January 2009 Blog Posts (201)

A psychopath

For years now I have loved reading true crime stories. Behavioral science really interests me and I'm drawn to people's dark side. Why do we do what we do? Most of the people I read about are defined as psychopaths and I'm going to explain a little about what that means.

A psychopath is a person who shows antisocial behavior and I'm going to explain more about what antisocial means in a bit. Psychopathy is a personality disorder, not to be confused with a psychotic disorder.The… Continue

Added by Gitte on January 17, 2009 at 3:29am — No Comments

Was Jack a woman?

An Australian scientist has been in London to take swabs from the envelope of "Openshaw letter", the one thought to be sent by Jack the Ripper to investigators.

Back in Brisbane he extracted the DNA and unfortunately the results were inconclusive but he managed to make a profile which concluded that Jack the Ripper might have been a woman!! This was also the suspicion of Frederick Abberline, the detective who led the investigation. You can read more about it here.

I find… Continue

Added by Gitte on January 17, 2009 at 3:28am — No Comments

De Salvo

I can't help thinking if I should just stick to watching documentaries instead of movies. Whenever I get my little greedy hands on a serial killer movie based on facts, I get so excited. And then so disappointed.

Yesterday I watched The Boston Strangler with Tony Curtis as Albert De Salvo (the strangler suspect). Curtis plays brilliantly but I thought the movie was very, very loosely based on the facts of the crimes.

A little about this figure known as The Boston… Continue

Added by Gitte on January 17, 2009 at 3:27am — 1 Comment

Lurker, looks around, squints, perplexed

Hello All.

New here. New-ish. Been lurking intermittently. Still sorting out the wherewithal of this place. Not much time as I've been writing flash fiction over at Six Sentences and redoing my website. I see there are a lot of knowledgeable, interesting people here though, and look forward to meeting up.

I write. Most recent is a flash series I'm doing on the afore-mentioned Six Sentences (which isn't exclusively crime, but is damn cool. http://sixsentences.blogspot.com/)… Continue

Added by ms.pamila on January 17, 2009 at 3:09am — No Comments

For your reading pleasure

Just posted a short story on my web site.
Check it out at http://www. nicholerbennett. com/tarotcardmurders. html

Blessings!
Nichole

Added by Nichole R. Bennett on January 17, 2009 at 12:39am — No Comments

What Advertisers Think of You

We're retired and my husband is a news junkie, so the television is on all day. I wander through once an hour or so to check on his progress (he's always building something) and to keep my legs from going numb from sitting in one place. What is advertised is for the most part depressing.

If one judges by daytime TV, Americans are constipated, crippled cretins, likely to buy and sell gold by mail, be so far in debt to the IRS that we'd trust anyone to get us out, and blithely unaware… Continue

Added by Peg Herring on January 16, 2009 at 11:30pm — No Comments

Signed Books Today and Tomorrow

As a reminder, today I have a book signing at the Borders in Washington Dulles International Airport in Sterling, VA. from noon to 6 pm.

Tomorrow I move to the Borders in Gateway Center. From noon to 4 pm I will sign my novels there, at 4420 Mitchellville Road, Bowie, MD.

Added by Austin S. Camacho on January 16, 2009 at 10:37pm — No Comments

Sneak peek of new cover

Here's a sneak peak of the latest book cover - the Australian and New Zealand edition of book 4, The Killing Hands.
Tell me what you think at info@pdmartin.com.au!

The book will be in Aussie and NZ stores on 1 February 2009.

Added by Phillipa Martin (PD Martin) on January 16, 2009 at 11:48am — No Comments

Can you afford to publish your material?

Freelance Publishing

Attention All Writers!

Do you have a story to tell?

Do you have a book you want published?

Do you have a finished manuscript?

Now you can, achieve that dream of being a published author, for a lot less than what others want to charge. $600.00 will turn your finished manuscript, poems, songs, sonnets and recipes into a book, in about two weeks after completion.

You just send us your finished manuscript in PDF format or word and a description of… Continue

Added by Michael A Armstrong on January 16, 2009 at 5:15am — No Comments

Come Fly With Me Tomorrow

This is weekend before the inauguration and even though I’m not going to venture into the District, I will meet a lot of the people coming into town for the parties. Tomorrow I will be looking for travelers who need a good book in the Borders in Washington Dulles International Airport in Sterling, VA. The book signing lasts from noon to 6 pm.

Added by Austin S. Camacho on January 15, 2009 at 10:38pm — No Comments

Why?

