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cathy scott ... true crime author and journalist
By Cathy ScottThe former head of the San Diego County District Attorney’s office is sharing his thoughts on the brutal murders of two teenage girls, especially about the deafening silence surrounding the cases.Fourteen-year-old Amber Dubois vanished in 2009 while walking to school. Then last month, 17-year-old Chelsea King disappeared while jogging...
Smoke and Mirrors: The Truth About Las Vegas
by Cathy ScottReprinted from Women in Crime Ink Watching Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman’s indignation over recent advice by President Barack Obama to a New Hampshire audience to not waste cash in Las Vegas was reminiscent of a similarly indignant Goodman a decade earlier. Goodman, a former criminal defense attorney and self-described...
Personal Assistant's Murder Trial Heats Up
,by Cathy Scott Reprinted from Women in Crime Ink Two worlds collided when a quiet 26-year-old woman named Natavia Lowery went to work for the powerful, outspoken 62-year-old Linda Stein, a property broker to the rich and famous.For years, the New York City...
New Year’s Military-style: A Look Back
by Cathy Scott Reprinted from Women In Crime Ink Just before New Year’s Eve 2003, something extraordinary happened in three popular partying spots: The arm of the law came down and ordered that information on everyone visiting those respective cities be handed over to the FBI. It was a true Big Brother...
Reprinted from Women In Crime Ink. by Cathy Scott Two murder cases with women as the accused killers have taken similar -- and unusual -- turns. Each was instantly labeled the “Black Widow.” And both women stood to gain millions should their husbands die. In the first case, San Juan and Manhattan socialite Barbara...
Real or Rumor? Tupac's Killer Charged?
Reprinted from Women in Ink Crime Blog By Cathy Scott It always amazes me when I see a rumor picked up by a media outlet, regardless of how small that outlet is. So I was once again surprised a couple weeks ago when I got an e-mail from a TV producer asking...
Sid's Blog | Sid Prince Explains | Sidney Prince
What is Post X? You know what Post X is. It's also called Essay X, Book X, Report X, and Thank You Card X. But for our purposes here today let's deal with Post X. It's the blog post that begins all…...
If you've been following this blog for a bit you know that back in April I made a commitment to begin work on my first novel. Well America, up to now I've written exactly 0 pages, 0 words, and 0…...
[Every once in a while when I see a movie or read a book that I really like or really hate, I'll tell you about it. This is just such a time] Where the Wild Things Are tells the story of a young…...
This I believe...and it May be Killing Me
I believe I have but one major illness to recover from in this lifetime, and that belief may be killing me. Perhaps a little dramatic you say? Let me explain. This whole healthcare hoopla, with…...
(not) Social Networking 101 - Another Top 5 List
I dropped some knowledge on Lori Widmer's Words on the Page blog the other day, and it got me thinking (as Lori often does - so blame her for this post); if I were to ask 100 people what networking…...
Yo Politicians - this is how you get your Healthcare on!
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Essential Prose
Madness, Genius, and the Things We Don’t See
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. [Albert Einstein] I'm not trying to call anyone out on mediocrity of the mind here. I've just been thinking about how easy it is to pursue mediocrity if we don't ask what's possible. If we don't open the door to...
On the Universe, and the Small Things
I recently read Brian Swimme's article, "The Hidden Heart of the Cosmos." In it, he describes how past societies made a point to celebrate the mysteries and wonder of the universe, as a way of exploring the meaning of our existence. In contrast, he explains, modern society has pushed such...
I had a dentist appointment today for my yearly cleaning. I went to a new dentist, and I went with pretty neutral expectations — after all, despite having never had a cavity, I've never found a dental cleaning to be a particularly uplifting experience (although I quite enjoyed getting a...
As a birthday present, I'm creating a website for my mom (a.k.a Mama Lisa). She's really excited to have an online home, but unsure of what she wants that home to look like. A living room for close friends to hang out? A study that reveals all her projects and...
"I believe in the future resolution of these two states, dream and reality, which are seemingly so contradictory, into a kind of absolute reality, a surreality, if one may so speak."...
