December 2008 Blog Posts (187)

Coffee, Crime And Croissants

I've been invited to BBC Radio Solent's On Air Christmas Party on 17 December 2008. It's part of the BBC's 100 Lives Project and I am one of the "lives!"

BBC Radio Solent's 100 Lives project offers a snapshot of life in the 21st century by following the lives of 100 people over the year. I was privileged and pleased to be chosen as one of those… Continue

Added by Pauline Rowson on December 10, 2008 at 9:45pm — No Comments

Murder Hotel

Long before I ever considered becoming a writer of murder mysteries, my wife and I would make a trip every winter to the White Mountains of New Hampshire. It was an annual pilgrimage, a week of cross-country skiing in and around the Jackson Ski Touring Foundation. Every trip was memorable, but only one trip was memorable for murder.

It was the winter of 1985. Driving north, we caught the tail-end of a news item on the car radio, nothing unusual, something about an open murder… Continue

Added by Jeff Markowitz on December 10, 2008 at 8:56pm — No Comments

Twittering Doom

I've foolishly allowed myself to be bitten by the Twitter zombie after all. I'm faustfatale. As per Gerald So's suggestion, I'll be using the site primarily as a link to this blog, with occasional stand alone posts. I'll try to avoid anything dull like: "Christa is writing." That's a given.

There goes the cyber-neighborhood!

Added by Christa Faust on December 10, 2008 at 1:00pm — No Comments

Dorothy Porter - 1954 to 2008

Radio National's Bookshow first announced, and a story has just been aired on ABC Radio's The World Today Show - Dorothy Porter died from breast cancer this morning.

A profound loss to the Australian literary community, and to the cause of poetry the world over, Dorothy was one of those women that, if you were lucky enough to hear her speak, made you profoundly jealous of anybody fortunate enough to have been a student of hers.

I'm particularly feeling the loss as I… Continue

Added by Karen from AustCrime on December 10, 2008 at 11:30am — No Comments

Celebrating My Latest Mystery Novel

Sorry for the blatant self-promotion, but I'm celebrating the publication of my latest Benjamin Justice mystery, SPIDER SEASON, which goes on sale today from St. Martin's Minotaur. SPIDER SEASON is the eighth novel in the series, which has won an Edgar and three Lambda Literary Awards. It's on the dark and character-driven side, for more adventurous readers one might say. If you'd like to read the first chapter, go to the link on the home page of my web site:… Continue

Added by John Morgan Wilson on December 10, 2008 at 7:00am — No Comments

Squeezed to Death

I think I should make that title into a short story. Here it is December and I'm frantically working to get every thing for year end finished before leaving for a Christmas visit to my family. I have only 8 days to get it all done. No, I can't do any of it there. When I'm with my family my days are filled with the kids, the details of keeping track of everything and the list of tasks my daughter thinks we will accomplish before the big day. And I assure you she works at a must faster pace than… Continue

Added by Gayle Wigglesworth on December 10, 2008 at 4:02am — No Comments

Counting down the days!~

Avenging Angel, A Shannon Wallace Mystery--Coming from Red Rose Publishing on December 18th! Excerpt now available

on the RRP site, under coming soon to EBOOK!

Blurb:

Shannon Wallace has lost something very important to her. She's in

trouble with the law. The law being Detective Salvador Ramirez. He's

still mad at her for something that happened during their college days.

If she doesn't find her missing item before he does, all hell will

break… Continue

Added by Kim Smith on December 10, 2008 at 3:48am — No Comments

Square peg in round hole

I tried to submit a... I"ll call it an essay that I wrote to my newspaper's "Readers Writings forum... and it was so restrictive on space that I had to chop the guts out of what was already a really short story and decided to pass. I suppose I"m just too gabby, but I don't usually write that short! Other than a woman's magazine (oik! Am I really that old and dull?) I don't know where to submit the kind of short (2-3 pages) stuff I write. And so it sits on my blog, waiting for a computer… Continue

Added by Tracy Meisky on December 10, 2008 at 1:38am — No Comments

Deer Friends

This being the time of year we travel more, I am reminded of questions my kids used to ask when we were on the road. One of them I never could answer adequately.

How do they get the deer to cross at that yellow road sign?

Added by Austin S. Camacho on December 9, 2008 at 11:41pm — No Comments

Remember Ruth Buzzi?

The first time I saw her was in a skit where she was a magician's assistant, with a name something like Shegundalah. The first thing you noticed was her large chin, and of course she emphasized it for the sake of humor. Ruth made quite a career out of that chin, but I read once that she had to resist all kinds of pressure to "do something" about it. "They" said she would never make it in show business otherwise.

