Peg Herring's Blog (752)

Stress and Good Stress

We all whine about stress, and we certainly have enough of it. It contributes to all sorts of health conditions, which is enough to add stress to the stress you already have: What if all this worrying about stress is causing too much stress?

I think we should step back every once in a while and consider that life is all about stress. Primitive humans must have had stress, because they did not know when the next natural disaster would hit or how such things occurred. They must have worried… Continue

Added by Peg Herring on September 2, 2010 at 12:30pm — No Comments

The Stuff of LIfe

I get irritated by them: those things I have to do when I would rather be writing. Yesterday it was shopping for home improvement items. In the north woods, where we live, buying large ticket items means a one-hour drive to a town that has stores in it. Yes, I get to eat at the Chinese restaurant (we don't have one of those, either), but it is a wasted day...well, except for the new refrigerator, freezer, bathroom remodeling stuff and five t-shirts I found on sale in a rainbow of… Continue

Added by Peg Herring on August 25, 2010 at 12:00pm — No Comments

Grouchy Reader Syndrome

Someone else named it, but it so fit me that I had to borrow it.

I've become a grouchy reader. Everything in a book has to work, or I'm angry at the author. Characters have to stay within their character, and there had better be at least one I can admire, maybe even like. I just finished one by an author who is admittedly great with words, but no one in the book was remotely admirable, so why should I care if they get involved in crime?

Plots have to work, and I can see it a mile away… Continue

Added by Peg Herring on August 24, 2010 at 12:30pm — No Comments

Why Can't We All Just...Read?

There's been an extended thread on one of my chat groups about whether or not we all should hate THE SWEETNESS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PIE. Some say it's infantile and just wrong. Some say it's great. A few (and I fall into this group although I never get involved in such debates) say, in effect, "Different strokes for different folks." Yeah, like that.

I have hated books that the Reading World lauds to the skies. I have loved books that get little or no notice from said World. Being a big… Continue

Added by Peg Herring on August 16, 2010 at 10:25pm — 1 Comment

"Buy My Book" - the Mistake

I've seen it many times, usually from authors new to the business but sometimes even from those more seasoned. We're set up next to each other at an author event and the person immediately launches into his/her spiel, at some point throwing in the fatal phrase, "You would love this book."

Or I set up a blog for authors to publicize their ebooks (Hmmm. Could that really happen?) Instructions say to submit certain information in a particular way, and I'll post it for the world to see. Instead… Continue

Added by Peg Herring on August 13, 2010 at 10:11pm — 4 Comments

Swept Up in a Bestseller

Everyone agrees that nobody knows what makes a bestseller. Books that were BLOCKBUSTERS often leave me asking, "On whose block?"

Those who know me can guess that I do not care about vampire boyfriends, Glenn Beck's rantings, or the people you meet in heaven. But even in my favorite genre, mystery, I'm puzzled by what others like that I find insipid or overdone or unbelievable. It may be Grouchy Reader Syndrome, which…

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Added by Peg Herring on August 4, 2010 at 9:40pm — 2 Comments

This Week at MysterEbooks

Here is the list of ebooks featured on mysterebooks.blogspot.com this week:

Monday

Title: L.A. HEAT

Author: P.A. Brown

Genre: Police Procedural w gay characters

Setting: Los Angeles

Tuesday

Title: TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO TODAY

Author: Stacy Juba

Genre: Mystery/Romantic Suspense

Setting: New England

Wednesday

Title: JOURNEY TO DIE FOR

Author: Radine Trees Nehring

Genre: Mystery/senior citizen…

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Added by Peg Herring on August 2, 2010 at 8:21pm — No Comments

MysterEbook Launch

Today marks the beginning of a new webblog for owners of e-readers. Mysterebooks.blogspot.com begins listing mysteries for e-books with author-submitted information and reviews. This week's listings are below. Please stop by and read, comment, and enjoy!

Monday, July 26, 2010

Title THE FOUR LAST THINGS (Simeon Grist #1)

Author Timothy Hallinan

Genre/Sub-genre: LA private eye novel

Tuesday:

Title TO CATCH A COP

AUTHOR Elle Druskin

GENRE…

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Added by Peg Herring on July 26, 2010 at 9:52pm — 2 Comments

MysterEbook Launch

Monday, July 26, 2010

Title THE FOUR LAST THINGS (Simeon Grist #1)

Author Timothy Hallinan

Genre/Sub-genre: LA private eye novel

Tuesday:

Title TO CATCH A COP

AUTHOR Elle Druskin

GENRE…

Continue

Added by Peg Herring on July 26, 2010 at 9:51pm — No Comments

I Can Stop Anytime I Want

Okay, so I bought an e-reader. And I had to try it out, of course, so I downloaded a book my husband has been wanting to read (and tricked him into trying the thing and finding out how easy it is to use. HA!)

Then, of course, I had to download my e-book to see what it looks like to my readers.

