Top Mystery Novels Blogs
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Kooky Scam Stories
Blanket emails are sent allegedly from a company's Customer Support office. The wording of the first sentence of the email are meant to hook the reader.We recorded a payment request from "Office Max" to enable the charge of $28.80 on your account.Here's another similar hookWe recorded a payment request from...
I found this email in my inbox: We recorded a payment request from "Tesla Motors" to enable the charge of $980.72 on your account. The payment is pending for the moment. If you made this transaction or if you just authorize...
Another SPAM email to look out for
Another SPAM example:This is a message from the Online Webmaster Center for Communication to all of our Webmail owners/users.We are currently working on our database e-mail users and we are delecting all old unused E-mail for more space for new users. To prevent your account not be delected from our...
Did I order a computer and not remember doing so?
I received the email below today iforming me that I ordered the Acer TravelMate 4233WLMi notebook computer. This was news to me, and attached to the email was a ZIP file. I wonder what would have happened if I clicked on the attachment?Dear Customer!Thank you for ordering at our online...
Email Forgery -- Email Spoofing Technique
No doubt all of us have experienced receiving an email message bearing a genuine sender's address. But in reality the address of the sender turns out to be phony. This is known as Email Spoofing, and Spammers use this technique to get recipients to open, and possibly even respond to...
Although you may have received this email many times before, it's been out for a few years, the M.O. is is still being practiced by scammers according to Snopes.Com: The technique is pretty slick since the scammers provide YOU with all the information, except the one piece they want....
Type M for Murder
I’m not actually here today, Dear Reader. As you read this, providing you read it Saturday, March 13, or Sunday, March 14, I am in Tucson, Arizona, at the second annual Tucson Festival of Books. I’ll be participating in two festival events this year. On Saturday, I’ll be conducting a workshop...
Every writer has a different approach to the development, storylining and research of his or her book. But in the end, it’s all about what works best for you.As a writer who storylines his books in great detail, I am sometimes criticised by the “flying by the seat of the...
Writer’s Block: Myth or Reality?
On Sunday, guest blogger Stephen D. Rogers (SHOT TO DEATH) wrote about overcoming “writer’s block.” I quote the term here because I’m not sure it really exists. Maybe that’s the cynical teacher in me—“Mr. Corrigan, I just can’t start this paper,” or “Mr. Corrigan, I just ran out of time....
Elmore Leonard’s 10 Rules of Writing is to be published soon by Weidenfeld & Nicolson. Recently, the Sisters in Crime links, which I greatly enjoy, pointed me in the direction of a website, which means that I was breaking Roddy Doyle’s Rule #5: “Do restrict your browsing to a...
Inside a publishing house: Blechta’s view
Okay, as promised last week, we’re going to look at those behind-the-scenes people who make the publishing industry work — or do they?As the electronic age marches forward, new technology, mostly in the computer department has completely changed the way publishers do (or possibly do) business. Following are a few...
Sunday Guest Blogger: Stephen D. Rogers
John here. It’s a pleasure to introduce Stephen D. Rogers. He is the author of SHOT TO DEATH and more than six hundred stories and poems. He's the head writer at Crime Scene (where viewers solve interactive mysteries) and a popular writing instructor. For more information, you can...
Lisa's Words at Play
Book chaos as of January 2008 Oh dear. My previous post stood as my latest installment for FAR too long. As an emotional barometer, it’s misleading. Have I been morbidly depressed since October 20th? Is this why I haven’t posted? My friends tell me to quit being so hard on myself, so...
The Autumn of My Discontent, Revised
Addendum: For the first time, I’m revising one of my blog posts. It struck me a few hours after writing this post (now cut drastically) that I’ve had a tough year. If I’m a little down, well, okay. Well, not really okay, but all-righty then. I do know that I haven’t...
Channeling Novelist Diana Abu-Jaber
I’m highly frustrated right now. I’m supposed to be having fun, experimenting, if you will, with a thriller-ish kind of story so I can improve my plotting and pacing skills. Well this you-know-what’s hard! I feel like I don’t know anything anymore. Maybe I haven’t mastered as much writing craft as I thought,...
I wrestled with whether to reveal the depths of my neuroticism on this blog and decided that monkey mind comes with my writing life. I’d like to think I’m not the only one who suffers from this silly malady. Earlier today, monkey mind went something like this: After a decade practicing the...
I call this doing the Hemingway. Need I say anything more on a glorious TGIF afternoon, lounging in my favorite open-air bistro, Capitol Hill Coffee House, and starting the development process for Act II? Floating out there beyond the headlights awaits the plot point that signals the end of Act II. I...