On Focus, and the Influence of Saturn
I find it pretty tough to avoid the process of reflection at this time of year. As much as the transition into a new year may feel like an arbitrary measure of time, the urge to reflect upon the past and envision a future seems to seep in from all...
Laura Tamayo's Blogs
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This is the look....
This is where we keep our awesome Spanish Projects. We hope you like them! Drew & Pierce...
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Writer, Linguist, and Yogini....
life-story-writing at Yahoo! Groups
Great memories! A little house with three bedrooms, one bathroom and one car on the street. A mower that you had to push to make the grass look neat In the...
About leaving a roadmap for the next generation...
To All: This is about *leaving a roadmap for the next generation* I've used this term since the early beginings of Life Story Writing Network...and today in...
Yeah, I plan to spend as much time with her as I can. I know it's really going to leave a gaping hole in my life when she leaves us. But for now, I'm just...
I wish I still had my mother around so I could visit her but she would be 103 if she was alive. Bill H la_black_roze wrote: A Day To Treasure Forever By: Linda...
A Day To Treasure Forever By: Linda DePeel (c.)2010 My mom has been particularly fiesty in the last several years, and some of it is just downright comical. I...
Is your book worth publishing?
I am not pushing this...it is just for your own information...I personally am using www.lulu.com Subject: Is your book worth publishing? Do you have a book...
Academia-Research blog everything about how to write a good paper.
Online Jobs for You: Becoming a Freelance Writer
If this is your first time to search for freelance writing jobs, we will offer you a great position in our company. Well, it may not be an actual job right away because you need to pass the exam and evaluation in order for you to get a freelance writer...
Do you want to be a freelance writer? It takes some good characteristics and attitude in order to become a successful writer. But it takes another set of character to become successful freelance writing opportunities. Today, we will give you some tips on how to become one of the most...
There are much simpler things that you can do online aside from learning the complexities of computer technical terms. But you can also take the chance to earn some money through online writing jobs. Previously, you were just concentrating on using the net for research, communication and for some business...
Apply for Free Work Online Jobs
Are you searching for free work online jobs? You should stop doing this because you have found the best website to apply for a job. Here, you can become one of our freelance writers. It is really very easy to apply for a job online. It only takes a few...
Job Writing Offers On the Internet
Jobs are now available on the internet. You can easily look for an online writing job that will give you opportunities to earn online. Yes previously the internet was only used for communications. But the technology has evolved and now, more and more companies are looking into the possibility of...
Employment For Writers and Jobseekers
For the past couple of years, people are used to finding jobs in the conventional ways of looking for positions among companies. You will be required to submit a resume, wait for an interview and accomplish job requirements for application. However, because the internet is now very popular, you can...
National Novel Writing Month - Home
"After six prescription pain killers (the suggested limit for the entire day), my hands felt numb enough to type." NaNo 2009 started off strong for me. I'd do most of my writing on the weekends and then work a job and a half during the week. I figured the hardest part...
"Thank God for the crazy people I call friends!" On top of my already-piled plate at NaNo's start (all the possible Honors classes, four choirs, three different bands, learning a new instrument, breaking my ankle, getting a chest infection, and the wonderful people that remained my friends through all this madness),...
Script Frenzy interview ops next week!
Attention bloggers and media-tastic members of the press! NaNoWriMo's sister event, Script Frenzy is setting sail on April 1! This will be the Frenzy's breakout year, and we're expecting 20,000 folks to be writing movies, plays, graphic novels, and TV shows with us. If you'd like to interview Script Frenzy...
"...I realized that I wasn't a sick and dying man writing a story, I was a writer of stories who was dealing with a sickness." Goodness how long ago did this adventure start for me... I remember so many years ago that I found nanowrimo.org and thought what a wonderful idea it...
"In July, it didn't seem like such a daunting task. In October, I was hyperventilating." Over the summer, my current roommate and I exchanged emails about our plans for the upcoming semester (i.e. who was going to bring a rug and do we need a mini fridge for our late night...
