posted by Jeanne Munn Bracken

My children will never forget our family vacations. They tended to involve recalcitrant vehicles stuffed too full with people, animals and enough accoutrements to launch a world war. Just going for a daily picnic required enough stuff (high chairs, potty chairs, playpens, etc.) that we looked like Okies rollin' down the highway.…

I hear from many of my author friends that they hate the public part of the business even though they realize that it's required. If you've been reading the last week's posts, you probably know that I'm not particularly bothered by speaking to groups or meeting new people. After teaching communication for thirty years, I can tell you that whatever your nervous symptoms are, everyone has something, and they probably will never go away. All you can do is minimize them. Here are a few things to…

Too funny. I just saw this prediction for 2008:



Travel:

The position of Rahu planet may result in your undergoing a long and distant journey this year.



Rahu must know that I am moving. Or wait, maybe I'm just going on a vacation? Seeing how I live on an island, any…

“London Frog will have readers groaning, laughing, and scratching their heads…all at the same time. A series of extraordinary plot twists and coincidences…will keep mystery lovers amused all the way to the chase’s delightful end. This sassy, sexy, funny tale will please and entertain.”…

Listen to the Blogcast

Kate White, editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan magazine and the best-selling author of the Bailey Weggins mystery series, said she frequently reminds herself to write big and bold—to find the best way of expressing exactly what it is she wants to say to knock her readers' socks off.

"I have a tendency to hold back with my writing,"…

posted by Doranna

Whenever I travel, I take work with me. Whether it's to the doctor's office (I'm typing this in a parking lot even now) or an agility weekend or even running errands--you never know when you might get stuck in traffic!

But generally, when I go on weekend trips, I hunt hardcopy work--polishing or edits or various…

I mentioned in an earlier blog that we must learn to listen to more than the words that are spoken. Last night the Presidential candidates were answering a question about the environment put to them by Katie Couric . She asked if they believe the global warning issue has been over-hyped. Without listening at all to their answers, a person could predict what the words would be. Listening to their tone of voice was much more revealing.

No political candidate is going to say that an…

Timothy Hallinan had a great idea: write a novel by the seat of your pants and post chapters weekly. The Dickens Challenge is just what I needed. Sign me up.



Look for the first chapter of THE STALKER right here on this blog next week. Since I scrapped almost the…

All day long we choose what we will listen to and what we will tune out. Understanding that, a speaker knows what he must do: capture the listener's attention, pulling it away from television, radio, Muzak, and that building custodian who's mowing the lawn in apparently endless circles. Even if they win that half of the battle, speakers still have to make listeners want to keep…

Posted by Lorraine (L.L.) Bartlett

After struggling for months, I finally came to the end of my Work In Progress. Oy. What a relief.

Okay, this isn't my first book. You'd think that after eight or nine completed manuscripts it would get easier, not harder. Well, you would be WRONG! How often have I heard an author say (and usually in writing, not verbally) that after each completed manuscript, they find they've forgotten how to write a book.

Well, it's true. I…

Frailties

The first time he came apart

he left us all at once and forever

only sneaking back…

I was running late as usual, although in my defense this wasn’t entirely my fault. My husband was out of town, and the babysitter was held up a half-hour in traffic. Then the cab never arrived, so I drove to the

Mission, praying to the gods of street parking after three…

Posted by Sheila Connolly

If all goes well, this will be posted while I am somewhere else. In fact, I'm should be in a place I've never been before: Tucson, Arizona. This is rather funny, since I've now completed two books set in Tucson. But that was Berkley's idea, not mine. Still, I want to get it right. I want to collect the details: the way the air smells, the way the mountains look in the early light, the sights and sounds of the desert. I have never seen a desert. I…

SINC BLOG

December 10, 2007

READ FIRST

One of the questions I dread in the Q&A section of any talk I’m giving is that loaded one, Where do you get your ideas? I generally shrug my shoulders and tell the absolute truth: if I knew for certain, I’d be happy to share it with you. After all, where does imagination have its roots? I’m sure there’s some psychological or physiological answer of which I’m ignorant, but I don’t think that’s what people want to know. They’re…