by Guest Blogger Kate Flora

When I was a much younger writer, I used to think that what we did was sit at our desks, in our rooms, and make things up. Fueled by a lifetime as a voracious reader, I thought it was the coolest thing in the world that a writer could create an imaginary world and people it with imagined characters, and it would feel so real and compelling that I could get swept into that world and become lost in story. I never realized how much research a…

Posted by Lorraine (L.L.) Bartlett

I've been told that I don't give enough description of my characters. There're a couple of reasons for this. One, depending on the book's point of view, it's difficult to get that information out without resorting to the old, Tricia looked into the mirror, admiring her short-cropped, brown hair, her pert nose, and luscious lips. Too bad her blackened eyes ruined that pretty picture of herself.

Sometimes I really haven't got a…

Posted by Sheila Connolly

I'm sitting here feeling guilty because I had planned/hoped/promised to go somewhere and do something this afternoon, and instead I'm sitting at my desk working. I'm doing research for my next book, which involves lovely things like poisons and symptoms of poisoning, and what these poisons are used for (when not to kill someone), and how quickly they act. Fun way to spend an afternoon, no?

The thing is, the event I'm not attending…

by Guest Blogger Serita Stevens

“We’re going to meet at Gino’s East on Wabash and Dearborn,” one character says to another.

What is wrong with that statement? If someone knows what you are saying is blatantly false the reader will close the book and probably never read your work again. Everyone makes mistakes but most research is easily done and correctable.

Anyone living in Chicago or having been to the Windy City will know the famous Pizzeria Gino’s East; they…

posted by Leann Sweeney

The title questions are important because they actually have to do with my writing process, but they seem particularly relevant this morning as I write this blog very late. What did I want? To write a blog for today. What was stopping me? THE PUKING VIRUS. I haven't had such a miserable stomachache since I worked with sick children. They were always passing along the latest and greatest puking virus. And I was always cleaning the puke up. But I digress.…

posted by Jeanne Munn Bracken

I have to present something to my critique group in two days. I've known for 12 days that this was coming up, and I'm still dithering. Am I writing? Well, sort of. I'm still researching updates for the childhood cancer book. I know perfectly well that I can research this puppy until the cows come home, whenever that is, and I will still find updates. At some point I just have to tweak the draft, weave in the updates, and get the monkey off…

by Guest Blogger Kate Flora

In one of my favorite children's books, Sir Kevin of Devon, a young boy takes up a sword and goes off to rid the kingdom of a dragon that is terrorizing the people. Some of the observers tut tut and shake their heads at the folly of a child imagining he might be effective, but in the end, it is the boy, and not some powerful knight, who destroys the dragon and saves the kingdom. The book is written in rhyme, and at the end, when the…

Posted by Lorraine (L.L.) Bartlett

Today is January 22nd and my Christmas tree is still up.

There, I've confessed. They say confession is supposed to be good for the soul, but this confession just makes me feel inadequate.

Believe me, I've never still had the tree up this late in the season. (Or am I just early for Christmas 2008?) My excuse? Being…

Posted by Sheila Connolly (caution: long post!)

In case you haven't heard, my first book is coming out in five weeks (eek! five? I'm not ready!). Therefore I am in the throes of promotion. Or rather, I'm trying to figure out what promotion is and what I can do about it. (I know, some of you out there are going to yell at me because I was supposed to start this the day I had a contract in hand. Or maybe earlier, like when I first started writing. Well, I did do some things right,…

posted by Leann Sweeney

I have a new release if I haven't mentioned it in the last, oh, thirty seconds. That means promo time--which I am not really fond of. I am a writer not a salesperson, after all. But it comes with the territory. After postcards for one signing arrived too late and some of the people who wanted signed books didn't get them, I…

posted by Jeanne Munn Bracken

I have been thinking about food lately. Heck, I think about food all the time--often what I should eat, what I should not eat (that chocolate cupcake at the baby shower yesterday comes to mind), or (again, the cupcake) what I should not have eaten. In this new year, the four of us who live here are all doing something about food and our waistlines.

Daughter number one is in a wedding this summer and is "doing" low carbs. Daughter number two is…

Posted by guest blogger, Kate Flora

I used to go crazy in February. In order to get the full benefit of my February blahs, I'd start gearing up in mid-January, staring out at all the endless gray days, unrelieved by holidays or feasting or the company of…

Posted by Lorraine (L.L.) Bartlett

The subject of food seems to come up here a LOT here on Writers Plot. Astounding as it may be, I am not the world's best cook. I make edible food, but fancy stuff just isn't in my epicurean repertoire. That's why it's such a surprise that my upcoming Booktown books contain so many recipes. Okay, the publisher LOVES recipes. They put a big red (or gold, depending on which cover they actually use) accent on the cover of Murder Is Binding saying…

Posted by Sheila Connolly

Recently I've been wondering if I have become a writer because I like to work alone, or if it's because I'm a writer that I end up spending a lot of my time alone.

The public mythology holds that…

Posted by Jeanne Munn Bracken

The title words by John Donne, written four centuries ago (I looked it up) have been in my mind lately. We mystery lovers deal with, wallow in, foster death in many ways--with humor, with tragedy, with a certain "he deserved it" hubris.

Real death, though, when it comes, is not usually humorous, is sometimes tragic, and is hardly ever deserved.

Real death has visited me lately. My 67-year-old brother-in-law died just before Christmas…

Posted by Guest Blogger, Kate Flora

I had a plan for January. A bold and exciting plan. Once the tree was down, the bedding that had been hauled out to accommodate the extended family put away, and all the cute tree-shaped candlesticks, reindeer candlesticks, little metal sleighs to hold candles and all the red and green patterned runners and table toppers stowed in their boxes in the basement, I was going to write a book.



Maybe this doesn’t seem like such a bold plan…

Posted by Sheila Connolly

This seems to be a new cyber-form of the old chain letter, and, lucky me, I've been tagged by a writer buddy.Lorraine Bartlett

Here are the rules:

1. Link to the person that tagged you (that's you, Cathy) , and post the rules on your blog (presto, here they…

posted by Leann Sweeney

My granddaughter left today and I don't know when I will get to see her in the flesh again. Not knowing has always been tough for me, so my husband wrapped up a tiny note in several boxes as my Christmas gift that said--"go visit any time you want." Sweet, huh? But having her here, seeing her emerging personality, even though…

posted by Jeanne Munn Bracken

Lots of us have given up making New Years' Resolutions. Not all of us, to be sure, given how crowded the gym tends to be at the New Year. I've been known to make resolutions--get rich, get famous, win the lottery etc.-- but I never followed through. In recent years the only one I really met was the "Fine Human Being" initiative. I vowed that at the end of every day, I would designate one person with whom I'd had contact that day--positive or…

Posted by Lorraine (L.L.) Bartlett

In 2008, I resolve not to lose my Writers Plot posts. That's how I started my day, logging into typepad to find my post for today had disappeared. Poof! Gone! (I shall try to reconstruct--but as most people know, the results are seldom the same/as good.)

Everybody on the Internet seems to be talking about their goals and/or resolutions. I no longer make resolutions. What for? I never kept them. But when January 1st rolls around it does…