M Kirn: Best Distraction-Free Writing Software M.Kirin's How to Plan Your Novel Burgess…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNnxjbgTu0c&list=PLfBWltELgP3wkHre9NHkPebGqo19qnoSf&index=29Weekend- September 26, 2015

 Been watching writing videos by: Burgess Taylor; Katytastic ; & M Kirin to get back into writing mood.  Love those videos.…

On Thursday 19 June I had the pleasure of speaking to members of a very friendly and welcoming U3a at Ringwood. Ringwood is an historic market town in Hampshire (England) located on the River Avon, on the western edge of the New Forest. It’s situated between Southampton and Bournemouth.

Apparently Ringwood had a long history of a thriving hand knitting industry. (I knew I should have taken my knitting). It became famous for its "Ringwood" woollen gloves, which were knitted in…

My panel appearance at CrimeFest 2014 was on Friday 15 May at 17.10 and the last panel of the day. Beforehand I spent some time catching up with some of my fellow crime writers and my publisher before taking tea and a delicious slice of Bara Brith Cake (Welsh fruit loaf) in the cafe in Bristol Library where I chatted to the librarians, delighted to hear that my crime novels are very popular with their readers.

After fortifying myself it was time to head for the Green Room in…

I've uploaded a new video here to my You Tube Channel. In this video interview I'm talking to Tony Smith about bringing in the baddie.

It's also featured on my publisher's website.

There are lots more interviews on my …

Here are some mystery/crime novels from my TBR pile. Are any of these on your list?

My crime novels are on a summer reading promotion on Amazon Kindle. So if you haven't tried them before and fancy a summer reading of crime you can get them at the fantastic price of 99p on  amazon uk and at $1.54…

They'll tell you that awards mean nothing. No big sales surge. No extra attention from publishers and agents. No movie deals. Got it. Nevertheless, when I got word yesterday that I won Best Mystery of the Year with THE DEAD DETECTIVE AGENCY, I forgot all that and succumbed to joy. Somebody--whether several or dozens or hundreds or hordes of somebodies--thinks my book is worth…

My blogguest (Oooh, I invented a word!) on Monday, October 10, is Donna Fletcher Crow, and she tells you why the Victorians are fascinating folks. Of course, the Tudors are the best, really, (IMHO, of course!) but she does make a good case for "The Valiant Victorians." Stop by and take a look.

http://itsamysterytomepegherring.blogspot.com/

Peg Herring

Coming in November from Five Star: POISON, YOUR GRACE, the second…

What an eye opener! There was a great response to my last week’s blog on the search

for the whereabouts of a good Latina/o Mystery.  Authors, friends of authors

and, I’m sure, los primos de authors responded with clues on

how to find exactly what I’d been looking for.  My list grows and, if you take a

look at the comment sections at…

If you missed my Monday post yesterday, it's a Tuesday post today. I was in transit from BoucherCon to home, and I just couldn't fit any more in.

Today is catch-up day, but I had to say here how much fun Bcon was, even though I often feel like a small fish in a big pond at such events. Rubbing elbows with the greats of our field, meeting lots of fans, and talking, talking, talking about books is a great way to take a break from real life and at the same time learn what is real in…

You know, ALL those books out there, one after another, that CLAIM to be…a bestseller.  This bestseller.  That bestseller.

I recently put that question to Sheridan Simove, best selling author of What Every Man Thinks Apart From Sex, a “novel” the content of which consists of–and only of– 200 BLANK…

I just finished three pies for our church ice cream social, held on the Fourth every year. I like making pies. They require a little expertise, they look pretty if they're done well, and they get you all sorts of compliments from people who hope you will make more.

On this Fourth, the pies reminded me of my novels. They, too, take some expertise, and I've worked many, many years, days, and hours to get to the point where I know that I will need to work many more years, days and hours.…

Trick question. They're not, or at least they don't have to be. Some people I know have self-published, AFTER they thought about it for a long time. They paid an editor to find the errors they missed. They paid an artist to do a classy cover. They even paid a computer geek to make sure the formatting is clean, correct, and friendly to whatever e-reader would be used. Then and only then did they self-publish. Yay for them.

On the other hand, there are people who are too anxious,…

My unfortunate winter reading slump has ended, and I have some catch-up recommendations over on my blog, One Bite at a Time. The books recommended include authors Scott Phillips, Evan Wright, Declan Hughes, Leighton Gage, Timothy Hallinan, John McNally, and Charles Portis.

Stop over and leave a comment. Disagreement encouraged.

I've certainly done my share of carping over authors' failings, both live and online. I am impatient with characters who act in ways real people never would, with plots that don't make complete sense at the end, and especially with killers who come out of nowhere in the last chapter. However, I don't pretend to be a critic. Like so many other people, I only know--and only want to talk about--what I like.

I've heard writers and readers say that critics don't matter. "I never…

As most of you know, my columns about writing and the writing community appear twice a week in the Los Angeles and Las Vegas editions of examiner.com.

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