Hi L.J.:

Thanks for your comments on my page. So far, you are my only ally at Crimespace on the April Woo question- I enjoyed all of those books and don't understand why they aren't more popular.

I've not written any fiction, but I started reviewing it on a blog last September. I later added an environmental blog (the passion of the chemist!), and I have a lot more readers at the environmental site than at the book site.... not that I claim to be a blog mogul, by any means.

I'm trying to stretch my writing skills beyond the technical articles and research proposals that I write for my scientific work. Also, I started having trouble remembering which books I had read, so I thought that writing about them would help.

I was very lucky to have the chance to interview Qiu Xiaolong for my blog, which I had been hoping to do since we both live in St. Louis, though I've been slow at writing it up (two installments published so far).

I'll have to read your work. You might be interested in my blogs (or not). An article I just wrote for blogcritics magazine manages to link the environment and crime fiction (http://blogcritics.org/archives/2008/03/11/024110.php ), and I don't think it is too much of a stretch.

Best wishes, Jim
http://nearlynothingbutnovels.blogspot.com/
http://greenchemistry.wordpress.com/

L.J., thanks for the encouragement. Slowly but surely, I'm edging toward beginning a novel; I even just bought Dragon Naturally Speaking 9 Preferred in case I decide to dictate some of it.

I tried to reserve your book at the library, but they don't have it.

Hi! Am just about to shut down but still here - which is the story of my life LOL.

L.J.--
Hello. Sorry it's taken me a little long to greet you. Over the past year my respect for children's literature has grown. My first middle-grade book will be coming out in August, but I'll probably writing more for grownups in the near future.

I really enjoy reading the stories submitted to the Deadly Ink contest. Very creative!

Deb

Check out the author photos on Elmore Leonard's hardcovers. He seems to have gone for the 'hey, it's only me, but that's enough.' There is always the question in looking at photos: Is this the way the author sees herself? Or is this the way the author wants to be seen (and perceived; primates are primarily visual. That's why we have movies but not smellovision.)

I confess to doing the Elmore Leonard thing. As a stimulus for writing Out of Sight he fixated on a picture he ran across in a newspaper of a good looking woman in a law enforcement uniform holding up a shotgun. To Dutch the apparent mismatch of the 'babe' looks and the brutality of the shotgun got him thinking 'what makes this character tick, and how does she fit into a story.' You may remember from Out of Sight that he managed to mix romance and rules in a kind of pousse cafe, stirred not shaken. Anyway, I have been doing the 'Dutch' thing with your crimescene author's photo and realized that a really interesting expression evokes a jumble of feelings, provocation, fear, alarm, stimulation, curiosity, attraction, uncertainty, awe, voyeurism, longing, loneliness, so that dramatizing the reaction 'wow' may be one of the most difficult jobs a writer has. My 'wow' reaction originates with the impression that a person has allowed themselves to unmask in a photo, as opposed to so many cosmetic pictures where smiles are de rigeur. I'm always a bit suspicious of broad smiles, since Ted Bundy had a very good one. Or maybe that's just me. Anyway, fear not. The pixels here have no legs.

Thanks for adding me as a friend, L.J. - your book cover is MARVELOUS. Congrats, and good luck!

Hi,
I haven't seen an autopsy in person, but I attended the Sister's in Crime Forensics University in St Louis in Nove 07 and we had a power point autopsy presentation from the St Louis Medical Examiner. It involved exhuming a body that had been in the ground for a year and discovering another body that had been submerged in a back yard cistern for about the same amount of time. It was quite interesting. I don't remember what they served for lunch :)

Lj--my blog at my website is probably more useful. Go to www.joannaslan.com and click on the blog. I've posted information about making presentations, promotional ideas, and info about media kits.

j

Your latest novel sounds fantastic. Stand-up comic -- now that's cool.

Yeah, I've heard it's even harder to break into screenwriting than publishing. Not a huge incentive for me to follow that path full-bore!

You're not kidding about finding an agent/publisher. Feels like I've been at this for decades, though it's really only been about one.

It's so cool that you've worked on comedy scripts. I'd love to try screenwriting. I actually took a few weeks and wrote a one-hour pilot episode for a dramatic/suspense series (something appropriate for Fx) and it was a blast to do something different like that. So much quicker than novel writing. And I liked using the visual element to tell the story, too.

Hi L.J.,

Thanks for the invite. Cynical and optimistic. I like that.

Debbi

Hi L.J. Thank you, and thanks for the invite! Here's to many more novels ahead for both of us.

Never been to Left Coast Crime, but I've heard good things about it. I was at Love is Murder this year and it was fantastic. Hope we can cross paths down the road.
Your novel looks interesting, timely subject too!

Thanks for your comments, LJ.
I love your bio. Both cynical and optimistic? I think I know just how that feels. I love the duality. Is this like "pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will" (coined by Antonio Gramsci, I believe).

Don't know why it came out twice on your page and not at all on mine.

Here's a great slug page pic with links to more:

http://philosophy.uoregon.edu/TKasSQ.html

and here's a Register Guard article:
http://rgweb.registerguard.com/news/2006/08/26/d1.cr.slugqueen.0826.p1.php?section=cityregion