I just reached another milestone - 40,000 hits on my WordPress blog, Julie Lomoe's Musings Mysterioso, which I began only last May. But I'm still somewhat mystified in terms of where all those hits are coming from! If you stop by, please live a comment and let me know you came from CrimeSpace.

I welcome guest bloggers. If you're interested, please leave a comment below with your contact information as well as something about your…

I've been AWOL from Crimespace for some time now, but Liz Zelvin's message lured me back. I'm delighted to see her book Death Will Get You Sober has finally been published by St. Martin's. I met her several years ago at a Sisters in Crime conference in New York City, and I've tracked her progress in seeking publication since then. She's a therapist and her book deals with alcohol addiction. I recall her online postings about responses from agents and publishers who said no one would…

Since my last post, I've been preoccupied with one of my other roles. As Administrator of the Memorial Society of the Hudson-Mohawk Region, I've been busy putting out a newsletter and preparing for our annual meeting. Our guest speaker, Lisa Carlson, is a nationally known advocate for funeral consumers, and she'll be talking about "Fractured Funerals" and the importance of advance planning. Lisa is the author of Caring for the Dead: Your Final Act of Love. She's known for her…

Today's a fairly significant birthday - I won't publicize which one, but it's a good one to take stock and do some journaling. I'm delighted that I've finally published a novel within the past year, and look forward to publishing my next, Eldercide, ASAP - not to mention completing another that I've just begun, with the working title Green Burial.

Right now, though, my office is too hot to work in, so I guess I'll give myself a break and go jump in the lake.…

I haven't logged onto CrimeSpace since early June, and this morning, to my dismay, the gatekeeper didn't recognize me and refused to let me in. Is it because I've been AWOL? I had to go through various electronic contortions with Ning and reset my password. Finally I accessed my page, and to my relief, everything is still here.

Seems we're becoming more of a speakeasy than an open bar. I imagine this is Ning's doing, and maybe the security is a good thing. Who knows?

I'm glad…

At long last, my very own website is up and running, and I added a link to it in my author information to the left of this page. My husband, Robb Smith, worked long and hard on it - it's the first website he's ever created. However, it's still a work in progress, and I'm embarrassed to admit that there are a few typos. I know about them, and we'll fix them ASAP. However, Robb had major surgery two days ago, and he's not up to working on the website just yet. (He's resting in bed, doing well…

I've spent the last hour posting on various forums and on my own blog, and it occurred to me that if someone actually finds my posts interesting enough to click on this page, and maybe even buy my book, they may wonder how to get it. Easiest way is to order on Amazon, where I have four ***** reviews, or on Barnes & Noble. You can also go to my publisher at www.virtualbookworm.com, then type in my name or Mood Swing in their online…

Hooray, I finally booked my flight from Albany to Crystal City for Malice Domestic. My friend Marilyn Rothstein (aka M.E. Kemp) booked our room in the conference hotel months ago, and I'll be on my first national panel. All that remains is to figure out the logistics of getting my books there to sell, and getting my website up and running so that after I hand out my beautiful new postcards, people will be able to access the site printed on them.

I'd also been planning to attend the…

Scanning the headlines on the Drudge Report in search of the latest news about the massacre at Virginia Tech, I found a story so disturbing that I started a Forum topic about it. According to an AP story by Adam Geller, the gunman was a senior English major "whose creative writing was so disturbing that he was referred to the school's counseling service." Faculty were concerned about him, and the chair of the English department said, "Sometimes in creative writing, people reveal things and…