"I heard the boom of a 2,000-word wall crash to the ground." With rutabagas and crispy shallots dancing through my head, I scribbled furiously through the last two-thousand words of my first NaNo novel while watching the nine hundredth hour of the The Food Network Thanksgiving marathon. Soon, I too, would...
nick usborne's blog
Bonus Chapter: New Path to Retirement Riches
When I hear from people who have read New Path to Riches, more often or not they are retired. At first, this surprised me. But it really shouldn’t have. This is a model for making money that is ideally suited to anyone who is retired, or getting close. New Path...
Why we are so susceptible to buying into the promise of get rich quick.
In Jason Zweig’s book, Your Money and Your Brain , he writes: “Your investing brain comes equipped with a biological mechanism that is more aroused when you anticipate a profit than when you actually get one”. I think he is right. And I think this applies to all aspects of...
Recent reviews of my book, New Path to Riches
“While freelancing can be a constant “where’s-my-next-gig-coming-from?” grind, and ’secure’ 9-5 employment is anything but, smart folk lay the groundwork for that magical phenomenon known as ‘passive income.’ In this comprehensive, readable work, Usborne proves he’s one of the smart ones, laying out a detailed and proven blueprint for capitalizing...
A total upgrade for my primary business website, nickusborne.com.
nickusborne.com has been up for almost ten years now, and this is the third major re-design. But this is the first time I have departed entirely from the original purpose of the site – which was to promote my services as an online copywriter, consultant and speaker. A great deal...
Further confirmation that you should seriously upgrade your online copywriting skills.
Numerous studies and surveys this year have shown that marketing budgets are moving away from print, radio and broadcast – and into online media. In an article published by MediaPost this morning, the figures reported are confirming the same trend. Here is a portion of that article: “A regional survey...
I'll help you start your own money-making website.
For a few years now I have been writing hobby websites as a way to create some separate and passive streams of income. Actually, I plan to retire once the income from these money-making sites reaches a strong and consistent level. I’m about half way to achieving that goal. For...
Amy Sue Nathan
In the spring of 1990 when I had been married about six weeks, my husband graduated from medical school. The group of about 100 students recited the Hippocratic Oath and thus became physicians. The dean, on the stage in the hospital’s auditorium, then called the graduates by name...
I think one of the biggest hurdles to get over as a writer is when you realize and accept that your work is not unique simply because you wrote it. I’ll let that one settle a bit in case it’s news to you....
Although I live in a Midwestern tundra, my affection for cold weather is limited to the fact that I can build fires in the fireplace and put marshmallows in hot chocolate. So when I walked down the hall at just after six this morning to let out the dogs, and...
With the myriad of manuscripts on my hard drive, books in my TBR pile and TV shows DVR’ed I’ve noticed a trend. Writers like to talk to viewers and readers. You know the shows where the character turns to the camera and talks to you? Writers do that to. It’s...
When I think of a caricature I think of a guy or a gal, sitting behind an easel in a park or at a Bar Mitzvah drawing pictures that exacerbate willing models’ strengths and weaknesses. If you have a big nose, you can bet, in a caricature, your schnoz is...
So, yea, um, it’s me. Here. On the blog. This one. Uh huh.
Know what’s harder than going back to the gym after Thanksgiving? Going back to the blog after a month. Truly. What is up with that? So I’m going to give it another whirl, just as everyone is gearing up to slow down online for the holidays, I’ll be here trying to keep...
The Heart and Craft of Life Writing
Appearance definitely matters. This is no less true for pages than people, and I include both digital and paper pages. In a single afternoon I came across four instances where choices of font, type size, color, or formatting made reading a challenge for me. It’s never a good idea to...
Hand or Keyboard — Does It Matter?
Flickr photo by SwimParallel Within the online writing community you’ll find an ongoing discussion of the merits of writing by hand versus keyboard. Virtually all articles and posts are anecdotal, with a conspicuous lack of research. One exception is an intriguing blog interview Joy Castro held with author and writing teacher...
