Kassandra Lamb's Blog, page 22
August 10, 2020
Handling Stress, Part II: Managing the Stressors in our Lives (encore)
by Kassandra Lamb
As the authors of misterio press deal with the “good” stressor of launching our new Readers’ Group, I’m re-running (and updating) my series of posts on stress management from a few years ago.
Last week, I talked about the three factors involved in how stressed we feel at any given time. These are (1) the stressors in our lives, (2) the body’s response to them, and (3) our cognitive/emotional interpretation of those stressors.
Last time, I drilled down some on the body...
August 3, 2020
Handling Stress, Part I: Stress Isn’t Always Bad (encore)
by Kassandra Lamb
Misterio press has started a new Readers’ Group and we’re finding it a bit time-consuming getting it off the ground (Check it and our August Beach Read Contest out HERE), so I figured this was a good time to re-run some posts on handling stress.
Here’s the first one, on why stress isn’t always a bad thing?
I was more than a little shocked, years ago, when my graduate school professor informed my class that stress is a good thing, up to a point. You might—as I did at th...
July 27, 2020
BIG ANNOUNCEMENT: A Facebook Readers’ Group and Contests!
Super exciting news!! We’re starting a Facebook Readers’ Group with monthly contests and other fun stuff. It’s called misterio‘s Magical Mystery Ride.
The group’s banner!Our misterio press authors will be hosting the group, one each week, and they will be posting about monthly contests and daily and weekly giveaways, as well as interesting background tidbits related to their stories. There will also be book reviews, reading challenges, guest author posts, fave recipes, and maybe a magic s...
July 20, 2020
The Mystery of Magic (Plus a New Release)
by Kirsten Weiss
photo by Maxim Lugina on Unsplash.com (cropped)Part of the fun of writing witch mystery novels is the research. And since my trio of witchy sisters in imaginary Doyle, CA are busy trying to get rid of a cursed spell book, it’s led me to thinking about the mystery of magic. What is it? How does it really work, if at all?
The infamous occultist Aleister Crowley defined magic as “the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will.” But what does that l...
July 13, 2020
An Off-Week Goodie: Are You an Intuitive Writer? (next week~Magic!!)
During this off week for our blog, we thought we’d share a recent article written by our own Gilian Baker on overcoming writer’s block if you are an intuitive writer.
From Fiction University a couple of weeks ago, The Best-Kept Secret “Real” Writers Use to Crush Writer’s Block…
If you’re having trouble following the rules like “you must have an outline” or “you should write every day,” you might be an Intuitive writer.
Using personality theory and brain science to explain how Intuit...
July 6, 2020
5 Tips to Help with Focus in These Stressful Times (Plus New Releases!)
by Kassandra Lamb
Celebrating Independence Day this year was bittersweet for me.
I’ve lived through the Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam War, multiple assassinations of leaders, the Gulf War, 9/11, the War Against Terror and never have I seen our society so disrupted for so long. And the end is not yet in sight.
I believe that good will ultimately come out of much of this upheaval, that our society will have a better appreciation of what is most important in life, and a better app...
June 29, 2020
Crime Writer’s Interview…A New Misterio Author, Sasscer Hill!
We are delighted to announce that we have a new misterio author, Sasscer Hill. Please help us welcome her to our happy band of mystery writers! (She was already scheduled for a crime writer’s interview when we invited her to join us.)
Sasscer Hill was involved in horse racing as an amateur jockey and racehorse breeder for most of her life. She sets many of her novels against a background of big money, gambling, and horse racing. Her mystery and suspense thrillers have won multiple awa...
June 28, 2020
Announcement: A Zoom Book Reading Event!!
Folks are doing all kinds of things via Zoom these days. Our own Vinnie Hansen is participating in an online book reading event via Zoom, next Friday, July 3rd.
She’ll be introducing the event and then later reading from a short story that came out last year in Fishy Business, a Sisters in Crime Guppies Anthology. See below for how to sign up.
Please join us for a reading featuring selected writers from the Santa Cruz Women of Mystery: Mary Feliz, Mary Flodin, Vinnie Hansen, Katherine ...
June 23, 2020
Where Our Research Takes Us: 1880s Newport
by K.B. Owen
…or, more specifically, sea-bathing in 1880s Newport, where my latest book, THE SECRET OF THE FORTY STEPS, is set, during the summer of 1887.
Forty Steps, along the Cliff Walk. Date of photo unknown, approx 1900-1910. Newport Discovery Guide (dot) com.
You may have heard of Newport, Rhode Island … the place with all the opulent summer mansions (whimsically termed “cottages”), where wealthy industrial tycoons such as Vanderbilt retreated from the work...
June 15, 2020
2 Off-Week Goodies: Comfort Words plus History and Fiction
Photo by Inside Weather on Unsplash.comYou’ve heard of comfort food, well this article talks about comfort words. What are the words that you use to help you cope, to get yourself through hard times?
It’s a great article (although you might want to skim the first part).
Check it out. Then come back and tell us…
What are your comfort words?
Also, Kathy Owen is guest posting this week on Elizabeth Spann Craig’s blog, talking about the challenges (and rewards) of using a real his...
