We have a heat index of 100 her in NJ.

Whew. Knocks me out, but here I am blogging.

With a hot laptop on my lap. Yeah, I'm bright.

Anyway, don't you love when authors use the weather as another character in their story. I've tried, but all NJ has is humidity.

And road rage, but that's not weather.

The rainy days of Seattle make a neat back drop for a murder. The sultry nights of Miami make it a great place for chicklit.

I have a strange urge…

Nancy Pickard and Todd Stone will be featured speakers at WritersFest 2007: Concept to Contract—How to Write and Sell Your Book from 8:30 a.m. to 9:15 p.m. on Saturday, September 8, 2007, at the Comfort Inn & Suites in Chesterfield MO. The day long seminar is presented by the Greater St. Louis Chapter of Sisters in Crime…

I was interviewed by Marilyn Meredith for her blog, Marilyn's Musings. Please follow this link to read the interview: http://marilynmeredith.blogspot.com/

All my interviews are available on my website, www.martastephens-author.com on my "Stephens Interrogated" page. All my articles are posted on my blog…

I think I just lost a blog post due to a slip of the little finger, right hand. Dang, I hate when that happens!

OK, the thing is, Nikki sent me an email asking the questions I put in this subject line, and when I came to Crimespace to look for her post so that I could reply to it in the most direct place, I couldn't find it.

I admit to having problems with what I guess you'd call technical aspects of managing my Crimespace page. I did manage to get my photo…

TWO NEW REVIEWS FOR TWO WRONGS

I'd like to use this space today to thank Mary P. Smith, Tiffany Schofield and everyone else at Thorndike Press/Five Star for their gracious hospitality at Author Day, last Friday in Waterville, Maine.

Also to my fellow Five Star authors who made the trip to Waterville - it was great good fun.…

posted by Lorraine Bartlett

I've always had a love-hate relationship with "how-to" books. Goodness, knows I have enough of them. From redecorating your rumpus room to building an entire house. I also have a lot of writing how-to books, as well as a few "diet" how-to's.

My latest diet how-to is French Women Don't Get Fat. I bought it at a yard…

It isn't easy to make people come alive on a piece of paper. Secondary characters need to act in certain ways to advance the story, but what kind of person does what you need done at a particular spot in the plotline?

The book I'm reading right now has a character who is obtuse and smart-mouthed for no apparent reason, in fact there are good reasons why he would NOT be that way. He's a county sheriff, for one thing, so he should be polite to his citizens for job security. He's trying…

Okay, there isn't really a joke buried here, but now that I have your attention, I'll answer a question I'm sure you're dying to ask. (As for the question of how many dead puns I can pack into a blog posting, the answer is "an infinite number.")

So, here's your question presented for viewing by all: Why write about vampires?

My answer: Why not?

Vampires have been…

My good friend Kaycee Conners did a terrific job coming up with the questions for the interview she posted today in her Wordpress blog, http://pubd2b.wordpress.com/. This one really made me think.

Hope you'll all have a chance to pop in for a read and post a comment. All of my personal interviews will be posted to my website, …

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

SARIE MORRELL, PUBLICIST

Sarie Morrell Author and Book Promotion

(714) 846-0589, snmorrell@earthlink.net

BESTSELLING AUTHOR DAVID MORRELL RECEIVES PRESTIGIOUS INKPOT AWARD AT COMIC-CON 2007

August 1, 2007

San Diego, CA -- Multiple New York Times bestselling author David Morrell, creator of Rambo and father of the modern action novel, was honored with a…

When Edison first invented his phonograph, there were articles in various periodicals that the book public libraries would be a thing of the past.

Books and libraries are still with us, though now the printed word is available in electronic form and in audio books on tape, CD and MP3...and who knows what devices in the future.

The public has mostly turned their backs on e-books. I surely don't want to read a mystery on my computer screen or some other electronic instrument. On…

Posted by Sheila Connolly

Inspired by Lorraine's last post, I thought I'd follow the bug thread. This makes some sense, because my husband is an entomologist (that's the bug person, not the one who worries about where words came from). He's a research scientist, and he works for the federal government, for one of those agencies known best by its initials. He's worked for several of them, and I always have to remind myself which one is current (APHIS, ARS, USDA, USFS, etc.). He…