March 2008 Blog Posts (176)

Crime Writers at Adelaide Writers' Week

07 March 2008. 11.25am

For those of you not familiar with the event, every 2 years the city of Adelaide in South Australia hosts a Festival of Arts, and a part of the festival is Writers' Week, a 6 day program of local, national and international writers (fiction, non-fiction, poetry, war correspondents, essayists) speaking about their work, launching new novels, and discussing themes of their work on various panels, as well as various 'meet the author' sessions. It is the biggest… Continue

Added by Steven Craigh on March 7, 2008 at 9:00am — No Comments

Modesty will get you nowhere.

On this principle and because I really loved the review, here it is:

Parker Just Keeps Getting Better, February 10, 2008

By UFO6 (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews

I've developed a voracious appetite for Parker's Sugawara novels that's unlike anything I've experienced for a long time, and if it didn't carry with it an unwarranted diminution of her previous titles, I'd call "Island of Exiles" her best work yet. There are scenes in this novel… Continue

Added by I. J. Parker on March 7, 2008 at 4:30am — 2 Comments

Bouncing back

I’m getting better.

Actually, those three words are a pretty big deal.

After my not-so-pleasant critique experience, I’m bouncing back with my writing. That’s not to say the word count on my WIP has increased dramatically, but it HAS increased. I’ve also joined a mystery writers critique group and have found that to be very beneficial. Of course, that could be due to the fact that people actually offer suggestions there, not just “I don’t like this”… Continue

Added by Nichole R. Bennett on March 7, 2008 at 3:00am — No Comments

Denver - Left Coast Crime

Whenever I go to conventions my first post about it always seems to be "Arrived safely in X. My luggage, however, is in Y." So, how boring it is to have to report that I arrived safely in Denver. My luggage however, remained in Chicago. It's done that before. Twice. I think my big red suitcase is having an affair with a blue Samsonite from Chicago.

I made my connecting flight with 5 minutes to spare - having to go through Immigration (the usual questions about my sanity), Customs (oh… Continue

Added by Donna Moore on March 7, 2008 at 1:31am — 2 Comments

One Day More

Today is the last "event" of my Florida trip. At about 3:00pm, I'll be officially headed home, and that's a good thing. It's good to get away, better to get home, in my experience.

Some observations:

Many people are impressed at meeting writers. I'm always shy about announcing my work, but people are very nice, even deferential.

Hotels vary widely. The one I'm in at present is expensive, but there are serious gaps in service. The one I was in before this was so eager to get… Continue

Added by Peg Herring on March 6, 2008 at 10:22pm — No Comments

Australian Crime Fiction Snapshots - 22 interviews and more to come

We're up to 21 interviews, spread across 3 blogs now with a day and half to go - make sure you check out what so many of our authors are saying / doing:

http://www.austcrimefiction.org will point you to the other blogs as well

Added by Karen from AustCrime on March 6, 2008 at 12:48pm — No Comments

Old Sleuth - An Ebay find

I just found this Old Sleuth pulp magazine from 1897 on Ebay. How could I possibly resist? The headline reads Grant McKenzie: A Boy's Battles and Struggles.

Old Sleuth was a dime novel series of novellettes of about 80 pages that were published in New York from 1895 to 1898 by J.S. Ogilvie. They were primarily detective stories set in New York, though several are romances as well. Content is usually boys adventure, or detective/mystery, with some… Continue

Added by Grant McKenzie on March 6, 2008 at 9:00am — 3 Comments

Heading for Left Coast Crime

Well, I'll be doing the Live!From Left Coast Crime thing again on my blog "Getting Medieval" and hoping I come away with interesting insights and observations. I'll be meeting my editor there for the first time face to face and also my publicist. Boy, do I have questions for them! Poor souls. Good thing lots of alcohol is involved. And speaking of which, Thursday night I'll be participating in the Mile High Murder Machine tour, which is "A… Continue

Added by Jeri Westerson on March 6, 2008 at 8:00am — No Comments

More Shootings

Monday’s shooting at a Wendy’s restaurant in Florida is merely the latest in what has become almost a daily occurrence. Over the past couple of months, we’ve had mass shootings in schools, malls and restaurants. After each tragedy we wring our hands, call for prayers, and angrily debate what the founding fathers meant by the “right to bear arms” and whether we should ban handguns or arm everyone. Instead of continuing those unending and pointless debates, perhaps we should step back and look at… Continue

Added by Christopher Valen on March 6, 2008 at 2:52am — No Comments

My books

Hey, always exercise your brain it's good health so, therefore, curl up with a very good book. Book ordering information below. Have a great day. And have much fun steering your way around this colorful website. And thank you very much.

Stephen King wrote: Books are perfect entertainment: no commercials, no batteries, just hours of enjoyment for every dollar.

