Butcher, Baker, Candlestickmaker…
No, wait. That’s not what this is about. This is not all the things I’ll consider becoming if’n a contract doesn’t cross my desk soon. I’m probably not giving credit where credit is due, so help me out if you’ve heard this from someone legit before, but I heard a […]

Oh, Big C, you’re so bad for me. I don’t care how many of the other Girls are in love with you. They can have you. I’m done, I’m through, do you hear me? No more jolts and racing heart for this Girl. No more pounding headaches when I am […]

Today marks the opening of the Malice Domestic traditional mystery convention. It’s their 20th of these shindigs, held every year just outside Washington DC. A Malice veteran myself, I describe it as a great big family reunion. It’s a must for fans of the mystery in the vein of Agatha Christie - […]

PBS’s series, Mystery! began airing in 1980 after the public stations’ Masterpiece Theatre sponsor, Mobil, suggested a series of British mysteries, tacking on to the success of Masterpiece versions of Dorothy L. Sayers’ Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries.
My favorite part about the series has to be the animated opening and closing, featuring Edward Gorey cartoons. […]

A few weeks ago, I posted about my pet peeve - overuse of brand names that don’t deepen character or story.
Well, speaking of deepening, I want to deepen this conversation. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about details in fiction.
Poirot, Agatha Christie’s fastidious little detective, likes things just so. So much […]

I was procrastinating writing this week’s blog entry by checking email and I came across one of those annoying forwarded assertions that just sound too…too…too wrong to be right. So, what did I do - sit back and scratch my head and wonder?
No. I just got onto www.snopes.com to check it out. […]

We all know how to structure a story, right? Take a character, plop them down on the bottom of a steep incline and, (aargh!) as they climb, throw obstacle after obstacle at them, one after another, until they (finally - whew!) reach the summit (ta-da!), and fall into a lovely (no loose ends) denouement.
Unless, […]

I’m about to write the check for the rental of a house we’ll be sharing in August at Lake Champlain. August can’t come soon enough, let me tell you.
When I was hashing over what we’ll do during that precious week, aside from going to the Ben and Jerry’s factory and taking a day […]

I’ve been reading a lot of young adult fiction lately. It’s a fabulous pool to dip into. It’s the pool that nearly drowned me twenty-some years ago. I conveniently had a sore throat the morning after every late night spent nearly finishing some wondrous book or another, which allowed me to stay […]