I love Friday nights...the work week is over (well, there is the Saturday shift at B&N but that's fun, not work), and I can throw the business attire in the closet for two days in favor of cropped pants and a tee-shirt. Tonight I made myself some red beans and rice and popped Second Sight with Clive Owen into the DVD player. Not so much writing done this week between work and real life projects like kitchen cabinets, but Saturday and Sunday are blank slates to be filled with (hopefully)…

Okay, so the articles I wrote for business magazines involved getting your product out there. Of course they were written with artists (and I mean jewelry, ceramics, etc.) in mind. I wrote about public relations, getting exposure, and putting together a press kit.

If enough of you are interested, I can post about press kits, where to target them, and how to make yours stand out. Many of you have probably already done this, but for those who haven't, I'd be happy to add my two cents…

Drop by FictionScribe.com to read a new review of Whale Song and for another glimpse into the life of Del Hawthorne as she gets ready for the adventure of her life, in Cheryl Kaye Tardif's The River, an action-packed techno-thriller that takes you down the wild Nahanni River.

three

It had been years since she had set foot inside…

The life of a GI is pretty lonely over here. A guy gets to thinking of a girl at home, one who is true to him, who waits patiently for the day he comes back so they can get married and start a family. Unfortunately, I didn't have a girl like that. But Bill, the guy in the next bunk, had Sue.

Sue wrote to Bill every day, and he seemed to get stronger as soon as that envelope was in his hand. I would ask him to read the letters aloud, and as he read, I imagined Sue writing those things…

posted by Leann Sweeney

Caution: This post contains graphic medical terms like "icky" and "disgusting."

I am pathetic when it comes to my pets. Probably because we live so far from our grown children and have no other family close, these furry friends have become very important to our mental health. We spoil them, we love them and they make life easier just by their presence. And since I work at home and spend many hours with them and only them, it makes matters worse…

First off, please forgive my morbid curiosity with the cases I look up.

While searching in the Law Library I ran across the case of The People vs. Edward Vargas. The citation for it is 91 CalApp4th 506.

The Facts describe some of the workings of the Nuestra Familia prison gang. Of interest: there is a "bank" where gang members contribute money for a general fund; there is a written constitution; NF devised the Northern Structure in order to take the heat off themselves.

Everyone:

I've never blogged. Never considered it. Never had the time.

So here I am stepping away from writing my 9th thriller to give it try.

The rules say I can blog about anything. Okay. My background is in crime reporting and in writing news. The lead (some say lede) - the opening of an article - is crucial to pull people into your item.

I have tried to apply it to my crime novels whenever it seemed fitting. I don't believe in a slam bang opening every time,…

First of all you need to understand: I'm a dancer, not a fighter. It was all so innocent to begin with. I'm at a club down on 43rd, dancing for the ladies. I gotta tell ya, they love it when I get in the groove on a Saturday night. I got the physique, the walk, the dance moves--everything a woman's man needs.

So I'm dancin', and this girl comes over and starts dancing with me. We are like liquid together, sliding around the floor in perfect sync. All of a sudden this guy steps up and…

posted by Jeanne Munn Bracken

Yippee! Summer is almost over. No, I'm not looking forward to icy roads, icy sidewalks, icy winds, icy temperatures. That, I hope, is well into the future. In the meantime, we have my favorite season. I love the autumn. ("Fall" sounds rather treacherous to us Boomers, doesn't it?) I love the cooler temperatures, the brilliant tree colors, the woodsmoke tang in the air. Mostly, I love vacation.

Since our daughters have reached the age of…

The Melbourne Writers' Festival starts tomorrow (August 24) and continues until Septmber 2. Crime writing features strongly on a program packed with events from morning until late at night. There are seminars, talks, discussions, walks through crime story sites and, best of all, a masterclass for budding crime writers where we will spend an intensive day of tuition under Scottish crime author Quintin Jardine. For the opening day I'll be in the audience at The Whole Shebang which is described…