I say that: there are no big crowds, no noise, just sheer comfort relaxing with real good book. When books are… Continue

Added by George Wilder Jr. on March 6, 2008 at 1:42am — 1 Comment

Staying Connected

By Marcia Talley

When I still worked “outside the home” at a job in Washington, DC, we were always being asked by our supervisors to accommodate “shifting paradigms.” This usually meant that a hot-shot management guru had treated our CEO to lunch, and presumably held him hostage over double martinis, prime rib and crème brulé until he’d signed the corporation up for the latest management craze — MBO, TQM. Remember?

If you don’t, never mind. After spending millions on… Continue

Added by Sisters In Crime on March 5, 2008 at 11:51pm — No Comments

I'm blogging today over at Suspense Novelist. My topic is Writing About Cops - It's Not That Difficult.

I'm guest blogging today over at Suspense Novelist. My topic is Writing About Cops - It's Not That Difficult. Stop by if you get a chance. http://suspensenovelist.blogspot.com/

Oh, and today on my blog, The Graveyard Shift, we're visiting a real police fingerprint lab. Yesterday's topic was about finding fingerprints with Superglue. Great photos.

The Graveyard Shift, a guide to all things cops and robbers
- a blog for writers
http://www.leelofland.com/wordpress/

Added by Lee Lofland on March 5, 2008 at 11:28pm — No Comments

Gremlins

It's taken them a while to find me, but the Gremlins have arrived. I'm pretty sure Lola the Garmin Voice led me far astray in getting to Sanibel Island yesterday. If that's the only way to get there, I can't believe the thousands of bumper-to-bumper cars I saw there made it. Then, in the middle of a call yesterday my cell phone went dead. No amount of coaxing seems likely to resuscitate it. And when I checked into a hotel (at a scary price) they actually require that I hook my computer to the… Continue

Added by Peg Herring on March 5, 2008 at 10:56pm — No Comments

Ripped From The Headlines!!!!!!!!!!!

Not exactly.

But I am in the position of being able to exploit a current news story to sell a book that was written five years ago. (Yes, the wheels of publication do run slowly.)

Yesterday, an eco-terrorist group called the Earth Liberation Front (using the adorable acronym ELF) set fire to three multi-million dollar mansions in a Seattle suburb. Fortunately, the houses were unoccupied and no one was hurt or killed. Of course, ELF prides itself on never harming a living… Continue

Added by Judy Nichols on March 5, 2008 at 7:30am — No Comments

Fans -- Or, Heck, Even Fan

I have a signing today in an area where I am unknown, alien, and transitory. If anyone shows up it will be because the bookstore owner did an excellent job of presenting me, and for her sake, I hope it works. A friend who had a similar event on Saturday got two people: a mom and her adolescent kid. I'm keeping a rein on my expectations.

At times like these it's easy to feel like a pebble in the ocean, but then something wonderful happens. By email, I got a message from a fan. Just… Continue

Added by Peg Herring on March 4, 2008 at 9:48pm — No Comments

Happy 1st Birthday To Crimespace

When I started CrimeSpace on March 4th 2007, I didn't see it living past the six month mark. I certainly didn't see it hitting over 1000 members or winning any awards either. I just saw a hole in the crime fiction internet universe and wanted to fill it. I'm such a boy.

To celebrate CrimeSpace's 1st birthday, I've given the site a revamp. I imagine I'll be tweaking it a little over the first week or so,… Continue

Added by Daniel Hatadi on March 4, 2008 at 8:30am — 2 Comments

RENGADE AFLOAT

RENEGADE photo-tour: This is the area RENEGADE hero Luke Stone has his boat house, and it's snowing heavily the night he brings Jess here. Below is a back view of the boat houses at Granville Island.…

Continue

Added by Loreth Anne White on March 4, 2008 at 6:50am — No Comments

Free Advertising for your book

I recently came across http://www.thebookattic.us/
This site will advertise your book for free, plus displaying your cover and a link to your website or other point of sale. I highly recomend it.

Added by Brian L Porter on March 3, 2008 at 11:43pm — No Comments

The Rise and Fall of the Average Writer

I just left a writers' conference, which is a good thing and a bad thing. The good thing is meeting other writers and spending days talking of almost nothing but writing. We're a generous bunch, and we share information from whatever level we're on with those who are a step or three behind. I spoke with several people who were just getting started, some still afraid to put ink on paper for fear it would be wrong. It will, I told them, but wrong is where we all have to begin.

In turn,… Continue

Added by Peg Herring on March 3, 2008 at 9:47pm — No Comments

Australian Crime Fiction Snapshots - Underway

Just a quick reminder for anybody who is interested - we've kicked off the Snapshot interviews this morning with:

PD Martin
Adrian Hyland
Marshall Browne
Lucy Sussex
Matthew Freeman

more to come later today / rest of the week.

http://www.austcrimefiction.org

will point you to all the articles on the 3 participating sites.

Added by Karen from AustCrime on March 3, 2008 at 3:30pm — No Comments