Oh, great excitement and trauma this morning! The baby swallows on Springwatch (http://www.bbc.co.uk/springwatch) have finally flown the nest. I was peacefully getting ready at around 8am when a great shout from the computer room brought me running to Lord H's aid, assuming he was having some kind of crisis. He wasn't - instead, the first of the swallows had fledged and the remaining four were looking…

I had a conversation this morning with a fellow writer who was in a deep dark place with his new book. Not that he had no ideas; he had plenty. And not that he has no tools, skills, talent: this is a very gifted guy. But, he said, he was feeling like when you've decided to make soup. You know just what you're going to do: heat up some broth, chop up carrots and onions, and then to be fancy put in a little dill. Except when you go to the cupboard where the pots are, there's no saucepan. And…

Well, it only took me 30 years and we won't mention how many dollars, but I've done it. As of today, I'm the proud owner of an American 1st edition of every Agatha Christie published. What started out as a nice way to read books, back in the 70s when hardcovers were only a few bucks, grew into a collection. I was probably 5 years and 25 books into the project before I even thought of it as one.

Many of my collections got my start back then. Craig Rice, Ellery Queen, my Van Dines, and…

Tuesday night I chaperoned the Mayor’s Youth Action Council (MYAC) event called “Grill-Fest.” There were more than 300 teens and young adults at one of our community parks. The MYAC kids scheduled a skateboard and BMX bicycle stunt contest at the skateboard park and five bands at the shelter. I taught them about planned spontaneity by having them set up a…

I love it, simply love it! Tell me what you think about it!

Ye gods, but I'm feeling pretty Z-list today. It's the subtitle on the Blogger version of this journal (if you're reading that one) - someone once complained about it, but I kept it as it does seem to fit. Anyway, today, I am surrounded by writers who have already done it all, or are about to do it all, and are having utterly marvellous fulfilling times. And frankly, it's shit. Sorry, but it is. I know I'm supposed to rejoice in the wonderful success of others, but hell it's bloody hard…

Nothing like getting stuck on the third chapter with 43 more to go. There's no time for my usual strategy either. Can't walk away from a first draft that's peppered with holes while a six-month deadline looms over my head.

Okay, here's the deal. A third body just washed to shore, I'm in the morgue, and the medical examiner swears he's found some evidence. I can't see it--I've tried but it's not there. Not yet anyway.

I'm too restless--distracted easily by the dumbest things. I…

Somewhere between the first novel I wrote (that I never finished because it was the first novel I wrote and I didn't know what the heck I was doing), and the initial writing of my Harper crime mystery series, I wrote several short stories and a few flash fictions. At the time my only purpose for writing them was to use them as a writing exercise to help me focus on developing the plot and to tighten my…

Received word that my short The Blue Goose will be in a future issue of Mysterical E. I do not know which issue, and just only hope it is the summer one :) but will be thrilled with anything.

More later as the news develops ...

Lord H has lost his watch– well, we couldn’t find it anywhere last night. He was comforted by the fact that he’d already set the alarm for 6.30am so it was a matter of waiting till it started beeping and then trying to find it. Good plan – if it had worked. But come 6.30 this morning and no beeping. The watch isn’t in the flat then. So it’s either in his car, at work or somewhere along the walk he took yesterday lunchtime. I’m not that worried, to be honest, as actually it’s been broken for…

CrimeSpace's own Charles Kelly is this week's interviewee.

Check it out here, as he talks about his book and how he got there from his career in journalism.

And promise, that blog's not all in italics. (This one won't let me type if I unitalicize it at the moment...)