A whole mess o' DVD release info for you (including The Wire: season 4).

Jon talks about Smallville and Heroes.

I have a review of the veritable smorgasboard that…

posted by Lorraine (L.L.) Bartlett

To everything, there is a season.... And the warmest season is already winding down. My question? Where the blazes did the summer go?

It seems like only a couple of weeks ago my Dad and I planted my bean crop at our cottage. (Those not familiar with my attempts at farming may want to check out my personal blog--under the subject of gardening.) I'm now…

I had lunch with a fellow author a while back, and she had come to the end of two series contracts, having written six books. She was in the position of starting over, sort of, and wrestling with the question: What next?

It's one that writers face at the end of a book or a series, unless there's a series so popular that the public won't let it end. I heard Martha Grimes speak on that, and it's a problem of a different kind, but today I'm thinking of the "What's next?" aspect. Do you…

Authors of crime fiction often draw from real events to interject the feel of reality into their novels. Sometimes, though, reality becomes stranger than fiction, and the author may using “facts” that spoil the fictional world. For example, take a long trial before a jury and the judge nods off. No doubt this has happened on

more than one occasion. But what if the judge has a condition that predisposes

him to suddenly slip into a coma like…

There has been a lot of press recently on the release of the original scroll version of Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road” manuscript.

You want to get depressed? I lost, in Hurricane George, 1998, a first edition of "On the Road." Yeah, it was beat up, but that’s because I’d read it so often and somehow kept it with me on my moves around the country. But that’s a whole other blog.

I was born after Kerouac began his journey with Neal Cassady, Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso and William…

In last week's issue of the Love is Murder e-news, there was discussion of the Loveys. If you've been to LIM, you know that these awards are voted on by attendees and the winners are announced on Saturday night at the wonderful dinner, which over 300 people attended. Someone wrote in Crimespree that they questioned the purpose of the Loveys, and the LIM Board responded. See below.

Librarians - and publishers love awards. Do they guarantee that a book will sell thousands of copies…

by S.J. Rozan

Some people tell me I have an impressive work ethic, an admirable sense of discipline. I say I'm slightly obsessive, not to mention a little compulsive. I write every day, as a rule, and it's a rule I take seriously. Many elements go into the creation of a book, but no book was every created without the most basic element of all:…

Posted by Sheila Connolly

I was going to write about this in a timely fashion last week, but Mr. Peet's demise intervened. However, this odd piece of lore has intrigued me for a long time, and this seemed an appropriate time to pursue it, as you will see.

How many of you subscribe to the practice of waking up on the first day of the month and saying "rabbit, rabbit" before anything else?

For those of you who have never heard of this peculiar tradition, you must…

When someone finds out that I'm an author, a question often crops up that I've never found a good answer for. People want to know how long it took to write the book. Although I've come up with a reply in order to sound competent and capable, the real answer is, I have no idea.

Is the time it takes to write a book that initial few months when the ideas come so fast and furiously that I barely have time to write one scene down before the next one starts pushing its way into my head? Is…

The nights are drawing in, the leaves are turning brown and Silent Witness is back on the box, autumn is here again.

Some people I know think of…

I mentioned earlier I think that I've been reading this great anthology of short stories from the Local Sisters in Crime Chapter - I've finally started making very restricted comments at:

http://www.austcrimefiction.org/node/2678

It's hard to say too much about each individual story without giving too much away - but this is a fabulous selection of short stories.

Today marks the official launch of "In for Questioning," a weekly podcast geared toward Crime Fiction - writers, readers, and various other criminally-minded types. I drag 'em in, ask the (sorta) tough questions and toss 'em back out again. So check out this week's show and see whatcha think! Questions or comments? Well,…