June 2008 Blog Posts (161)

That Odd Feeling of Displacement

When you're at home and storm warnings arise, you know where to go. You're with your family or at least are aware of where they are. Whatever happens, you'll deal with it from experience and prior planning.

On the road, however, it's a different experience. You're in a strange place. You have no idea where people are supposed to go for cover, no idea what the warning system is, and sometimes no one to ask. It's a different feeling, a sort of alone-ness that arises when it's too late… Continue

Added by Peg Herring on June 13, 2008 at 9:58pm — 2 Comments

Please see my new website

I'd like to extend a warm invitation to everyone to view my new webpage at Books In Sync

Theodocia Mc Lean runs a great service whereby she will create a superb page that features an author's work and is a great marketing and promo tool. She has taken information from all of my other websites and incorporated it into one awesome piece of work.

To view the site, please go to http://www.booksinsync.com/authorsandbooks/porterbrianl.html

Brian…

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Added by Brian L Porter on June 13, 2008 at 6:08pm — No Comments

Shifting Gears: Friday Night at Cluck & Jive

Last February, Patti Abbott, Gerald So and Mystery Dawg hosted a Flash Fiction Blog Challenge with a Love/Crime theme. About twenty writers participated with some good results.

They’re doing it again and this time I’m chipping in.

The theme is “Shifting Gears” and all of the stories have to incorporate the following sentence into a flash story of around 750 words:

“With gas prices rising, their plans had to change.”

All of the stories will be posted… Continue

Added by John Weagly on June 13, 2008 at 5:12am — 3 Comments

Men, Women and Outlines

When I first started writing Body Trace, the first book in the Madison Cross series, I was somewhat intimidated at the idea of writing from the point of view of a female protagonist. I had written parts of novels from the points of view of female…

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Added by Jon McGoran as D. H. Dublin on June 13, 2008 at 1:28am — No Comments

Crime Always Pays

This week on Crime Always Pays: Andrew Taylor and Declan Burke report on Bristol’s Crime Fest 2008; free copies of Adrian McKinty’s THE BLOOMSDAY DEAD; Sebastian Faulks’ DEVIL MAY CARE reviewed; Paul Nagle’s new cover art for IRONIC; Adrian McKinty reconsiders the English detective; John Connolly asks the big philosophical question about crime fiction; Ruth Dudley Edwards wins the Last Laugh Award; and the latest instalment – wait for it! – of… Continue

Added by Declan Burke on June 13, 2008 at 1:17am — No Comments

April and May Reads

Chris Ewan - THE GOOD THIEF'S GUIDE TO AMSTERDAM

Published: May 2007

Setting: Amsterdam

Protagonist: Charlie Howard

Series?: 1st

First Lines: "I want you to steal something for me."

Chris Ewan writes books about a thief who writes books about a thief who solves crimes. Ewan's protagonist Charlie Howard is a successful crime fiction author and a very good thief, who takes nice lucrative jobs on the side to supplement his income. When he's asked to steal two… Continue

Added by Donna Moore on June 12, 2008 at 11:30pm — No Comments

Mystery and More in a New Novel

Believe it or not, not everyone loves a good mystery novel. Some

people prefer science fiction books. Still others like horror novels.

Can you imagine a book that would satisfy all those readers?

Well, you don't have to. Just get into the series Mario Acevedo is

writing about vampire private eye Felix Gomez. Yes, I know there's a

vampire private detective on TV right now, but so far he hasn't

encountered any aliens, and that's just what happens in… Continue

Added by Austin S. Camacho on June 12, 2008 at 10:17pm — No Comments

I Get to Talk with Authors!!

Much as I love my family and my friends here in this small town, I find it difficult being at a distance from those who write, if not for a living, at least for sustenance. I'm sure my circle of everyday folk get tired of me throwing plot knots at them or rambling on about marketing. It's like hearing your plumber talk about U-joints and plastic pipe versus copper.

When writers get together they open up, even wallow, in their writing problems, the niceties of the craft, and the… Continue

Added by Peg Herring on June 12, 2008 at 10:10pm — No Comments

Robbie's Wife

Just finished Robbie's Wife by Russell Hill, a Hard Case Crime book. Quick review. A man's obsession turns to murder. The first half of the book nothing happens. The reader soon realizes that the American man in the story is actually English, but this has nothing to do with the book. Then, BAM! His slow descent into hell. Just the way I like it. 3 out of 5 bullets!

I just got a copy of The Hackman's Blues by Ken Bruen. Purchased on eBay from a seller in the U.K. called Fairandfast… Continue

Added by Paul Greenberg on June 12, 2008 at 11:23am — No Comments

Audio Podcast

Please listen to an audio podcast of my latest novel The Friday House.

Visit: http://podcast.dkgaston.com/

Let me know what you think.

To purchase a copy, just click the title here> The Friday… Continue

Added by D K Gaston on June 12, 2008 at 10:30am — No Comments

Sunday Express on Small Crimes

As I wait for the October release in the US for Small Crimes, I keep getting only good reviews in the UK. Here's an excerpt from David Connett's June 8th review in the Sunday Express:

"Zeltserman creates an intense atmospheric maze for readers to observe Denton's twisting and turning between his rocks and hard places.

