Pat Bertram's Blog, page 313

Prolific Blogger Times Three

The blogosphere has spoken. For two years I have kept up this blog to little acclaim, and now that I've taken a step back for a short while, barely blogging once a week, I have won not one, not two, but three prolific blogger awards! So now that the blogosphere has spoken, what is it saying, that I'm more interesting when I don't blog? That I should hurry back and refocus my energies on blogging again? I hope it's the second. Perhaps by the end of this month I will be able to return to a...

I Smell a Blog Coming . . .

My brother sent me the Google Maps image of my parents' house. There were several cars and a couple of people in the driveway of the house, and he was trying to figure out who the people were. I, of course, had no idea, but it turns out that one of the people was . . . me! I've made only a few trips to visit my parents in the past three years, and strange as it seems, during one of those trips Google photographed the house. Spooky as hell — no one on earth took that photo, yet there I am...

Making Time, Finding Time, Having the Time of Our Lives

Once upon time when I worked in retail, I noticed that whenever a day seemed to go slowly for those of us womanning the cash registers, customers would complain about how the day was dragging. Conversely, when the day seemed to fly by for us, customers would also comment on how fast the day was passing. I started taking an informal poll then, asking people if the day was moving fast or slow. With but a single exception, the days went either fast for everyone or slow for everyone, which made...

The Scent of Channel Number 5

Lately in online discussion groups I've been coming across the attitude that only the story counts, that a few errors more or less in a book make no difference. Perhaps. I've been told that there are three errors in Daughter Am I, three in More Deaths Than One, and one in A Spark of Heavenly Fire. Of those seven errors, two were the replacement of the letter el with the number one and one was the replacement of the number one with the letter el, so I don't really count those, though...

I Asked and You Answered. Thank you!

A couple of days ago I posted a plea for interview questions to submit for my Blog Radio interview on Thursday at 12:30 pm CT, and you generously came up with some wonderful suggestions. I don't know how closely the moderator, April Robins, will follow the list, but it should give us a great starting place. Thank you all very much!

Here are the questions I submitted:

You are the moderator or co-moderator of four successful Facebook groups. How did you get started, and how did you end up with...

Brag Time!

I know I said my time for self-promotion is past, but I didn't say I wouldn't brag, and wow, is this something to brag about! I just saw a review on Goodreads.com for More Deaths Than One, and either Mickey Hoffman's resolution for the New Year is to be kind to other authors, or she really liked the book. I'm going with the second option. Thank you, Mickey! I hope everyone reads the review. It's the sort of review we all dream about and seldom see.

"What are you waiting for? Read this book...

Interview Questions Wanted

I am going to be a guest on April Robins'  Blog Radio show Red River Writers Live — Savvy Designs on Thursday, January 7 at 12:30 pm CST, and I need to supply ten interview questions. A few of those questions have to relate to the facebook groups I moderate or co-moderate, and the rest are up to me. I like a freewheeling interview, where we just talk rather than do a Q&A, but I can see that some guidelines would help. I will talk about my Facebook groups and how I ended up as moderator for...

Whole Lot of Forgetting Going On

I find myself in a peculiar situation. For two and a half years, I lived for the Internet. First thing in the morning, I went online to see what was going on, checked again in the afternoon, and then spent all evening and late into the night in cyberspace. Most days I posted to my blog. That was always one of my favorite things — being able to say what I wish for everyone (or no one) to read. So it came as rather a shock when I checked my blog today and discovered my last post was ten days...

Wishing You a Boring, Perfect World

For some reason, the spammers have found my obscure Quantum (Uni)Verse blog where I post "frozen thoughts." (They're not really poetry, and they are not new writings. They are thoughts I once had that are now, well, frozen.) These spammers are clever — instead of the obvious gibberish that so many spammers use, these are quotes, some quite interesting, so I am leaving them on the blog. One that I received today said, "I guess we'd be living in a boring, perfect world if everybody...

Language of the Fan Decoded

Once upon a time, women (were they called women back then, or were they ladies?) carried fans, and they used the fans to communicate silently with their lovers. Of course, since everyone knew the language of the fan, the maessage wasn't exactly a secret. Still, the language has its uses, most particularly for writers of historical romance. So, for your edification, here it is:

With the handle to the lips:  Kiss me

Carrying in the right hand:  Desirous of making acquaintance

Carrying in the...