Posted by Sheila Connolly

My name is Sheila, and I'm a hoarder.

Following the mad holiday spree when everybody vies to collect the most presents, and then rushes to the local mall to swap them all, it seems appropriate to reflect on my character flaw. For the record, I love stuff. Mind you, I am not a shopaholic. I do not buy things just for the sake of spending money, nor do I bring them home and squirrel them away under the bed without even removing the…

As we look forward to a new year, let's take our cue from the coolest source ever...oldies. See if you can discern my New Year's resolutions from the hints:

In 2008:

1. "I will __________! I will ____________!" (disco)

2. "I'm gonna sit right down and __________ __________ ___ __________." (Old pop)

3. "Wherever you may hide away; I swear to you, I will be ________" (Les Miz)

4. "I'm gonna _________ when the Spirit says __________" (gospel)

5. "I…

Got a nice gift over the holidays. My most recent book, A PERFECT GRAVE has been named one of the best paperbacks of 2007, by DEADLY PLEASURES, the online magazine known as America's premier fan-oriented mystery magazine. The book is the 3rd in my series featuring rookie crime reporter Jason Wade. The series is popular in the US and Canada; and in Norway, where Schibsted of Oslo publishes it. In A PERFECT GRAVE, Wade's pursuit of the murder of a beloved Seattle nun, leads him to a hermit…

Which of your writing goals did you make this year? I got one short story published, in The Heat of the Moment anthology for Echelon Press, benefitting victims of the San Diego, CA, wildfires through the Fire Safe Council of San Diego County.I even got to participate in a signing. Those things were so cool I didn't even think to put something that good on my goals!

Also, I signed with an agent, and a publisher is considering my YA novel.

So a pretty good writing year, yet I'm…

What a good year for reading! It…

I discovered that there is a way to do this without a charge (I can mail a .txt or .html file [other formats, too] to a me@free.kindle.com address. The Mother Ship converts the file to .amz format and sends it back to me).

I didn't RTFM closely enough to discover this right away (RTFM is the technical support term for "Read The F* Manual"). So ... I remain impressed by this device. There are a couple of little ergonomic features I'd change, but overall, I like it a lot.

Now the…

The week flew by fast and I missed my blog last Saturday. I wanted to wait till after my first book signing, but by the time I got home I was too wired to do anything constructive or destructive for that matter.

Sunday came and went, and preparations for the holidays were in full swing. In other words, I got very little done in my office and can’t really tell you where the time went.

The book signing at Centuries & Sleuths went very well, our own blogger Norm Cowie…

My first novel, 'Broken City', of a triology based on the files of PI Hamilton Shamrock is now available at www.lulu.com/content/1374439. Would like to hear from anyone who is self-published about their marketing strategy.

At least according to the Dover NH Library (and no, I'm not from Dover, NH, or NH for that matter). Here's their eclectic list, which I am honored to be included in:

A Three Dog Life by Abigail Thomas

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

Last Wife of Henry VIII by Carolly Erickson

Life & Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

False Impression by Jeffrey Archer

Book of Lost Things by John Connolly

Boleyn Inheritance by…

I got a Kindle for Christmas and have been fiddling with it. My ebooks aren't in the Kindle library (which just means my publishers haven't converted their books to .amz format, for Kindle). BUT -- I can upload the books easily enough to the device.

How? you ask.

It was amazingly easy -- I got my latest book (shameless promotion here: If Not For You, available here from Cerridwen Press) in…

I've been reading a book by an author I like a lot, but this one has been a real trial. Too many characters, too much obscure information, and a shift between first and third person that creates the feeling that I'm reading two different books. I'll finish it because she's good and I know it, but it won't go on my list of her best.

At the same time I had the experience of two people reading one of my works with two different results. The first one didn't finish, simply gave up with…

Just in under the wire for 2007 -- my fourth book released today in digital download (ebook format) and will be available in print later next year.

If Not For You is a book about chance encounters -- or are they really 'chance'? Two people bent on revenge throw Layla Whitford and Max Lerner together, thinking it will be like a mix of oil and water. Little does anyone suspect that staid businessman Max and free-spirited Layla will hit it off -- and how!

Now all they…

Posted by Jeanne Munn Bracken

I got stuck in snowbanks three times last week, but hey! We had a White Christmas! Being a nostalgic time of year, Christmas reminds us of earlier times--happier or not. Christmas, it seems to me, comes in phases.

Phase I: Parents and their children sitting near the tree. I think our Christmases in upstate New York might…

Here lies the body of our Anna,

Done to death by a banana.

It wasn't the fruit that laid her low,

'Twas the skin of the thing that made her go.

Like poor Anna, it often isn't writing that kills writers; it's what comes along with it.

Yesterday I was trying to plan a book tour, composing letters (personalized, of course) to booksellers, librarians, festival vendors, and various places where we might rest our heads as we travel. At the same time I was…