Denton is one of the best realised characters I have read in this genre, and the powerfully noir-ish, uncompromising plot, which truly keeps one guessing… Continue

Added by Dave Zeltserman on June 12, 2008 at 7:08am — 2 Comments

CrimeFest

Well, I had a wonderful weekend at CrimeFest in Bristol and am now recovering (not from the carousing and partying - although there was plenty of that - but from the injury I inflicted on myself stepping off a curb. Apparently, according to the hospital, "it will get worse before it gets better". How reassuring. Luckily, I still have the crutches and the stick from when I broke a bone in my ankle last year stepping off a bus...)

So, CrimeFest. Well, it was lovely to meet up with old… Continue

Added by Donna Moore on June 12, 2008 at 6:24am — 8 Comments

Events For The Middle Of June

I have a few things coming up this week:

On Thursday June 12 my play

“Why Abominable Snowmen Don’t Like Fast Food”

is being done at the GONE IN 60 SECONDS Festival in Leeds, England.

Here are the details:

Thursday June 12th

7.30pm

Stage One @ University Of Leeds

Leeds University Campus

Leeds, England

0113 3438730 £6 (£4conc)

On Friday June 13 and Saturday June 14 my plays

“A Bullet for Every Brain”… Continue

Added by John Weagly on June 12, 2008 at 4:35am — No Comments

Citizens' Police Academy: Graduation

(Cross Posted on Working Stiffs)

After fifteen weeks of Citizens’ Police Academy, it’s over. We graduated this week and are now Citizens’ Police Academy alumni.

The ceremony was quite nice. Not the pomp and circumstance of some graduations, which is a good thing. We were allowed to bring guests, so my hubby tagged along. (He heard there would… Continue

Added by Annette Dashofy on June 12, 2008 at 12:28am — 1 Comment

I will find time to write!

It dawned on me tonight that in January okay , it was New Years Eve. I vowed and declared I would spend more time writing and much less time cleaning, washing, etc you know all that fun stuff. But here we are in June and I haven't as yet achieved as much writing as I wanted to. So consequently, I have decided to make a Half Years Resolution to write, write, write and write. Perhaps the lack of alcohol involved tonight will help me keep this one : ) Here's to hoping. Will let you know about my… Continue

Added by realmum on June 12, 2008 at 12:00am — No Comments

Killing people at a conference ...

My latest book, Autographs, Abductions, and A-List Authors, is out just in time for the conference season. It kicks off my "Fatal Writers' Conferences" series -- the heroine is an up-and-coming author who goes to a writing conference and WHAM, a best-selling author dies while autographing a book for the heroine.

I had a lot of fun writing this and having the heroine (and other characters) express opinions about agents, editors, publishing, and publishing houses. And to be… Continue

Added by J L Wilson on June 11, 2008 at 10:48pm — No Comments

Multi-tasking

Thirty years in education was great preparation for authoring, because no one multi-tasks like a teacher (except maybe the school secretary). These days it's marketing stuff, speaking engagements, editing, and when there's time, writing. The cool part is, just as when I was a teacher, I love it all. Yes, it gets overwhelming at times when the printer is running (ever so slowly) and the phone is ringing and there's email to be answered but my latest protag is ready to tell her story NOW. And… Continue

Added by Peg Herring on June 11, 2008 at 9:45pm — No Comments

Crush

I often get these obsessions, like a crush on a certain topic, whenever I’m working on something new. My latest crush: Chronic traumatic encephalopathy, also known as dementia pugilistica or “Punch Drunk Syndrome.” I’m particularly intrigued by the more subtle, esoteric cognitive effects such as irrational jealousy, poor impulse control, and deterioration of social inhibitions. Now that a microscopic autopsy has been performed on… Continue

Added by Christa Faust on June 11, 2008 at 7:22am — No Comments

How I'll Look in My Coffin

My mother, in the last days of her life, became concerned with how she would look laid out at the funeral home. It was macabre but understandable. She had nothing else to look forward to, so being a life-long planner and arranger, she turned to doing what she could to prepare for the inevitable. There was a shopping trip to buy a suit, so she wouldn't be wearing something anyone had seen her in before. Yes, it was weird. Even weirder when the sales clerk told her, "This suit will last you for… Continue

Added by Peg Herring on June 10, 2008 at 10:53pm — No Comments

The Devil you say...

I love a good, snappy comeback.

In one of the bookstores recently I observed two coworkers who were not working together very well. The younger fellow seemed to be thwarting the more mature woman at every turn, although it was clearly unintentional. At one point he tried to help her stack books on an end cap and somehow managed to spill books across an entire aisle. Trembling with frustration she said, "You were sent here by the devil himself just to destroy me, weren't… Continue

Added by Austin S. Camacho on June 10, 2008 at 10:18pm — 2 Comments