All Blog Posts Tagged 'West' (32)

Looking for somewhere to kill someone: suggestions please

I’m always looking for a good spot in which to kill someone. Still, as a crime writer, I rarely have to ask about potential locations for a good murder. People are keen to suggest that the blood be spilled on their doorstep.

Most recently, it was a pastor and his wife.

To be fair, they actually said I ought to have my Palestinian detective Omar Yussef visit their church on the top of the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, where I live. But when I noted admiringly that it’d be a… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on November 5, 2009 at 5:00pm — No Comments

Israel's new weapon: water?

Yet another report accuses Israel of human rights abuses, this time for denying Palestinians water. By Matt Beynon Rees - GlobalPost

JERUSALEM — Human-rights reports condemning Israel’s dealings with the Palestinians have become so frequent of late they’re like the dripping of Chinese water torture.

In the last few… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on October 30, 2009 at 1:17am — 2 Comments

Suffering 101

Palestinians and Israelis take an eternal debate into the classroom, leaving the UN stuck in the middle. By Matt Beynon Rees - GlobalPost

JERUSALEM — In the Book of Lamentations, the people of Jerusalem cry out against the destruction of the city: “Is any suffering like my suffering?”

The answer, of course, is: No. Ever since, Jeremiah’s phrase… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on September 5, 2009 at 1:25am — No Comments

Don't pay the ransom. I've escaped!

It seems like forever since I’ve sat down to blog. I guess a few months is forever to some. Would you believe that I was kidnapped by members of the MWA Florida board of directors and held on bread and water until I agreed to join them?

If you knew Jim Born, president of the chapter, mystery writer, FDLE agent, and all around scoundrel, you’d believe me. Honestly.

Thanks to some board members, namely Diane Stuckart, Linda Hengerer, Miriam Auerbach, Rhonda Pollero, Deb… Continue

Added by Michael Haskins on August 14, 2009 at 5:39am — 2 Comments

Omar Yussef for President of Palestine!

My latest post on the International Crime Authors Reality Check blog:

Unlike the Palestinians (who don’t have one), Palestinian politics is in a real state. A civil war that’s been bubbling and sometimes burning for two years plus. No government in Gaza because Hamas, which rules there, is isolated. Accusations by a top PLO official that current Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas had his predecessor Yasser Arafat… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on July 24, 2009 at 7:28pm — No Comments

Netanyahu holds his line

Israeli Prime Minister ignores Obama and reiterates same policies

by Matt Beynon Rees on Global Post

JERUSALEM — It’s as if Obama never happened.

Less than two weeks ago President Barack Obama laid out his plans for the Middle East in a speech in Cairo. He called for a freeze on Israeli settlement… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on June 15, 2009 at 4:24pm — No Comments

The Road Taken – At Last! January 24, 2009

With the spectacular inauguration ceremony earlier this week of President Barack Obama, I find myself diving backwards in time. As the world plunges headlong into an uncertain but hopeful future, I seem to have an undeniable urge to study my own version of the past.

Change is slow to come. We all know the truth of this statement. We do not need it explained… Continue

Added by Donna Carrick on January 25, 2009 at 2:07am — No Comments

Networking for writers and book signings

I am a believer in writers networking. We are solitary people, sitting often for hours, if not days and weeks, alone with our thoughts, sometimes a blank screen, and an idea. We play God to a world we create and bleed to bring our creation to life. Could God be as lonely as a writer trying to pound out that one true sentence?

I have been a member of Mystery Writers of America (www.mysterywriters.org) since the ‘80s. For the past 12 years, I have belonged to the Florida chapter of MWA and… Continue

Added by Michael Haskins on November 25, 2008 at 6:12am — No Comments

T&T BACKSTORY: THE GREAT KEYS STORM OF ’35

The coming Labor Day weekend marks the 73rd anniversary of the Great Florida Keys Storm of 1935 — still the most powerful hurricane to strike the United States. At this writing, another hurricane is threatening the Keys — a tropical storm named Fay.

The ’35 hurricane occurred at a time before tropical storms were given names. Storm forecasting was an uncertain science. And officials charged with the responsibility of informing and evacuating citizenry in the storm’s path were more… Continue

Added by Craig McDonald on August 18, 2008 at 12:42am — 1 Comment

Book Signing Part II - Florida and NY

I’ve written a little about my early book signings in Key West and South Florida and you can see photos from all my signings on my website, http://www.michaelhaskins.net/, if you are interested. If you came to any of the signings, you may find your photo there.

Marshall Smith, owner of Key West Island Books, hosted my first signing days after the release date of “Chasin’ the Wind.” I sold 80 books and he told me the only person to sell more at a book signing was Carl Hiaasen. It was… Continue

Added by Michael Haskins on August 8, 2008 at 6:30am — No Comments

Nodoby Move, this is a review: Chasin' the Wind

For anyone who has visited Key West, or any Caribbean island, the first thing they notice is a phenomenon known as ‘island time’. Things travel at their own pace. If a beer takes 10 minutes to get to you, so be it. If you have to wait in line 15 minutes while the clerk and a shopper chat, life goes on. What visitors don’t realize is that ‘island time’ is just one outward sign of an entire lifestyle which is totally foreign to most Americans and Europeans. While non-islanders see it as rudeness… Continue

Added by Michael Haskins on June 1, 2008 at 9:50pm — No Comments

Book-signing tour troubles, thanks to gas prices

This weekend I will need to gas up the Miata and, for the first time, I will pay more than $4 per gallon! My friend Lee Fairchild is visiting from Ohio, where he said gas prices are still within the high $3 range. I assured him it would be closer to $4 by Memorial Day.

The price of gas has blown my book-signing budget. I knew going into this that signings didn’t pay for themselves in sales, so I budgeted for gas, food, and, where needed, lodging. Signings sold books and got my name… Continue

Added by Michael Haskins on May 17, 2008 at 4:33am — 4 Comments