September 2008 Blog Posts (137)

Investigation Discovery Channel TV Interview Tonight

Good day, friends:

I wanted to let you know I will be interviewed on the Investigation Discovery channel's new series, Wicked Attraction, tonight, Thursday, September 11th at 9 p.m., EST.

The episode, "Twisted Twosome," is about husband and wife serial killers, Gerald and Charlene Gallego, who took the lives of ten people before being apprehended.

For those of you who are interested in true crime and serial murder, especially mystery,… Continue

Added by R. Barri Flowers on September 12, 2008 at 7:30am — No Comments

Some good stuff being said about Small Crimes

Small Crimes is still several weeks away from being officially released in the US, although it's been showing up early in some bookstores, as well as being available now at online bookstores like amazon.com and bn.com, and some good stuff is showing up about it on the web. Thuglit recently added it to their Degenerates Book Club. Patrick Milliken over at Poisoned Pen Bookstore jumped the gun on it and made it one of his August hardboiled picks.… Continue

Added by Dave Zeltserman on September 12, 2008 at 4:29am — 1 Comment

How do writers see themselves?

I’m giving a talk tomorrow at Bracknell Library in Berkshire, Hampshire, and I am looking forward to it. It is always good to connect with people, and at these types of events to discuss books (not only mine but other writers) and to discover what people like and why they like them. It also helps to provide me with ideas for possible future books, plays and screenplays. And it reminds me who my audience are i.e. who I am writing for and why I write.… Continue

Added by Pauline Rowson on September 11, 2008 at 11:27pm — No Comments

Serendipitous Charity

How do you get involved with a charity? There are so many of them out there that there is no way a person can care about/contribute to/work for all of them, so most of us zero in on a few that are dear to us. But what's the appeal?

I've just done a short story for a mystery short story anthology which will benefit Toys for Tots. When the call went out for submissions, I liked the theme (*Dying in a Winter Wonderland*), but I also responded to that charity. Why? We know they do good… Continue

Added by Peg Herring on September 11, 2008 at 10:41pm — No Comments

Orville & Wilbur in South Dakota

My ten-minute play “Orville & Wilbur Discuss Film Noir” is being done this Saturday in South Dakota.

Here are the details:

8 in 48 - Claire Donaldson Short Play Festival

Saturday, September 13

7:30 pm

Augustana College

Edith Mortensen Center Theater

Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

$5 requested donation

This is a 48-hour play festival, which means the director's receive their scripts on the night of Thursday… Continue

Added by John Weagly on September 11, 2008 at 11:52am — No Comments

Along for the Ride: Part One

(Cross posted at Working Stiffs) When I graduated from Citizens’ Police Academy back in June, I would have shed tears except for the promise that it wasn’t over yet. We still had our (drum roll, please) ride-alongs coming up.

Mine was scheduled for Friday at noon. Or at nine. Depends on whether you’re going by the email I received or the schedule at the police station. Either I was three hours… Continue

Added by Annette Dashofy on September 11, 2008 at 12:44am — No Comments

Impressions from ThrillerFest 2008

My wife, Jean, travelled with me to ThrillerFest in New York in July and she wrote this article for our local newspaper, Connemara View

Impressions from ThrillerFest 2008

By Jean Mullan

We arrive to a fanfare of police sirens and an intense gaggle of security men at the entrance of the Grand Hyatt Hotel in midtown Manhattan. As we descend from the taxi on to the red carpet it slowly dawns on us that this welcoming committee is not for the Connemara… Continue

Added by Pat Mullan on September 10, 2008 at 10:26pm — No Comments

That Crazy Generation Gap

Someone posted to a group that he quoted the line "Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the noonday sun" to his agent. The agent looked confused, so he explained, "It's a line from Noel Coward." The agent said, "Who?"

It's another age thing. We find that people we have to deal with every day are so much younger than we that they don't understand us, and vice versa. I've learned to nod when people say things like, "You know, like the dress Eva Longoria wore to that award show."… Continue

Added by Peg Herring on September 10, 2008 at 10:15pm — No Comments

Crime Always Pays

This week on Crime Always Pays: CAP hits 1,000 posts; a giveaway comp for copies of THE BIG O and EIGHTBALL BOOGIE; Adrian McKinty on Michael Chabon’s THE YIDDISH POLICEMAN’S UNION; Rafe McGregor Q&A’d; THE BIG SLEEP: The Book Wot Changed My Life; John Connolly’s tribulations with socks ‘n’ sex, and an update on THE LOVERS; what the blummery is going on with Ken Bruen’s SANCTUARY?; and new novels from Arlene Hunt and Alex… Continue

Added by Declan Burke on September 10, 2008 at 9:21pm — No Comments

Sony eBook

A number of my crime short stories are now available as downloads at the Sony e-book store. You can find them at http://ebookstore.sony.com/author/678/73/67873.html

Also downloadable - this time from Fictionwise - are two non-crime titles which may be of interest ...

