Posted by Lorraine (L.L.) Bartlett

The recent collapse of the Minneapolis bridge was a warning to America that our infrastructure is failing. That's not surprising, considering that the U.S. system of repair and new-building is based on accepting the lowest bid. Pay crap--you get crap. In Europe, the road beds are several feet deeper than ours. They last…

I went to see Steve Hamilton speak in Charlevoix, Michigan last night, and it was a good decision. I've enjoyed the Alex McKnight series for several reasons, primarily the Michigan settings that are familiar to me, the characters who are so well-drawn and lifelike, and the fact that my husband also likes them so we can talk about them together. (His usual Vietnam-era memoirs aren't so much fun for me.)

Steve is an entertaining and personable speaker who just talks about what he does…

Visit In for Questioning to listen to this week's show!

Suspect: Cornelia Read

Age: Where are your manners?!

Occupation: Author, raconteur

Last know location: San Francisco Bay…

I've started writing an Internet mystery serial for Discover Nikkei (Nikkei means of Japanese descent). Titled "The Nihongo Papers," it's actually a bio terrorism/paranormal thriller involving strawberries (!). It's great fun. I'm supposed to deliver a new installment each month for a year.

Here's the first:…

I'm preparing the ingredients for a great Halloween party for anyone who is interested. I'll be posting it this week. Here's a few tidbits - New Orleans, Cajun Food, Costumes, books, contests, libraries, murder, a secret society, a ghost named Pinch, a voodoo princess name Scrimp.

Prepare to put on the show for yours friends this Halloween 2007!

Lyn LeJeune

I have once again finished all the required edits on my new mystery Tree Huggers (as I expected, the editor had more corrections) and the publication date is sometime in December.

Which means it's time to get in gear for marketing.

I hate marketing. Like most writers, I'm perfectly happy to sit hunched over my computer weaving tales of mystery (or romance or horror or long depessing accounts of our own miserable lives and calling it…

I was surprised not too long ago to get a call from an acquaintance with a problem. As we had talked over the years about writing, he'd told me he had several manuscripts in a drawer somewhere that he'd written as a younger man. He was interested in my quest for publication but maintained that he was too busy with work and family to try it himself. But when the news came that his job would disappear within a few months, he contacted me to ask about getting an agent. It seems he considered…

Posted by Sheila Connolly

Like a lot of writers, I can't stop acquiring books. I can't walk past a bookstore–particularly one with used books–without stopping just to take a look. And I'm drawn to flea markets and yard sales where books are stacked in unsteady piles, priced to sell–a quarter, a dollar tops. As a result, over the years I have ended up with a rather eclectic assortment of books. I have never regretted buying Emily Post's Etiquette, because if I'm…

Meredith and I will be attending BOUCHERCON 2007 in Anchorage, Alaska at the end of September 2007.

We will both be appearing on panels and signing our thriller, LADYKILLER, and attending workshops and the like. Bouchercon is a great mystery writers' conference and attracts many writers, publishers, agents, booksellers, reviewers, librarians and fans.

If you attend, please say hello. We can be found, no doubt, in the bar most nights!

Its been a busy few weeks, I've finished work on the 3000 word ECA, known informally as the monster and its gone off to be marked, they'll let me know how I've done before Christmas, lets hope the result doesn't take the shine off the tinsel eh?

I 've also been working on another short story, you can read it at…

Hop on over to www.chrisreddingauthor.blogspt.com and check out my new post.

cmr