Life Lessons from Life Writing
Punji Pensive, by Indi SamarajivaJamie’s sick, so I’ll have to fix a casserole to take over. This is such a simple and typical thought — the type that generally passes unnoticed, or at least unquestioned. Lately I’ve begun to notice these thoughts and question them. Increasingly often as such thoughts...
Celebrating National Grammar Day
Today is National Grammar Day. To celebrate, I’m sharing some amusing grammar mistakes that made it into print. “Except for a tragic accident, the 35th annual Bath Heritage Days parade went off without a hitch.” The Times Record (Bath, Maine). A tragic accident is a minor deviation from going off without...
How to Write Your Healing Story: Interview with Linda Joy Myers
Who could be more qualified to mete out advice on writing memoir than someone who holds a Masters Degree in Creative Writing from Stanford, wrote her own award-winning memoir, Don't Call Me Mother, and worked for decades as a clinical psychologist? This legendary person is Linda Joy Myers, who in...
Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.— Mark Twain Did you ever stop to think that the way you visually arrange words and sentences on a page amounts to clothing your stories? Before you read further, I invite you do to download my free...
Writing-and-Speaking Articles from EzineArticles.com
How I Average 3 Lucid Dreams a Week by Simply Writing
Do you like writing? Do you want to have more lucid dreams? Follow these simple writing steps and you can dramatically increase your lucid dreams....
Writing Tips For School Children
Helping school children learn to write is very important. Here are some tips....
This article shows how Hollywood plotlines follow a distinct Gospel meta-narrative. Every story has a basic beginning middle and end, but I try to associate different terms with beginning middle and end....
Learn to Write - 5 Tips to Writing Children's Books With Humor!
"Why did the chicken cross the road?" What does this have to do with an author that wants to learn to write? This is a classic line, that begins a classic joke; a little bit of humor that almost everyone can recognize. In fact, it's so cliche that it has...
Generating Passive Income Through Your Writing
Aspiring writers of the internet world! Why not find ways to earn passive income from writing articles and stories, perfecting your art at the same time?...
Six Tips For Winning Story Contests
How do you win a creative writing contest? More important, from the judge's point of view, how do you judge one?...
About.com Fiction Writing
Pros and Cons of Writing for Young People
In the past few years, a number of excellent YA/middle grade books have come my way, via a Nick Hornby column in the Believer and a YA-author friend. After meeting Weetzie Bat and the Penderwicks, and reading The House of the Scorpion and Chasing Vermeer -- and taking into account...
There are some very cool opportunities in April -- and some I'd never heard of until recently, such as the Lake Forest College Emerging Writer's Residency (April 1) and the New Michigan Press / DIAGRAM Chapbook Contest (April 30). Old standbys include the Thurber Prize for American Fiction (April 1),...
For some people, plot does come naturally, but more of us benefit from studying the basic elements -- which, sadly, most fiction workshops don't seem to cover. By mastering the basics of plot, you deliver a satisfying experience to your readers and arm yourself with the tools you'll need to...
How Do We Establish a Sense of Place?
This week I've been corresponding with a writer about settings. She had asked for feedback on her wedding cake story, and my initial response was confusion: I didn't know where the characters were. It got me thinking about the importance of setting, and the difficulties of establishing it in a...
March Writing Challenge Now Open
For the March challenge, write a poem, prose poem, or short-short story from the point of view of an historical figure. The phrase "historical figure" may be taken broadly -- anyone from Nicholas I to Nellie Bly's mom is fair game. Be as creative as you'd like. I was thinking of...
If you like lists -- and the Guardian's book section -- you'll definitely want to see the dos and don'ts for fiction writers they collected from authors such as Margaret Atwood, Colm Tóibín, Jonathan Franzen, and Neil Gaiman. While it can be a bit overwhelming to read so many admonitions...
There Are No Rules
Best Tweets for Writers (week ending 3/12/10)
I watch Twitter, so you don't have to. Visit each Sunday for the week's best Tweets. If I missed a great Tweet, leave it in the Comments. Always welcome your suggestions on improving this weekly feature. Also, quick plug: March is a phenomenal month for Writer's Digest webinars, with three sessions by fabulous...
