Barbara Fradkin's Blog, page 13

Left Coast Crime 2025

by Catherine DiltsEven an introvert can have fun in a large group of people,if it’s the right crowd. I stepped out of turtle mode, poking myhead out of my shell to attend LeftCoast Crime in Denver. My experiences began early Thursday, March 13. Lee and Leslie Blatt hosted 40 authors at 20 tables for theAuthor Speed Dating event. I teamed up with JeffSchmoyer, author of the Snack Sized

On the Pulse of Things

 Like any serious writer, I read a lot. The latest from my TBR pile are mysteries by two of my favorite authors, The Big Empty by Robert Crais, and Tell Me What You Did by Carter Wilson. Both novels lean into themes resonating in pop culture: wildly successful young female social media influencers and serial killers. Another similarity between the books is the design aesthetic of the covers:

So Meta Stole Our Stories

On a typical tropical day in Guam beneath a shelterI woke up this morning and saw my Facebook feed full of outrage about how The Atlantic created a new searchable database that allows authors to see if their books were used by Meta to train their AI. Here's how it worked. Authors and publishers uploaded their e-books to places like Amazon. Piracy sites (sometimes called mirror sites)

Clues

I'm beginning to see a light a the end of the tunnel with my WIP. I've finally determined on a route to take to the end that pleases me, and I've come up with a couple of twists I like. Now all I have to do is persevere. It's grunt work, now. Sit and type it out, find the right word, the right sentence.One technical detail every mystery writer has to deal with is how to dole out the clues. You

National Craft Month

 by Sybil JohnsonMarch is National Craft Month. I don’t know who decides these things. Probably a committee somewhere. March is my birth month and I love crafts so I think I’ll just go with it. Over the years, I’ve tried my hand at a lot of crafts: embroidery, paint-by-number, macramé, scrapbooking, crocheting, knitting, tole/decorative painting... Many of these I still do. The one I’ve

Boggled Conference

 by Charlotte HingerThe recent Left Coast Crime Conference wasn't boggled. I messed up my planning.The conference was great. There were outstanding panels and I'm always surprised by the friendliness of the whole writer community. Here's where I went wrong: I dithered about attending in the first place. The conference was in Denver and I live in Fort Collins and it seemed silly to

How I do I sell this thing?

    Stephen King can spend a few days writing a short story and sell it for $10,000 as the lead-off story in an anthology. His name and reputation have serious curb appeal.    I can't. I am paid from the profits from the published anthology, split between 12 to 24 contributing authors. Quarterly. I'm lucky to make more than $50.     For all the famous writers on

Gearing Up for Left Coast Crime 2025

Catherine DiltsAt some point, even a determinedly introverted turtle has topoke her head out of her shell. This is the year for me. I’m attending Left Coast Crime in Denver. Irealized this morning with some alarm that the conference begins this Thursday!Yikes!(Photo of turtle with head retracted inside shell.)I’m even participating in events. Early Thursday morning, I’mattending Author

Emily's Book

  By Thomas KiesThis past Sunday, I was both proud and delighted to attend the book launch for Emily Dunlop Carter.  The book, entitled A Spork in the Road, is a collection of essays that are touching, humorous, and thought provoking. Emily has her own blog called www.achicksview.com.  She was also once a member of my creative writing class and continues to be a good friend.Another

Frame It Up: Experiments in Short Story Structure

 By Shelley BurbankCliff overhanging Gun Beach, Tumon Bay, GuamI drafted a short story last summer when I was in Maine. I wanted to write a short crime narrative about my female private investigator character, Olivia Lively. Because I was visiting at a home with no internet, I drafted the story by hand on yellow paper. The solstice inspired me to use June's full moon as part of the setting,