I have a great amount of respect for authors who can crank out numerous books a year. Lori Armstrong is one of them.

Lori is a mom, a wife, member of the local writers group, and a published author. In TWO genres, even! She has multiple books coming out each year. And she's a damn good writer. I admire the fact that she can do all that, even

though I've seen her a little stressed over multiple deadlines.

But what really makes Lori stand out (in my opinion) is that…

Am I, or am I not, an author? Am I a writer? This week, I didn't think so.

I got my critique back and it was less than stellar. I didn't expect the reviewer to tell me how wonderful I was -- although that would have been nice -- but there was very little the reviewer claimed

to like. Even in the section of the critique called "Strengths."

Ouch. And it was marked up in red pen. Double ouch. And the

reviewer's handwriting leaves much to be desired so it takes…

One of the Sisters In Crime lists I'm on spent the past week or so discussing one-word resolutions. There were some great ones: accept, persevere, achieve, finish, push, read. The list goes on.

I didn't post mine because I wasn't sure I could limit myself to one word. But the more I think about it, the more I think my resolution

for 2008 will be to write. To write in this blog (and on my actual web site) once a week. To write in my personal blog and myspace account

once a…