Sara Paretsky was told early on that she'd made two really disastrous… Continue

Added by Peg Herring on December 9, 2008 at 9:54pm — No Comments

ARE BOOKS AND BOOK SIGNINGS RECESSION PROOF? MAYBE THEY’RE JUST AN INVESTMENT OR, PERHAPS, EVEN A LITTLE FUN

Not often a factor analyzed by the national media as it dooms the national and global economy, book signings may be holding their own --- at least around here. Even as my third novel, FRESH FROZEN, was enjoying an October 2008 book release just as the economy was really tanking (not a cause and effect relationship, I’m sure), I along with hoards of other authors and publicists was busy. The goal was to line up and confirm appearances at… Continue

Added by Darden North, MD on December 9, 2008 at 4:28pm — No Comments

Silent Scream brings Positive Results

When I first started researching this book- my husband who worked the crime of Georgia Jessup and Susan Place told me he didn't know just how many people would be interested in a 34 year old crime. I told him that I had a feeling about this. So I continued with my quest. As it turned out not only were people interested, but those who worked all of the crimes and are still alive were more than willing to help me with this book.

Since last week… Continue

Added by Yvonne Mason on December 9, 2008 at 8:11am — No Comments

I really am a Know It All

Now my smug-know-it-allness is official.

;)

There Are 0 Gaps in Your Knowledge

Where you have gaps in your knowledge:

No Gaps!

Where…

Continue

Added by D.R. MacMaster on December 9, 2008 at 4:29am — 5 Comments

The Latest

It's been a good few days!

Friday I greeted travelers coming into and leaving Reagan National Airport. The folks at the Borders there are always gracious to me and this was no exception. I can't wait to go back just before the inauguration - when lots of people will be flying into town to see the mixed-race hero fighting to bring justice to Washington DC. And after meeting Hannibal Jones, maybe they'll go see Obama.

Signings are always fun, but teaching can be too.… Continue

Added by Austin S. Camacho on December 8, 2008 at 10:59pm — No Comments

I Should Be Banned from Football

Forget druggie athletes, gambling coaches, and dishonest GMs. I should be banned from football, maybe all sports, because the slightest interest from me and a team goes into a disastrous tailspin. They couldn't win if the other team decided to boycott the second half and stay in the locker room where it's warm.

Of course I'd like to see Detroit win a game. It's humiliating that Michigan is the nation's worst state in so many areas, but football? Come on, we're the tough guys, the… Continue

Added by Peg Herring on December 8, 2008 at 10:36pm — 1 Comment

Weekly Blog - Monday 8th December

Death Of A Thousand Cuts

Last week saw the start of the editing process for The Beholder. Having completed the first draft of a novel, the first thing I do is to give it a read through to tidy up the prose, which generally involves making lots of small cuts. My first drafts tend to be a little on the flabby side, as it’s fair to say that I have a natural tendency towards verbosity, but I also think that there’s a sub-conscious factor at work, namely that when I set out to write a… Continue

Added by Steven Hague on December 8, 2008 at 8:30pm — No Comments

Sometimes I Do Too much at once...

Currently, I'm working on a non-fiction book about the business of pop culture, I'm writing a sci-fi adventure, and last night I got hit with the beginnings of a mystery story, that had me writing until 1:30 AM.

Goes to show, you can't really control inspiration, and you gotta go for it when it comes. I had been stewing the idea for a while, a sort of geeky take of the classical "cozy" structure, and I needed something to help intro the detective, the victim and the suspects, and… Continue

Added by D.R. MacMaster on December 8, 2008 at 12:23pm — 1 Comment

What's New for December

Hi Everyone.

The December WHAT'S NEW is now available on my website, http://www.davidmorrell.net. This month I offer a warning about forgeries, the variety of formats available for THE SPY WHO CAME FOR CHRISTMAS, my next novel and Rambo V.

Happy Holidays. David

Added by David Morrell on December 8, 2008 at 12:09pm — No Comments

Ladies of Noir on Bookslut

Bookslut has posted a roundtable discussion on women and Noir featuring Megan Abbott, Cathi Unsworth and your not-so-humble narrator.

Added by Christa Faust on December 8, 2008 at 4:51am — No Comments

I just got the world's shortest review

Or maybe not the world's shortest, exactly - I'm sure there have been shorter ones - but it's my shortest, by far. Three sentences, and one is a quote from moi. You can check it out here - however, since it's only three lines, I figure I may as well post it, so you don't have to make the extra click:

Jennie Bentley writes, "If Derek — 6 feet tall, with melting blue eyes,… Continue

Added by Jennie Bentley/Bente Gallagher on December 8, 2008 at 3:00am — 3 Comments