I have a personal blog, on the Google blog site, but I'm not going to keep it up. I'll be removing the link from my personal page here on Crimespace soon, end of this month.

Blogging is weird. Not so much here, where the focus is mystery and I have some credentials and a lot of history in the field; once in a while I do seem to have something to say that's probably worth saying. But in general I am not a good blogger. I do like to read some other people's blogs, and there are…

Which authors do you think are egomaniacs? Any bestsellers you’ve got stashed on your shelves? Newer authors you think are already too big for their britches? Anyone spring to mind?

I’ve been thinking about this over the weekend, for a variety of reasons. One is the comment trail here. Another is a private communication. Then there was that email I referenced last post. And the final straw? The comment trail over at…

Posted by Sheila Connolly

I said my post of last week was the end of the line for my academic sojourns. Okay, I lied. But this is absolutely, positively the last post in this thread, because my Darling Daughter has graduated. She's moved back into her old bedroom and will be looking for a job (anybody have any good suggestions for a Comparative Literature major?).

But of course we had to have a bang-up, blow-out last ceremony to mark the end of her four years:…

"I am born." "I had a farm in Africa" "I have never begun a novel with more misgiving."

Back in the day, novels written in the first person got some respect. When did that change?



I don't know if it's a mystery thing or a "literary" thing, but it seems that writing in third person (or some other variation or combination) gets all the reviews while first person novels are somehow written off as lightweight, anyone-can-bang-them-out yarns. When I started Pushing up…

This turned up in my email for anyone interested...

I started a new job a few weeks ago, so I cut myself some slack on writing. During my lunch break - typically at Wendy's since the 99 cent menu is all I can afford thanks to gas-gauging - I have some time to focus my thoughts on my characters and plot and where it's going.

Of course, those notes are great when I sit back down at the computer, but time away takes its toll - especially on a story like mine. I have a lot of twists I want to pack into the pages to give readers a…

It was nice getting back into the swing of the Glyndebourne (http://www.glyndebourne.com) season last night, but I have to say that Lord H and I were rather disappointed in their production of "Macbeth". Though, whatever they do, the play will of course be more powerful and more human than anything in the known universe ... The singing was first-class, as ever (as far as I can tell anyway - the singer playing Lady…

This was first published in Crimespree a couple of years ago. Enjoy:

The Driver

By…

Had an interesting conversation with a friend of mine yesterday, who'd been to a Chinese healer and had had a face reading. Apparently, he'd spent one-and-a-half hours reading her eyebrows. One-and-a-half hours!!! I mean: weird, or what?? Especially as the friend in question has eyebrows that are barely visible, even though she doesn't pluck them. It appears that such eyebrows mean that you're the sort of person who only does one thing at a time and can't multi-task well. Bloody hell, I…