My 2008 children’s fantasy novel, “Soother’s Boy” is at http://www.fictionwise.com/eBooks/eBook72722.htm?cache

and my 2007 collection of SF short stories, “So Far, So Near,” is at… Continue

Added by Mat Coward on September 10, 2008 at 8:31pm — No Comments

A Half-Life Long Dream Achieved!

Remember when I talked about my desires for a National Steel guitar? The kind of guitar that costs whole people's yearly salaries to ship to the sunburnt shores of Australia?

Well, in the last couple of days, I discovered to my absolute and goose-pimple-inducing delight, that I could purchase one of these beautiful beasts for about half the price I would expect in my home… Continue

Added by Daniel Hatadi on September 10, 2008 at 6:30pm — No Comments

Rumrunners on Trial

I've posted some fascinating accounts of the trials of rumrunners on Catherine Mambretti's blog:

Added by Carola Dunn on September 10, 2008 at 11:00am — No Comments

Glastonbury wins Cover Design Award

I'm over the moon that my forthcoming novel 'Glastonbury' (Steel Waves Publishing), has won The Authors Lounge Best Cover Art Design Award http://www.talauthors.com/TAL/BestCoverArt.htm for August 2008. This is the third of my covers to have received this publicly voted accolade this year and I'm really delighted and so grateful to all of those who voted and helped the book receive this wonderful… Continue

Added by Brian L Porter on September 10, 2008 at 3:00am — 1 Comment

Infanticide

Like the infamous Andrea Yates who drowned her five children in the bathtub in 2001, and Susan Smith who strapped her two toddler sons in a car and then drove it into a lake in 1994, Casey Anthony, the mother of three-year-old Caylee Anthony of Orlando, Florida, may soon join the list of American women who kill their children.

Data suggests that at least once every three days, somewhere in America, a mother kills her children. Postpartum psychosis, impulse killings brought on by rage… Continue

Added by Christopher Valen on September 10, 2008 at 1:07am — No Comments

Margaret Coel at Mesquite Public Library

When Margaret Coel appeared at the Mesquite Public Library in Phoenix yesterday, she was introduced as the award-winning author who sets her books on the Arapaho Indian Reservation. Her latest book, Blood Memory, starts in Denver, though.

Margaret said after thirteen novels set on the Arapaho Wind River Reservation in Wyoming, she decided to do something else. Father John O'Malley, from her series, went to Rome at the end of the… Continue

Added by Lesa Holstine on September 10, 2008 at 12:28am — No Comments

Another Favorite Author

Apologies to Stephanie Plum but I don’t usually like my mysteries with a lot of humor in them. That having been said, I do make exceptions for the local talent, especially when they’re gifted writers. For both those reasons I CAN recommend that you add the novels of Northern Virginia author Donna Andrews to your personal library. Donna’s Meg Langslow series manages to be consistently hilarious despite the fact that each book is a solid traditional mystery. And you gotta love the titles: nine… Continue

Added by Austin S. Camacho on September 9, 2008 at 10:25pm — No Comments

Getting Noticed

All the advisers recommend it: find a way to get noticed. They're not wrong, but it isn't easy to do. They have suggestlons, of course, some that anybody could have come up with and others that nobody would want to.

"Dress in an attention-getting way." With perfectly straight faces, I've heard people advise that you dress like your character for signings and appearances. With a not-so-perfect face, I try to be politely non-committal. Maybe some can do that, and maybe it's appropriate… Continue

Added by Peg Herring on September 9, 2008 at 10:23pm — No Comments

As a writer, do your characters invade your “real life”?

“Careful, dear. You’re acting like your character again.” Read entire post

Added by Kathryn Lilley on September 9, 2008 at 4:00pm — No Comments

RE: Gustav evacuation

I gotta tell ya folks, DO NOT believe the people on national TV (Michael Chertoff et al) saying the evacuation from New Orleans was smooth and swell. It was not. I know. I was there. I left at 4 am Sunday 8/31 and spent 22 hours in my car. The great governor of Mississippi decided to close the border to keep out fleeing Louisianans. Bam. No I-10 East. Closed. Bye-bye.

Which meant everyone trying to get to Florida or Georgia (like me, had a room booked south of Atlanta, the closest… Continue

Added by Susan on September 9, 2008 at 11:39am — No Comments