I heard a story once about a philosophy professor whose final exam consisted of just one word: WHY? The only student who received an "A" on the exam responded with two words: WHY NOT?

Why do you write? Why do I? The usual reasons people choose a path in life boil down to a few basics: we like it, we think we're good at it, we like what we get from it. I became a teacher because I like sharing what I know with others, it was evident that others liked the way I operated in the… Continue

Added by Peg Herring on January 15, 2009 at 10:27pm — No Comments

Best Cover Art 2008

First of all, I have to say a massive thank you to everyone who voted in support of my nominations in the recent Preditors & Editors Readers Award Polls. The polls have now closed and we are awaiting confirmation of the final results.

In May 2008 'A Study in Red' won the Best Cover Illustration of the Month Award from The Authors Lounge and is now included in the poll for Best Cover Design of the Year. In order to place a vote for the book,… Continue

Added by Brian L Porter on January 15, 2009 at 6:23pm — No Comments

Rest in Peace Ricardo...

Two obits in one day. Sheesh...

Ricardo Montalban, one the classiest actors in Hollywood history, known by millions as the charming and enigmatic Mr. Roarke from Fantasy Island, but beloved by generations of geeks as Khan Noonian Singh the greatest Star Trek villain of all time has passed away.

Justify Full

He started out in Hollywood in the 1940s as one of the few Hispanic actors working in the industry. And in the tradition of old-school miscasting, was often cast as… Continue

Added by D.R. MacMaster on January 15, 2009 at 1:06pm — No Comments

Yeah, baby!

Stay tuned to this space for bragging.

Added by Victor Gischler on January 15, 2009 at 9:11am — 1 Comment

Rest In Peace Number 6

Patrick McGoohan passed away at the age of 80.

He is probably best known for The Prisoner, a bizarre, surrealistic take on the 60s spy genre that he helped create, and even wrote episodes for under the name Paddy Fitz. In the show he played a spy who resigned for unknown reasons, someone, it's never identified who, kidnapped him and placed him on The Island, a strange, creepily pleasant prison for people with secrets.

His captors take away his name, which is never… Continue

Added by D.R. MacMaster on January 15, 2009 at 8:46am — 2 Comments

Introducing Dulcie Schwartz

Dulcie Schwartz was born for academia. A grad student at Harvard, she lives for research. Her discipline – the Gothic English novel of the late 18th Century – may seem minor to some. But for Dulcie, it's reason to dive into the library, into the ordered, reasoned world of books. At least, until her roommate is murdered, her mother starts calling with some strange psychic dreams. And the ghost of her late, great cat Mr. Grey appears to help her through it all ... or over the… Continue

Added by Clea Simon on January 15, 2009 at 2:12am — No Comments

Guest Blog #2 Reviewing Books

As promised, here's a second blog from P.J. Coldren, this time on reviewing books. Getting the perspective of a reviewer is helpful for writers, and P.J. is both candid and eloquent on the subject:

*************

One of the other ways in which I spend my copious free time is reading books for review purposes. I review on a regular basis for www.reviewingtheevidence.com and for CrimeSpree Magazine. I occasionally post reviews on Amazon.com, and have just become involved with their… Continue

Added by Peg Herring on January 14, 2009 at 9:34pm — 3 Comments

New Story Online

My flash fiction (under 1,000 words) story, "Something About Harry" is online at Every Day Fiction. You can find the story here: http://www.everydayfiction.com/something-about-harry-by-dave-bara/

It's an SF piece, sort of my quick take on robotics and one possible future. There's some nice comments by readers too. Feel free to read and/or comment.

Thanks!

db

Added by Dave Bara on January 14, 2009 at 5:05am — 2 Comments

Becoming an Amazon reviewer

Today I finally threaded my way through the convoluted process of becoming an approved Amazon reviewer. My first official act was to award myself a five-star review for Eldercide. I'll have to wait 48 hours to see if it goes through or if they're picky enough to catch the blatant self-promotion and maybe ban me forever.

To be a reviewer in good standing, you also have to surrender your credit card number and to have purchased books from Amazon in the relatively recent past. I… Continue

Added by Julie Lomoe on January 14, 2009 at 4:54am — 3 Comments

Finally Some Positive News

I found this article on The New York Times Fiction Reading Increases for Adults

After years of bemoaning the decline of a literary culture in the United States, the National Endowment for the Arts says in a report that it now believes a quarter-century of precipitous decline in fiction reading has reversed.

The report, “Reading on the Rise: A New Chapter in American Literacy,” being released… Continue

Added by The Poisoned Pen Bookstore on January 14, 2009 at 4:25am — No Comments