

the country, from Alaska to Florida, and from California to New

York. For those who aren't geographically near enough to participate

in person, there are the Internet Chapter and the Guppies. With all

of these active groups there are as many chapter personalities as

there are chapters. Some are mostly made up of writers, some mostly…

I keep receiving thrillers for review that lack intensity. You know, that spark, flare, flash, heart-stopping, nail-biting, can't-stop-turning-the-pages feel of a great thriller novel.

It's not that the books aren't good. They are. (Well, for the most part.) But they lack that fundamental element that makes a thriller, well, thrilling.

I'm seeing a lot of POV shifts - too many within a scene that causes confusion. I'm seeing stabs at omniscient POV. Unfortunately, the…

For a long time I wanted to write a story about a skeleton that was found under the Cape Hatteras lighthouse. One December I was on the ferry riding back from Ocracoke and I was reading an article to pass the time. That's where I learned about the time before the National Seashore was opened. Read on for more information about how Lilah and the Locket came to be...

Acknowledgement…

Sigh. I really tried hard to like “Talk to Me” on TV last night – which apparently was supposed to be the next “Cold Feet”. Um, it isn’t. Unlike the glorious CF, TTM is clichéd, dull (serious yawning …) and full of characters too much up their own arses to be remotely likeable. Loveable doesn’t even come into it, to be honest. I mean, I seriously didn’t care about the totally unrealistic love triangle at the heart of it – as far as I’m concerned, they’re all as bad as each…

If you haven't watched the end of the Sopranos yet, DON'T READ THIS. If you have, please read on. (If you never plan to, who the heck are you and where have you been the past eight years?)

After all the speculation that Tony or AJ would be killed, or that Adrianna would rise from the dead, ending with a blank dark screen was a bold choice that is bound to piss off a ton of people. However, once I was finished yelling "It's…

Scotsman Allan Guthrie is one of the most demented and twisted crime writers working today. And one of the very best. His third novel, HARD MAN, is the first ot enjoy hardcover publication by a major US publisher. And while this might go a long way toward widening his reading audience, it will certainly cause his fans and newly acquired readers to seek each other out, find a secluded corner somewhere, and urgently quiz each other with questions like, "You read it, did that really happen?"…

If you scroll down a bit, you'll see a short story that first ran a couple of years ago in Shred of Evidence. It's from my novel series - Precinct Puerto Rico. Hope you enjoy:

The Inspector

By

Steven Torres



Like many bad days, this one was starting late. Gonzalo was scheduled to leave the station house and head home in fifteen minutes. His relief had already come in and Mari had called to say dinner was nearly done. Instead of finishing up his paperwork for…