Kathy McIntosh's Blog, page 5
August 6, 2019
Lessons from the PSWA Conference
I promised to post some fun and possibly worthwhile things I learned at the recent Public Safety Writers Association Conference, held each July in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Las Vegas isn’t all casinos, gambling, glitter and lost hopes. Here’s a photo of nearby Red Rock Canyon.
It was a terrific conference, not too large, not too small. I’d guess around 50-60 people. Thus not intimidating. Except, you might wonder, is it all a group of intimates who come back year after year? The kind who might st...
July 11, 2019
Always Learning
This is a photo I took of a mural in a small cafe in Costa Rica. It’s prettier than the one I took of a coffee plant. We visited a small cooperative coffee plantation where I learned that dark roast coffee has the least caffeine. Maybe I’d been told before, but most of our tour groupies seemed surprised, too. We also tasted a great coffee liqueur. So don’t say I’m not always learning and willing to share my lessons!
I’m headed off next week to Las Vegas (which will be hotter and dryer than...
February 17, 2019
Writers’ Conferences: What’s in Them for YOU?
I recently led a workshop for Arizona Mystery Writers about choosing a writers’ conference that meets your needs. What fun! Learned about other great conferences from my co-presenter, Kelli Peacock, and audience members. I’m a mystery writer, so my focus here is on mystery conferences.
As an introduction, let’s be certain of the distinction between the kinds of conferences that exist out there. Conventions are for fans. Examples of conventions are Bouchercon, World Mystery Convention; Left Co...
January 7, 2019
To Productivity and Joy
Happy 2019!
I hope it will be a good year for you and yours.
Last year ended with joy and this year began with a sneeze.
We enjoyed a joyous, feast-filled Christmas with our daughter and her husband in southern Oregon. We drove, so we could take our dog, Mattie, with us. She’s the first dog we’ve had that dislikes riding in a car.
Battle Scars But she loves being with her pack, so was pleased to go. Happier to stop each night and to arrive in Oregon and ecstatic to get home. That dog can danc...
October 30, 2018
Golden Donut Short Story Contest
I’m excited to share that my entry was one of ten runners-up for the Writers’ Police Academy Golden Donut Short Story Contest.
What’s a Golden Donut contest and who can enter?
The contest is open to everyone. A photograph is posted and you have to write about it in exactly 200 words, including the title. Exactly means just that. Contractions count as two words and acronyms count as all the words. It wasn’t easy to meet that part of the requirement. But the writing was fun. I’ll include mine a...
Writers’ Police Academy: WPA = WOW+
This past August, I spent four amazing days in Green Bay, Wisconsin. I attended my first Writers’ Police Academy.
The Writers’ Police Academy (WPA) was founded by Lee Lofland, a former police detective turned writer. Lee writes a terrific blog, The Graveyard Shift, which highlights mistakes writers make and is chock full of information about law enforcement.
Throughout those long and busy days, I was introduced to a fascinating array of topics we mystery writers love to learn about.
Highlight...
July 20, 2018
Seven Good Books I’m Reading Now or Recommend
If you read my newsletter (or see this page), you’ll know that I’m a poly-reader. I read several books at a time. Here are a few I’m working on right now.
Recommended
SELF-EDITING FOR FICTION WRITERS by Renni Browne and Dave King. This editing bible is always on my list. THE ART OF CHARACTER: CREATING MEMORABLE CHARACTER FOR FICTION, FILM AND TV by David Corbett. Thorough study of the most important elements of fiction. I’m working my way through it. It’s weighty and worthwhile. FINISH YOUR...April 23, 2018
My Love Affair with Words
Like people who love wine or beer, I’m in love with words. I like the feel of some words in my mouth, the sound of them in my ears, their look on a page, the wonderful pictures they can paint. I am pained when words are misused, but I don’t want to be a word snob. In fact recently I was embarrassed when I flinched at what I perceived as a mispronunciation of a word and the speaker noticed. Words can be weapons, but I choose— for the most part—not to use them that way.
My love of language prob...
April 14, 2018
Garden Variety Envy … Or Jealousy?
What’s not to admire? 
When I lived in Idaho, visits to the gardens of my friends in warmer climates used to arouse a familiar emotion in me: garden envy. Seeing the colorful bougainvillea, inhaling the delectable scent of roses already in bloom, hea
ring my friends speak of trips to the nursery for plants that could not grow in frosty Idaho, roused my envy. I reminded myself that in our climate zone, we greeted with fresh eyes the first flowers of spring: the snowdrops, crocuses (croci to so...
February 28, 2018
Get Your Words Right
Henry David Thoreau
I’m afraid some writers have twisted these great words into, “I cannot make my words better, so I strive to make them longer.” As George Orwell brilliantly put it: “the great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one’s real and one’s declared aims, one turns, as it were, instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish squirting out ink.”
In Doris Lessing’s novel...