I passed a quiet weekend with my writing. This morning, it occured to me that I experienced my writer’s life from three distinct vantage points. As Lisa the Writer, I, as you might expect, wrote. In fact, on Saturday I officially finished Act I of the new novel. I call it a step...
John Baker's Blog
Stolen from Fred Reed’s Site....
I’ve made a great discovery. . . and I’ll tell you what it is: the strongest person in the world is the one who stands alone Dr. Tomas Stockmann. Henrik Ibsen’s opening play at the newly refurbished Sheffield Crucible, is An Enemy of the People, with Anthony Sher in the role of...
Margaret was a tiny self-contained woman with silver hair, gold earrings, striped trousers and a pale mauve body-warmer. Perhaps she had been a beauty, but her chin was doubtful now and there was crazy-paving around her eyes. Tiny feet, well-shod in leather lace-up shoes. Grace was over-weight and all her parts...
Winged with Death – The Audio Cover
Proposed cover image for the audio version of Winged with Death. Unabridged audio by Isis Audio Books, read by Michael Tudor Barnes. Publication details when available....
Disturbing the Peace by Richard Yates
The second chapter opens with a Kafkaesque scene: He woke up soaked with sweat, breathing stale and fetid air. A naked light bulb shone in his eyes and he found he was in a steel-framed bunk slung by chains from the wall, like a bunk in a troopship or a jail. “....
Over at The View From Here Magazine, Helen Miles talks about her experience of the book trade: I was quite unprepared for the bizarre practices that persist in the selling of a book. Apparently, I must set a price for our books (that must end with 99p, obviously) and then offer...
Wendy Roberts
I went to the closing ceremonies of the olympics and, yes, it was a pretty amazing experience. Even if you put aside for a second that I probably could've gone to Hawaii with a couple friends for the cost, it was still pretty cool. One of the best parts was...
Along with most other Canadians, I breathed a sigh of relief when Canada finally got a gold medal on Canadian soil ... um ... snow. Well, the olympics seem to be going along nicely despite the fact that there isn't much snow. I take full responsibility for the fact that...
The 2010 Winter Olympics are going to start here in just a couple days. I'm feeling a little like I do every Christmas, I know it's coming but I just need a few more days to get ready.I've already been caught up in torch traffic through my city. Not fun....
It's all those little things that tend to get in your way.For example, this weekend I was all set to host a double-header sleepover party for two of my boys but things did not run as smoothly as planned. Let's just say that when you find yourself standing in line...
Cemeteries and other fun stuff
My trip to Seattle was great fun! I signed a stack of books at the Seattle Mystery Bookshop. There are many fabulous things about this gem of a book store in Seattle. For example, it's haunted. That's a bonus when you write about ghosts. Also, the staff are fabulous. Every...
I'm heading down to Seattle to do a little research. Looking for a few new nooks and crannies to kill a person or two :)On Saturday I'll be signing books at the wonderful Seattle Mystery Bookshop. Come by if you get a chance!...
All write with coffee...
Shakespeare's Sonnet Sunday: Sonnet 10
For shame deny that thou bear'st love to any, Who for thy self art so unprovident. Grant, if thou wilt, thou art beloved of many, But that thou none lov'st is most evident: For thou art so possessed with murderous hate, That 'gainst thy self thou stick'st not to conspire, Seeking that beauteous roof to ruinate Which...
Saturday's Writing Quotation Examination
From a very early age, perhaps the age of five or six, I knew that when I grew up I should be a writer. Between the ages of about seventeen and twenty-four I tried to abandon this idea, but I did so with...
Humility for the writer can be good and bad. Good humility: What is good humility? If you've ever read a great book, with great writing, great plot, and great characters, and when you've put it down, thought, 'I wish I could write as good as that author.' That's good humility. As...
Action in the white space - Part III
The Smash Cut The last thing I will mention about writing in the white space is something the movie/TV business calls - The Smash Cut. What does this mean? According to Wikipedia: It is technique in film where one scene abruptly cuts to another without transition, usually meant to startle...
Action in the white space - Part II
This pic has nothing to do with the article. Yesterday was part one...now part two of communicating a point without actually writing it. Writing between the lines...or not. Here are a few more devices the writer can employ to engage the reader: 1) First, instead of narrating actions or emotions, let the...
Action in the white space - Part I
Over the course of the week, I'm going to be discussing writing in the white space. It's communicating a point without actually writing it. Writing between the lines...or not. Sometimes as writers we worry that if we don't describe absolutely everything, our readers will be left confused but give your reader...