Kassandra Lamb's Blog, page 46
March 10, 2015
Know No Evil, Write No Evil?
by Kassandra Lamb
Caesar! Beware the Ides of March! (photo by Mharrsch CC-BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons)
The Ides of March approaches and this seemed a good time to write this post. It’s been percolating for a while, ever since another misterio press author asked this question: Do we have to know evil personally in order to write about evil?
You see, we’re all very nice ladies here at mister- io. Many of us are mothers; I’m a grandmother. And yet we all write about some pretty nasty people–bullie...
March 2, 2015
5 Tips for Surviving this Looong Winter
by Kassandra Lamb
If you live in the continental U.S. you are probably as sick of winter as I am by now. As we count the days until spring, I thought I’d share some of my favorite ways to keep my body warm and my spirits high when it’s cold and dreary outside.
My alluring evening ensemble: black fleece sweat pants, silk long johns, hot pink fuzzy socks, LL Bean slippers.
Silk long underwear:
I love my silk long johns! They keep my legs toasty under slacks without being bulky. Really important if...
February 23, 2015
Forgiving My Body — #BOAW2015
by Kassandra Lamb
This post is part of The Beauty of a Woman Blog Fest, sponsored by the marvelous August McLaughlin. After you read this, hop on over to her site for some other great BOAW2015 posts–some that are funny, some that are serious, some that are some of both. And there are prizes! Woot!!
logo by Renée A. Schuls-Jacobson
Why is it that we so often fail to appreciate what we have until we lose it?
Unlike way too many women in our society, I have always had a fairly decent body image. I k...
February 16, 2015
Time for Chocolate!
by K.B. Owen
With the decadence of Mardi Gras upon us (and the sugar-coma of Valentine’s Day fresh in our minds), a post solely dedicated to chocolate seemed appropriate. Our fascination with this particular food item is older than you might think. Enjoy!
It’s hard to imagine a world without chocolate, isn’t it?But how and when did folks first discover it? Was it always the sweet dessert we know it to be?
Image by David Leggett, via wikimedia commons
The beginnings: Mesoamerica (early central Ame...
February 8, 2015
Why Is the Divorce Rate So Low? (encore)
by Kassandra Lamb
No, that is not a typo in the title. I am asking why the divorce rate is not higher. As I contemplate the approach of the 38th Valentine’s Day I will spend with my husband, I thought this was a fitting time to again offer up this post I wrote in 2012.
I am absolutely amazed that anybody makes it for 38 years, or longer even, without divorcing. Or committing homicide.
First let me disabuse you all of the common myth that the divorce rate is 50%. This is just plain not true, but...
February 3, 2015
The Danakil Depression
by Kirsten Weiss (with intro by Kass Lamb, who will also be replying to comments)
Kirsten, in her day job, sometimes ends up traveling to some pretty exotic places. When I put out a plea for some blog posts for February, this is what she sent in from Ethiopia (feels almost like she is our foreign correspondent 
)
Drop the words “Danakil Depression” at a cocktail party, and most people will think you’ve got an exotic mental ailment. But the Danakil isn’t a state of mind, it’s a place. One of the...
January 26, 2015
The Tipping Point and the Serenity Prayer
by Kassandra Lamb
This is the time of year when we set new goals, and/or recommit to old ones. Well-known blogger Jami Gold recently pointed out that some goals we have control over, and others we don’t. It’s important to realize the difference. Otherwise failing to achieve the we-can’t-control-this goals can be very discouraging.
This post is aimed mainly at my fellow authors, but I think it has relevance for everyone. For each of us in our work life, there are goals we can achieve via our har...
January 19, 2015
Brownie Points and Brass Monkeys: 8 Sayings that may be Naughty or Nice
by Kassandra Lamb
The other day, I was on the phone with a friend. “That’ll get you some brownie points with your boss,” I said, in response to the story she’d just told me. After we said our goodbyes, I got to thinking about that phrase and where it came from.
Being a writer, I am fascinated by language. So my thoughts wandered on to other phrases that seem fairly innocent, but may have less than innocent origins. Curiosity took over and I did some research.
Here are four sayings that sound inn...
January 13, 2015
Are Psychopaths Born or Made?
by Kassandra Lamb
We’re getting 2015 off to a great start with a joyful post on… psychopaths! Hey, we’re mystery writers; what can we say?
This is the final installment in a three-part series on Psychopaths and Serial Killers that I began back in November. We’ve got psychopaths on the brain right now because I recently released a thriller with a serial killer antagonist. And another of our authors, Vinnie Hansen, also has a psychopath in her new release, Black Beans and Venom (see her book belo...
January 6, 2015
Word!!
by Kassandra Lamb on behalf of the whole gang!
(image by Nevit Dilmen, CC-BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons)
When my son was in his early teens (circa 1993), he and his friends would greet each other with this 4-letter utterance: “Word!” It stood for “What’s the word?” or What’s happening?”
There seems to be a growing trend this year to substitute a single word for New Year’s resolutions. This struck our fancy here at misterio press. So here are our Words (sometimes we’ve cheated a tiny bit with two...