No Description Dumps! Crafting a Story With Details & Immersion
Today's guest post is by Jim Adam. It is part of a series on storytelling and The Strengths of the Potter Series. Check out Jim's book, Motherless. Rowling’s boxes of notes for the Potter universe are legendary. Those notes translated into highly detailed characters and settings that captivated readers. As much as the details...
The Biggest Bad Advice About Story Openings
Following up on yesterday's post (No. 1 Challenge of Memoirs), I'd now like to address the biggest dilemma and balancing act for all storytellers: starting with an action-oriented scene. It's probably the most over-repeated and cliche advice—so much so that writers have come to hate hearing it: Start with action. I've critiqued hundreds, maybe thousands,...
Your No. 1 Challenge If You're Writing Memoir
Last week I taught an online class about story openings for novel & memoir. Everyone was invited to submit their first pages for a rather public critique. Beforehand, I tweeted some of the best tips, which you'll find at the end of this blog post. Here I'd like to share the most common challenge...
AuthorSolutions Is Not Evil: 3 Things I Learned
Yesterday I visited the home office of AuthorSolutions in Bloomington, Ind.—a fairly quick drive from Writer's Digest home offices in Cincinnati. For those who don't know, AuthorSolutions dominates the publishing service market with a variety of brands—including AuthorHouse, Xlibris, iUniverse, and Trafford. Before I say a word about this visit, I have to speak...
Best Tweets for Writers (week ending 3/5/10)
I watch Twitter, so you don't have to. Visit each Sunday for the week's best Tweets. If I missed a great Tweet, leave it in the Comments. Always welcome your suggestions on improving this weekly feature. Also, quick plug: March is a phenomenal month for Writer's Digest webinars, with three sessions by fabulous...
BenCrowder.net
On moving hosts and other random stuff
Time for a bit of a potpourri post. It's been a while since I've done one of these....
I've noticed a lot of cool photo manipulations online lately and got the itch to try my hand at one. Here's the result, which I'm calling "Komodo King."...
Mormon Digitization Project, resurrected
I'm resurrecting the Mormon Digitization Project, which I blogged about nine months ago and then abandoned while I went and got married....
I'm switching web hosts. (Hurray! :)) For the last few years I've been on Bluehost and while it was mostly acceptable, I've outgrown it....
I needed a web app to share pedigree charts with my sister on the other side of the country, so I wrote one. It's called Pedigree....
Here's how I see the various parts of Beyond connecting together....
Bad Language
I’m a sucker for small, ultraportable PCs. I am the proud owner of an Toshiba Libretto 70CT, OQO, HP95, Newton, Sony Vaio P11z, HP 2133, Kindle and an iPhone (my third). The iPad left me feeling a bit ‘so what’. Too big, too limited. But now I’ve spotted a new...
Significant, substantial, meaningful and unique: words to avoid
Tim Phillips’s analysis of press releases on Factiva shows a worrying trend. The number of press releases that contain the words ‘significant’, ‘substantial’, ‘meaningful’ and ‘unique’ in the same text has nearly trebled in the last seven years. Something should be done. I don’t really understand how writers get away...
Free Articulate Seminars: learn, share, drink tea
WHAT Free half-day seminars with Matthew Stibbe, writer-in-chief at Articulate Marketing. I want to help you get the most from your marketing copy: Print – writing for case studies, press releases and marketing collateral Online – writing for websites, blogs and social media WHY Make your marketing more effective Get better work from your agencies and suppliers...
New blog features – popular posts, comment love
There are more than 600 posts on this site and hundreds of comments. I’d like to build on this so I’ve added some new features to Bad Language: A Popular Posts page that shows the top five posts in each category. It updates automatically, to reflect the latest visitor stats. Improved social...
