This week's guest blogger Lori Avocato gave up an career as a registered nurse in the Air Force to write fiction. She sold nine romance novels, then turned to writing the humorous Pauline Sokol Mysteries, in which a burned-out nurse becomes a medical fraud insurance investigator.

We asked Lori to give us some insights into her series characters:

WP: What makes your series/characters unique?

LA: I think my characters in The Pauline Sokol Mystery…

A week ago there was blood all over my kitchen floor. Now, there's not much left, but I didn't clean it up. I just walked across it. Gotta be on my feet, and on my shoes. I've noticed my feet are sticking to the floor, just a little.…

I decided to "go with the flow" in my lack of commitment to any one story. Now I find random ideas popping into my head - so when that happens, I write them down, either in the story itself or in a "random ideas" file on my PDA, to be imported later into the pertinent document. So far it seems to be going OK. It's very much a creative frame of mind rather than the more logical approach I take to revisions/edits, but maybe that reflects the chaos of my life right now (2 little kids, possible…

Ye gods, but I've done so much editing today that my brain will probably explode soon - so beware of any sudden noises in the ether. Am now up to the start of Chapter 10 (they all get longer from here on in, so don't get too excited), but will start that tomorrow. I can do no more tonight.



And, yes, I know all the "experts" tell you to put the first draft away for a month before working on it but frankly, m'dears, that never works for me and I can't ever be arsed to wait that long…

Now I'm much to young to know from actual experience about Fibber McGee, but I've heard about him. He was a character on an old radio show and every week he'd open the closet door and tons of stuff would fall out and make a BIG NOISE.

Well, I've inherited his closet. Yes, I'm still working on tidying the office. I cannot believe how much time I've put into this little adventure.…

posted by Leann Sweeney

You would think that finishing a book and then scrambling hard to complete the rewrites in a week would be a joyful experience. A cause for celebration. A time to have some kick-ass fun. Well, you'd be wrong. At least for this crybaby. Yes, Sunday was meltdown time in the Houston suburbs. Being Mother's Day did not help. Both kids failed to send me a card for the first time in, well, forever. That's what tipped the scales. No stupid little cards with awful…

My roommate and I have published new books in the past few months which we are mostly handselling. Mine is crime fiction set in Alabama and Florida and his is interconnected short stories (of the roman a clef, bildungsroman tradition) set in Liverpool and Atlanta. We published POD with BookSurge and, naturally, would love either a savvy agent or commercial publisher. Any advice, other than the standard Jeff Herman's/Literary Marketplace/Writer's Market? All and any input will be…

I am delighted to say that my story "Preliminaries" is included in the Spring 2007 Issue of Demolition Magazine demolitionmag.com)

Come for my story, which is pretty short, and stay for work by Pat Lambe, Albert Tuche, Terry White, Greg Bardsley and Alan Girling.

Thanks for your time.

J.D. Smith

The friendly folks at Crime and Suspense Magazine have launched the “Austin Camacho Beltway Crime Writing Contest” which will run until July 7th. There are three levels of prizes, but the big winner will receive a set of all four Hannibal Jones mystery novels, signed by me.…

This Saturday I will be signing books at what I believe to be the biggest bookstore in my area, the Barnes and Noble Booksellers in Tysons Corners. This vast, 34,000 square foot, two-level store is a literary Mecca for booklovers in Northern Virginia, and I’ll be there as part of a mystery author trio. From 1 pm to 4 pm you can meet me, along with T.K. Kenyon, the author of Rabid, which got a…

Posted by Jeanne Munn Bracken

All right, I admit it. I'm a "Survivor" junky. I've never been all that big on television, and for a long time I didn't watch much at all. That changed when my older daughter's kidneys failed and she had to undergo dialysis at a medical center twice a week. There is very little to distract anyone sitting in the center for hours on end, after you've paid the bills, written the Christmas cards and letters, and done the taxes. You can't even read; there's…

For those who prefer some romance with their mystery, Something's Cooking, the first in the Angie Amalfi series by Joanne Pence should please. Angie is writing a food column for a small weekly paper in San Francisco when some of the receipes she's been using get her mixed up with murder and gun running. Enter the hunky homicide inspector, Paavo Smith, who is handed the case. Glaringly neglecting any allusion to conflict of interest when a police officer becomes romantically involved…

All of the public libraries in Jackson County, Oregon are closed. And yesterday, by a margin of about 10,000 votes, the citizens voted to keep them closed.

Every place I’ve ever lived - with the exception of a year in North Africa - had libraries, and just as important as getting the electricity turned on was getting my library card. It told me I was a

resident, that I was now…

Written by: Joseph F Mazzaferro

Titled THE STALKER.

____________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _

_________

Chapter One

The Time, Victorian England

Scotland Yard



A large file was delivered by Bedford's assistant, Sargent Mc Donald, as the

inspector was having his daily morning spot of tea.

Along with a note from superintendent Collinsworth. As Bedford was

finishing up his tea he read the…

”I am thinking it would be fun to do an arc in a f2f group. Discuss a book in detail BEFORE it is published and then give the author the feedback - or at least the feedback that might be useful.”

When I read that my automatic response was It’s never going to happen. Yes, call me a pessimist, call me a cynic. Lynne’s idea (posted on my Crimespace chat wall) has merit but adds a layer of work to the…