Someone asked me about my introduction in the Bar where I mentioned being mugged 3 and a half times, so I thought I would put the story of the half a time here, since I understand that the whole point of these blog thingies is that they are updated regularly. Whoops. So here's the story:

A year or so ago, I was in the city centre shopping and left at about 5pm by which time the place was starting to empty of shoppers. To get to my bus stop, I decided to cut…

[toni's note: today I am letting Bobbie Faye Sumrall guest blog because frankly, she's scary and she threatened me.]

Okay, look, people, you probably don't know me. Unless you've read this crazy writer's first book, and I am here to tell you, she's seriously getting on my…

I don't have time to blog! I barely have time to write down what I'm reading and that's somewhere else. Although I suppose copy and paste works well. Hello, all you crazy people!

Cheryl

Okay, all of you - I didn't say "into submission." I think that might be another Ning Ring altogether.

I've got a manuscript on submission right now (actually two, but only one as Regina). I alternate between wanting to puke and feeling pretty damn good about getting here after so long.

I've heard so many writers' submission stories, but I can't seem to get enough of them. Anyone want to share?

Wow, I get to blog.

Huh.

Never done it before. Heard about it. Thought about doing it when I set up my website last year. But decided against it. I'm not vain enough to think that anybody really cares about my deepest thoughts and radical opinions.

At best, I'd probably just piss somebody off.

So I left the blogging to those of far greater intelligence who really have something to say.

Good enough.

But then comes Crimespace. And they make blogging…

Glad to join the Crimespace space.

Quality publishers: Send an email, and I will put you in touch with my agent so that you may read the utterly off-kilter and still-available novel about which author Dexter Petley says: "The most striking thing is your style. Sentences with real elegance and variation...The pure timbre of the writing just lifts the church roof off.…

There's nothing scarier for an author than getting this e-mail from your agent:

"PW is going to review your book Monday, March 26."

It is Friday, March 23, and I know I am in for the longest weekend of my life.

I e-mail back my agent, "Gulp. If it's good, do they tell you in advance?"

Mouse steals mans dentures. After being captured three times and escaping a mouse stole his captor's dentures, which were later recovered from inside a wall in the man's home.

That comes from the strange but true file.

This comes from the shocking file. A Texas man dismembered his former…

As I noted last week, Randi, my agent, wouldn't send out manuscript #2 until I came up with an acceptable title. I spent some time leafing through books of quotations and browsing through online quotation sites. Confucius, it turns out, could turn a phrase. How about…

In the summertime, during New Mexico's highest fire risk, I have dark fantasies. Most often, they're sparked by some young woman who throws her still smoldering cigarette butt out of a car window. In spite of my fury, I've never imagined murder -- not in real life -- not with the kids in the car.

I do think about murder when I'm writing, though. The method and the why of it are part of the big puzzle, the challenge in coming up with a "compelling" novel.

And yet, in…

Is it spring, or is it just me? Usually I'm reasonably mellowed out (which means moderately mood-swingy, but under control) but in the past week I've gotten uncharacteristically angry on several occasions.

It's now Monday noon in upstate New York, and it was almost exactly one week ago last Monday morning when I uttered the F-word in my exercise class when the instructor snuck up on me from behind and corrected my moves. (She had us on our knees, our exercise matts facing the wall,…

Natasha Cooper, Evil is Done

I am so annoyed by the main character, but I'm still reading the book to find out what happens. I also read Ken Bruen's Priest over the weekend, which was just as enjoyable as I had expected it to be. Jack Taylor can't buy a break, can he?

And, alas, basketball season ended yesterday in a most pitiful and painful way for this Carolina fan. It's just too distressing to dwell on, and November is so far away. However, it will…