Barbara Fradkin's Blog, page 35

Where is Cincinnatus?

Since I began writing for public consumption, I’ve been careful to keep my opinions on the state of the world to myself. I figure nobody cares (or should care), anyway. But the latest brouhaha over the disfunction in Congress has reminded me of an old saying: “Comes the hour, comes the man.”The saying keeps running through my head and makes me wonder – where’s the (wo)man who can turn this mess

Aflunters, Biblioklept and Wordify

 by Sybil JohnsonFrom the title, you can guess that I’ve spent a bit of time recently looking at books that list obsolete English words. In this case it was The Word Museum: The Most Remarkable Words Ever Forgotten by Jeffery Kacirk.  Yes this is what I do in my spare time!Here are some of my favorites that I found. I think we should bring some of these back.abracadabrant – marvelous or

Real LIfe and Fiction--The Climate Question

 By Thomas KiesA while back, I asked the question, will you include the pandemic in your writing?  I’m going to ask you another question, will you ever include climate change in your writing? I did that extensively in my fourth book Shadow Hill.  That was the one that was Edgar nominated by the Mystery Writers of America for the Sue Grafton Memorial Award.  Yes, I’m bragging just a little bit.But

Back on Track

Frankie here. I'm late today because I'm traveling with a couple of friends. We spent two days in Baltimore and saw the Orioles play. Now, we are in Delaware. I have to admit that was the first and only live baseball game I had ever seen. In fact, it was the only entire baseball game I have ever seen. But in my Lizzie Stuart series, Lizzie's partner John Quinn (a former military police officer

After THE END

In my last blog, I posted that my work in progress refused to end, rambling on way past the expected word count with endless complications to be solved. I had set an unofficial deadline back in the spring of September 15 to finished the first drat, but it was now looking dicey.Well, I did it! Sliding into the finish line at 9:05 p.m. on  September 15. It is a great feeling to reach the end of the

Unintended Consequences

 One of my favorites phenomenons in the universe is that of unintended consequences. We think we have every angle covered resulting from our plans, only when things unfold, at the very least exposing a new wrinkle, or in the worst case scenario, have the entire scheme blow up in our faces. If you're a writer, you learn to appreciate the value of unintended consequences. After all, the best

One Of Those Days

Donis here. I understand that Saturn squared off with the moon yesterday, which is supposed to mean that things annoy you and stuff goes wrong. That's as good a reason as any for why yesterday was like it was. I stayed up too late reading. Didn't get to sleep until nearly two, then I had anxious dreams and kept waking up off and on. Couldn't drag myself out of bed until 9:30. Then I got dressed

A Fun Tradition

 by Sybil Johnson Every time a book comes out in my Aurora Anderson mystery series, I take a copy to Disneyland and do a photo shoot. I started this with my second book, Paint the Town Dead. I circled back at one point and took my first book, Fatal Brushstroke, there as well. Though I don’t seem to be able to find those pictures.Not long after I got my print copy of my latest, Brush Up On Murder

Talk About Perseverance

 by Charlotte HingerLast Friday, Judith Briles interviewed mega-bestsellingColorado Authors’ Hall of Fame Inductee Kevin J. Anderson. In addition to being a famous science fiction writer, he stated that he had received 759 rejections. Amazing!I am in awe of Michael and Kathy Gear who lived in a cabin with no running water for four years while they learned to write fiction based on their careers

Telling Secrets

 By Thomas KiesI wouldn’t come back again to talk about Boucherconexcept I just paid off my credit card for the expenses I incurred while at theconference.  It was amazing how fastthings added up while I was in San Diego. Or how expensive things were.  $17for a glass of wine…yikes.But that’s not what this column is about.It’s about the subject matter discussed at a number ofpanels