Posted by Sheila Connolly

Since I live in Massachusetts and love old things, for the past few years I have gone to the Brimfield Antique Show, which bills itself as the largest outdoor antique show in the country. I'll believe it–three times a year hundreds of vendors take over an entire town and spread over acres. If you can't find the weird antique item you're looking for there, it probably doesn't exist.

When I go, I try to have a plan–a list of things I'm…

Posted By Leann Sweeney

Maddison Grace Sweeney arrived by C-section last Friday night and I can now call myself Grandma. Yahoo! The troubles that went before, not being there, all those selfish things didn't matter a twit once she arrived. A baby is a miracle for so many more reasons than I ever imagined before she came. You might say can't do anything but cry, eat, pee, poop and sleep, but there is so much more. She can unite a family in instant love. She can bring a smile…

Posted by Jeanne Munn Bracken

Remember "Malcolm in the Middle"? The funny sit-com with the overwhelmed mother? I loved that woman--her family did what she told them to do! My style, overwhelm them with kindness, is not nearly as effective.

Anyway, the theme song from the show was "(You're not the) Boss of Me", lyrics that echo around every playground and family room with kids in conflict. The song was performed by an alternative rock band called They Might Be…

posted by Doranna Durgin

The writing world...especially the genre writing world...it's a small community. It's also a community of intensely creative people...and those who are successful have generally become that way because they're also passionate people. They believe in what they're doing.

We are also, I think, a fairly idiosyncratic group. Not to mention a wee bit professionally incestuous. Put those things together, and it would be easy to…

Posted by Lorraine (L.L.) Bartlett

I have a beautiful website. Go ahead, go visit it here. I've been working with Blue Hound Visions for four or five years. We've gone through a couple of iterations and you can see them by visiting both sides of the site.…

Posted by Sheila Connolly

In the wake of Al Gore's Nobel Prize, this is a great time to talk about environmental issues as part of Blog Action Day. I want to say something about one small aspect of our environment–one about which I have some direct and personal knowledge.

My husband is an entomologist who works for the federal agency in charge of monitoring and combatting invasive insect species. (Disclaimer: the opinions expressed herein are mine, not his.)…

written by guest blogger Melanie Fletcher

Heya -- I'm Melanie Fletcher. In addition to being a science fiction writer/fencer/quilter/bellydancer/herder of cats, I'm also the webmistress for the quarterly speculative fiction zine Helix.

I wish I could say that I got the job after a continent-spanning talent search by the editors for the hottest zine designer around. The truth…

posted by Jeanne Munn Bracken

I probably should have been a travel agent. I spend a lot of time planning our trips. I had Alaska guidebooks, maps, newspaper clippings, magazine articles, and website printouts scattered all over the house for many months.

Of course we couldn't experience all of Alaska in three weeks, but we could sure take a good big bite out of it. Which is why we were up one morning at 5:15 to make a 6:30 departure for a van trip up the Dalton Highway…

posted by Doranna Durgin

Or, to start from the other end of things...this is the tale of the awakening of an Earth Child.

I clearly remember the first Earth Day--my participation, my school's strong participation--and the way I took for granted, even at that age, that being an Earth Child was a groupmind understanding of the way Things Needed To Be. I participated annually in the twenty-mile Walk for Water, as well as environmental bike-a-thons.…

Posted by Lorraine (L.L.) Bartlett

All summer long I waited to receive the copyedits on my upcoming books. One has a longer lead-time, so I figured that one would come sometime this fall. Well, it didn't. It came first!

That's okay, I had plenty (two weeks) of time to complete it ... until the other one arrived. And that one only had a one-week turnaround deadline.

AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

Comparing the edits has been an eye-opening experience. What one…

Posted by Sheila Connolly

I'm writing a mystery series featuring Tucson glassblower Em Dowell as my protagonist. The "hook" was handed to me by an editor, and, in the interests of full disclosure, I told her "I don't know much about glassblowing." Apparently that wasn't a problem for her, and I hope that meant she had faith in my ability to bone up on a subject, even though she had never met me and had seen only fifty pages of my writing.

I had taken…

posted by Leann Sweeney

I'm talking about my critique group today. They are a wise and wonderful bunch. I've heard stories about other writers having very bad experiences with critiquers. I've also heard this topic presented as a panel discussion at conferences, have listened to agents and editors warn new writers to be very careful about what others say about a work in progress. I guess this can be a problem, but I said "guess" because that has not been my…

posted by jet-lagged Jeanne, home about six hours

Our three-week trip to Alaska, culminating in the wonderful Bouchercon event in Anchorage, has come to an end. A lot of feelings and thoughts are burbling in my mind and I'm not ready to write my final words on the Last Frontier.

Last week's hand-wringing post lamented my inability to capture the grandure, the characters, and the experience that is Alaska. In lieu of my deathless prose, I offer a selection of other…

posted by Doranna Durgin

Actually, in this case, a rubber hose might be more preferable. And I'm not talking about the recent photo of the record-breaking guy who threads a snake up his nose and down out his mouth. Oddly...even that would be more preferable.



I'm talking about the brain-eating amoeba.



Recently, a teen went swimming in Lake Havasu--not far from here, as distance is measured in…

Posted by Lorraine (L.L.) Bartlett

Saturday I was part of a group-signing at a (sort of) local library. Of the 13+ authors in attendance, I was the only traditionally published author.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the term, "traditionally published" means that a publisher bought my work. They paid me. I didn't pay them. And not only that, I received an advance against royalties. My work was something the publisher felt could generate income for them AND…

Posted by Sheila Connolly

So I was informed by my AOL Welcome screen a few days ago. Ross Perot (or more precisely his Foundation) owns a copy (a fact I find a little bizarre) and wants to sell it (slightly less bizarre), and…

posted by Jeanne Munn Bracken, in Anchorage, AK

Ever since I was a toddler listening to stories being read to my two-years-older sister, I have loved books. Reading was my refuge from a family so dysfunctional that I (the honor student Girl Scout goody two-shoes) was the black sheep.

I read everything, from cereal boxes to the three newspapers (tabloids all) that my parents bought every Sunday. My avid attention to the salacious true crime stories got me banished from…

posted by Doranna

If you don't know what I'm talking about, you've been missing out--both as a reader and a writer! Over at my online hang-out (SFF Net, which hosts my newsgroup and a ton of others), writers--both published and unpublished--occasionally post short--really short--excerpts of their work--ie, "snippets." (This in turn has led to the development of snippet hounds, who go sniffing for snippets, and who howl in glee upon finding them, but that's a…

Posted by Sheila Connolly

Our weekend guest blogger Kate Flora pointed out a few realities that we as writers do our best to ignore.

I'm the newbie in this bunch of bloggers–the only one who has never seen a book of her own in print. It's something I'm looking forward to, and apparently I had better enjoy it, because that may be the high point of the whole writer's experience. After that it's going to be a long downhill slide, spending time and effort and money on…

Posted by Guest Blogger Kate Flora

Almost since my first book, Chosen for Death, in 1994, I’ve been teaching writing for various organizations throughout New England. I think I’m very lucky. I’ve had a lot of wonderful students. I’ve also had occasional students who didn’t want to do the weekly writing assignments, but only wanted to sit there, pen poised, to write down the magic advice which, when followed, would transform them into best-selling authors. At library…