Barbara Fradkin's Blog, page 8

Happy Canada Day, summer's here!

 Happy Canada Day to my fellow Canucks! As Catherine noted yesterday (the actual Canada Day), summer has finally arrived. Up here in Canada, it has come with a vengeance. Wildfires, extraordinary heat waves, wild thunderstorms, and at least in my little corner of paradise in Ontario cottage country, an early and unprecedented invasion of bugs. The bane of cottage summer is not the blackly

Apology to Our Readers

 By Charlotte Hinger I owe followers of Type M an apology. I was jolted by a comment submitted by one of our most faithful readers. It was in response to Steve Pease's post, Is anyone reading this blog? This comment was from Anonymous: If you're talking about Type M for Murder, I definitely read it (and almost always enjoy it). Every day (or at least every day it appears)

New Directions

Catherine DiltsIt's finally feeling like summer. With the warmer weather, my attitude toward the writing and publishing life is warming up. I feel like I emerged from a cold, dry spell, although I have been writing constantly during this time.So many authors seem to be going through small press woes. The trials and tribulations of losing small presses are hitting hard. Agents and editors retire.

Never Hurt a Dog

 by Thomas KiesMy wife has one rule for when I write.  I can kill as many people as I want in any gruesome way my imagination can conjure up. “Yes,” she said, “but you can never, ever hurt a dog.”“But, sweetheart, it’s a wonderful way to show how despicable a villain can be.  Remember the first episode of House of Cards, when Kevin Spacey’s character, Frank Underwood, cradled

The Night I Cried Because The World Was Going To End

I was in elementary school during the height of the Cold War. My dad was in the Army Reserves and worked as a chemist at White Sands Missile Range. He'd bring home pamphlets about how to survive a nuclear attack and the aftermath of radioactive fallout. These pubs reinforced public service announcements I'd seen on TV where anonymous cartoon characters would seek shelter in the event of an "

Somewhere Between Love & Pain

A "Boonie" Rooster in Guam.Hello, Shelley here. As you Type M readers may know, I often complain about technology, social media, AI, and the interwebs in general. But the thing is, sometimes I LOVE Google. It’s not that I think all internet is bad. Because sometimes it’s awesome. Truly awesome. How the Internet is AwesomeFor instance, I’ve been on a tear lately finishing up my novella.

Books, Books and More Books!

 by Sybil JohnsonAs you might guess, I love books. Always have, always will. I remember looking at a picture book of The Three Little Pigs in kindergarten and wishing I knew what all those markings on the page meant. I knew they were words and letters, but I couldn’t read them. It was very frustrating! (When I went to kindergarten in the 1960s, children learned their letters in kindergarten

I anyone reading this blog?

    I have sponsored blogs on personal web sites. I've responded regularly to blogs like Quora. The web page stats usually said dozens of people were subscribed, but almost no one ever left a question or a comment.    This blog could be very useful to readers, fans and beginning writers. The bloggers here have wide experience, as writers, as readers themselves and as human

Parents

 Dad and Mom and MeDonis here. May and June always put me in mind of my parents, both of whom are gone now. Both Fathers' Day and Memorial Day bring my father to mind. He was 19 years old in 1942, a gung-ho small town boy from Boynton, Oklahoma, who enlisted as a Marine after Pearl Harbor. He was an anti-aircraft gunner, present at some of the more infamous battles of the Pacific – Saipan,

A Sure Cure for Burnout

by Catherine DiltsWhat do you do when you realizeyour creative energy is fizzling, not sizzling? Road Trip! (I had nice photos to go with this article, but could not get them to load.)My husband snagged tickets to theAntiques Roadshow. We watchthe show regularly. In true Roadshow style, the program is filmed in differentlocations each episode. We missed out on one closer to home.&