I heard from an online contact who likes my work, and I thought about her first book, which I read and really liked, so I tried her name, and there she was, an e-book author. So of course, I… Continue

Added by Peg Herring on July 22, 2010 at 8:56pm — 2 Comments

Mystery E-books for Writers and E-readers

For some time it has bothered me that there seems to be no site online where a person can read about ONLY mysteries published as e-books. With some trepidation and a lot of help, I’ve decided to attempt to change that. A friend has established a blog that will be dedicated solely to mysteries that are e-published. The submission process is somewhat experimental right now, but the plan is that authors will tell us about their books, following the template found on the site. Please be… Continue

Added by Peg Herring on July 19, 2010 at 11:00pm — 2 Comments

Switching Sexes

Oh, stop thinking that way!

My thought for the day comes from the night. Once upon a time, my husband wanted the bedroom cool (make that cold) and I wanted it warm. In our maturity, we have switched. These days I can't sleep unless the AC is on, and he suffers from an arthritic shoulder, so the blast of cool air keeps him awake with an ache.

Studies show that men and women make subtle shifts as they age that may reverse behaviors and attitudes from their…

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Added by Peg Herring on July 16, 2010 at 10:40pm — No Comments

Aging Writers

Young people can write, I will admit that. They can have talent, style, and a sense of story. But one gets a sense of life and living from the older writer that comes only from experience. Sadly, it is often sad.

Look at Mark Twain or William Shakespeare. As they aged, their works became less and less fun, more and more dark. Masterworks, some of them, but no happy endings.

I'm reading Walter Mosley's THE LONG FALL right now, and there's a passage that describes the… Continue

Added by Peg Herring on July 15, 2010 at 9:23pm — 1 Comment

Inspiration or Perspiration?

It's time to choose the next book. My second Simon & Elizabeth (POISON, YOUR GRACE) and my paranormal, THE DEAD DETECTIVE AGENCY, are both in the editing process, so there is nothing I can do about them until I get the editors' suggestions. My newest endeavor, which I titled DEAD INSIDE, is awaiting word from an agent or two. So what do I want to do next?

The perspiration part: write the third of the historical series. I have it outlined on my handy-dandy little tape recorder, and…

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Added by Peg Herring on July 13, 2010 at 10:27pm — No Comments

The Crazed Killer

If fiction were fact, America would be flooded with maniacal, smart-but-evil murderers who lead the police on macabre chases that follow some twisted idea of order evident only to them, at least until some smart cop/P.I./amateur figures it out.

Reality is, of course, that most murderers are stupid, illogical, impulsive, and easily caught. A cop at a con I attended attested to this, citing the example of two drugged-out men in a shelter who got into a fight over a cheap pendant. One of…

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Added by Peg Herring on July 9, 2010 at 10:08pm — 4 Comments

Have You Read This One?

A frustrating part of being a reader is that you're never, ever, done. People are always mentioning books that sound interesting, recommending authors whose work I might enjoy, or even handing me books with a "You've got to read this."

But there isn't time!

Although I never made it to a lot of the old classics, there are new classics, prize-winners, best-sellers, and unread works of authors I like lined up on my mental TBR list, waiting for my attention. I used to read…

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Added by Peg Herring on July 6, 2010 at 9:54pm — 2 Comments

I'd Rather Be Right

One of the scary things about being published is that one might (probably will) get something wrong. There it is, for all the world to see, and it can't be fixed.

Something equally vexing to me is that people THINK you've got something wrong. One can't hunt them all down and argue the point, but--well, this one would like to.

It has been pointed out to me, twice now, that I used the word "dollar" in HER HIGHNESS' FIRST MURDER. Yeah, I did, in the idiom "squeeze the last dollar"…

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Added by Peg Herring on July 1, 2010 at 10:29pm — 4 Comments

The Problem with Mystery Readers

We've heard it all. We see where you're going, we know where you have to end up. We know how you think, and we know a clue when we see one. In short, we're pretty darned hard to fool.

I started reading mysteries at about fourteen. I've been from Donald to Dexter, from Paretsky to Poirot, and honestly, I'm not nearly as savvy as a lot of my friends in the mystery community. But familiarity with the genre means that when you, the author, spend a little too much time commenting on the…

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Added by Peg Herring on June 29, 2010 at 9:57pm — 3 Comments

Local News on the Eightball

I know I pick on them, but jeez! I used to be a speech teacher, and I wonder what happened to all those speech classes that one assumes newspeople must take.

A few hints:

Read/scan your copy ahead of time. If you don't know how to pronounce something, ask somebody and then write it phonetically. Giving the audience multiple choice versions is not cool.

Keep your lame attempts at humor to yourself. You're only revealing what we already suspected: that weathermen are…

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Added by Peg Herring on June 28, 2010 at 9:29pm — No Comments

An Old Friend You've Never Met

Surprisingly, sometimes you open a book and find a friend. It's not anyone you've met before, but right away you recognize the connection. You like the guy. You want to know more about him. You wouldn't mind having a cup of coffee and just listening to him talk.

I just met Lawrence Block's Bernie Rhodenbarr, (yeah, I know. I'm decades behind the rest of the world) and that is what happened. He's a crook, but I like him. I'm on page 16, so I've got lots of pages left to learn…

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Added by Peg Herring on June 23, 2010 at 10:20pm — 1 Comment