I’m reading Max Hastings Finest Yearsand there’s a lovely quote in there: “An Englishman’s mind works best when it is almost too late.” It’s the same for writers. But I wonder why? This is a slightly different problem from the one I discussed in November which involves doing stuff at the...
LEGO Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak
It’s a real shame that this Podbrix set has sold out. I want one. I particularly like the LEGO Space Odyssey calendar and the LEGO Apple II. Perhaps I should go get some LEGO for my birthday; it’s been a while. (Hat tip: Mashable.) Related posts:Awesome LEGO battleship Why I capitalise LEGO My...
Quips and Tips for Successful Writers
Writing Quips and Tips From John Irving
What can writing advice can we absorb from American best-selling novelist John Irving? Here are several writing quips, from which I’ve teased tips about the definition of a “real” writer, the importance of action in writing, and how to be brave enough to live the life you love. First, a quip...
Signs It’s Time to Give Up on Your Dream of Being a Freelance Writer or Novelist
How do aspiring or successful writers know when it’s time to give up on their goal of writing the book, selling the article, getting published, or earning a living as a freelance writer? Sometimes giving up on your writing dreams is the smartest, healthiest thing to do…but the trick is...
6 Ways to Keep Your Blog High in Google’s Search Engine Results
If you’re a writer who wants to make money blogging, here are six tips for optimizing your blog posts to ensure they’re on Google’s first page of search engine results (or as close to the coveted number one position as possible!). Here’s a “starter tip” to get us warmed up: “Successfully merging...
How to Get Vacation Discounts for Bloggers – 10 Travel Writing Tips
I don’t often write or blog about traveling, but when I booked my third overseas vacation in a year, I decided to learn a few secrets of the travel writer trade! Here are ten ways to get vacation discounts for bloggers and writers (or what I learned as a travel...
Making Your Blog Posts Popular – 5 Web Writing Tips
These tips for marketing your blog posts are from experienced Suite 101 writer, Mark Solomon. He uses over 70 marketing techniques to make his blog posts more popular – and here he shares five big ones! Before the tips, a quip: “Next to doing the right thing, the most important thing is...
Work-in-Progress
Dear James Wood—Your book How Fiction Works is brilliant. You are brilliant, too. As with any excellent writing book, I want to go back and read this one all over again, only this time, I want to have at my side Flaubert, Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, and yes, even Henry...
Guest in Progress: Anne Levy-Lavigne on Discovering the Classics
I’m trying to psyche myself up for my summer foray into Moby-Dick this summer, and this piece by Anne Levy-Lavigne, a WNBA friend, is a wonderful reminder of why the classics are... well...classic!A Sure-Fire Guide to Enjoying Post-Surgery Convalescence: a Writer’s TipsBy Anne Levy-LavigneWhat's a poor writer to do, hamstrung...
My Reading and Albert Goldbarth's Reading (but not a joint reading)
I’ll be doing a public reading while I’m at VCCA. Please stop by if you’re in the area!Thursday, March 18, 20107:30 PMRiverviews Artspace901 Jefferson StreetLynchburg, VA 24504434.847.7277Or, if you’re in DC on that night, you should head here. I’ve seen Albert Goldbarth read twice, and he is FANTASTIC! Honestly, this...
Remember the junior high “unit” about the Industrial Revolution, and how it was such an unsettling time, causing sweet, innocent peasants to get all worked up and discombobulated as they witnessed sweeping change in everything they knew and loved about life? That’s me, that’s now.Shenandoah—one of my favorite literary...
The Washington Post alerted me to this wonderful-sounding D.C. Poetry Tour. Download the podcast and get moving; the 2-hour walking tour is narrated by Elizabeth Alexander and starts at the Library of Congress and ends at Dupont Circle: “you’ll find poems thematically related to the city and its...
High School and Undergrad Writing Contests
Everyone starts somewhere, and here are two good opportunities for young writers:For college undergraduates: From Jason Schwartzman, editor:Spires Intercollegiate Arts & Literary Magazine at Washington University in St. Louis is now accepting submissions of poetry, prose, and artwork for the Spring 2010 issue! On behalf of the Spires staff I...