I’ve always been intrigued when authors talk about a character who ‘takes over’ as if the author is just along for a ride. I’m as eager as any writer to meet a strong character...one whose voice I can simply

sit down and record on paper as she speaks. Perhaps I’m too new at this

game to have met one.

Stranger Than Fiction (Will Ferrell, Emma Thompson, Dustin…

Another Wednesday brings another interview with an author.

Here's Jon Armstrong, talking about his debut novel, "Grey."

Straight Up - The Official Newsletter of Author J.A. Konrath #7

In this issue:

--Introduction

--Book Launch Party

--The Dirty Martini Tour

--Bookseller Contest

--Reviewer Contest

--Writing Contest Winners

--Library Contest Winner

--Free Whiskey Sours

--MySpace

--Books for Troops

--Recent News

--Summer Reads

--Freebies

--INTRODUCTION

You're on this mailing list because you love books. I love them, too. This email is…

posted by Doranna Durgin

Yup, I'm back to it. Scent of Danger is back in progress, and once again I'm shifting into first draft gear. Because for me, first draft creates a different world. I love revising, I get a kick out of the production stages, I lo-oove the part where the book shows up on the shelves...but first draft, that's what it's all about.

The thing about first draft, though...it takes over your life. I've come to think of the…

Writing is fun. You can create your own universe. You control everything that happens in your story. Need a reason for people to walk quickly past your murderer as he disposes of a body in the backyard? You make it rain, and not just a little rain, it's a torrential downpour. You're master of the weather. How cool is that?

Eding on the other hand, is a tedious chore, a pain in the patootie, and absolutely no fun at all. As I plow through my…

Thought I'd let people know that there have been some changes to my website including a contest. There's also a bunch of stuff for the new novel besides the contest, links to stories and interviews I've done with authors.

Only strange thing? My front page promotes THE CONCRETE MAZE and the BRONX NOIR anthology that I'm very proud to be a part of, but the motif of the site is the tropical isalnd of Puerto Rico. The juxtaposition…

http://www.librarything.com/profile/austcrimefiction

It's amazingly addictive - and its really fascinating to wander around and see firstly who has the same books as you (Hi Helen ) and then to see what else is in their collection.

Wander over - have a look -…

Contemporary authors often find themselves in the uncomfortable position of defending the accuracy of their fiction, while true crime writers of dubious repute (not me)

publish nonsense as if it were well-researched and factual.



I've never met Mark Fuhrman, author of Murder in Spokane, but I wrote a book, Body Count, about the same case. I devoted a full year to intensive research and

interviews, pouring…

by guest blogger Elizabeth Zelvin

Sisters in Crime was the first organization I joined in 2002 when I completed the first draft of Death Will Get You Sober, the mystery manuscript I'd been talking about for years. I visited my local chapter, which was going through a lull at the time. And I signed up for Guppies, which I was told was the SinC online interest group (not yet a chapter) for the Great UnPublished, or prepublished wrtiers, as they are often called in SinC. I'm so glad I…

When I stepped off the plane in Savannah, it was hot enough to turn a guy to lava. I made my way to the spa where I'd been told I could find "Hard-hearted" Hannah Granitelli, a nightclub chanteuse and sometime girlfriend of my target, Rocky Cahoney.

I found Hannah in the atrium, taking some sort of beauty treatment. She looked me over at a distance and made her decision. Her face turned stony as I approached. "I got nothing to say to the likes of you," was her greeting.

"Gimme…

posted by Lorraine Bartlett

For the past couple of weeks we’ve returned to the cottage to find both hummingbird feeders bone dry. Now, this was impossible. For weeks we’ve only seen two tiny birds drinking this pseudo nectar. These birds would have to be the size of vultures if they were consuming all those calories.

Backtrack. Apparently you’re supposed to do a two-to-one mixture of water and sugar, but I must’vie gotten the recipe mixed up. For years i’vie been doing a…

My search for Rocco Cahoney led me first to Detroit, where I met the oldest criminal ever, Adam Antini. He sat in the shady corner of a park, feeding the mourning doves and pondering his life's misdeeds. "Before I sink into the ground," he told me, "I want to make things right."

"Good," I told him. "You can go a long way toward that if you tell me where to find Cahoney."

"If I help you, I won't last out the week," Antini said, "but it'll be worth it to clear my conscience. I'm…

Mark your calendars—Please!

“Silenced Cry,” the first in a series of crime/mystery novels, was released in April 2007. An August virtual book tour will give readers further insight into the book and the author. The tour will kick off on Monday, July 30, at 7:30 p.m. EST with a talk on the Internet Voice Radio. Other planned virtual events throughout August include guest blogs, interviews with the author and a special guest, plus a chat session.

Events details…