June Shaw's Blog, page 16

Christmas Around the World

by Jean Henry Mead

While researching Christmas customs around the world, I discovered that the first Christmas tree was decorated in 1510 in Germany and Livonia (now Estonia and Latvia). And in many countries Santa Claus is known as Father Christmas. In Latvia he places gifts under the tree and a special dinner is prepared of brown peas with bacon sauce, small pies, sausages and cabbage.

In Finland, where children believ...

Those bloody voices

This has nothing to do with Xmas or even writing, but blogs have quite a wide remit, so this one is a sort of holiday posting. I only want to make one point but how I do so will depend on what sort of things you like doing in your spare time. I hope at least one of these clicks with you.
Let’s start with La Scala. At last you’ve made it for the season opener, December 7th. That unseemly row between Carlo Fontana and Riccardo Muti is years in the past and tonight, it’s one of your favourites: Verdi, ...

My Pet Peeve in Grammar

by Jackie King
I’m not sure when writers started using double punctuation at the end of a sentence, but anytime I read this in any story, I want to throw that book across the room. This weird, double-punctuation always consists of a question mark plus an explanation point at the end of a sentence. For example:
“Does that man have a gun?!”
Rather than:
“Does that man have a gun?”
Let’s suppose the scene had already been set up with our protagonist observing a man dressed in camo. The guy is trying...

Traduttore, traditore

I wrote a blog a while back about the delight of receiving a copy of one of my books in a Korean translation. Then, this week, through the post came copies of the same book but this time in Spanish.
And it’s against that background that I want to set an email I received this morning. It was from a person who wrote a while back saying very complimentary things about my story Love Hurts and asked for permission to translate it into Persian. This is the same story that’s been optioned by a s...

Murder with Monsters

by Carola

My next Daisy Dalrymple mystery is going to start at the Crystal Palace.


This vast glass and iron building was first erected in Hyde Park in 1851, at the Great Exhibition. A couple of years later it was taken down piece by piece and rebuilt in Sydenham Park, south of the Thames, with two large wings added. It was in its way a precursor to Disneyland, but with an educational bent. As well as Roman chariot races (and racing automobiles in due time), it had displays of architecture from...

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

I’m Thankful for Everything (Except Earthquakes!)
by Jackie King
There are three things I do most every day: write, exercise and pray, which includes counting my blessings. One extra thing has recently added itself to this list: an afternoon rest/nap period. I don’t acknowledge this fourth thing, because I didn’t invite it to join my list. It sort of added itself. I’m an old gal and sometime after lunch my energy disappears. When this happens, I lie down and use the time to count my blessings.
A...

Be Lucky by Bill Kirton

Two recent experiences made me start thinking about the role of luck in our writing and publishing careers. First I received an email from an online writer friend whose books weren’t selling and who was beginning to doubt her writing abilities. I tried to reassure her with my answer that it’s something most writers feel some of the time.  Then came news of some other writers who’d decided to give up because they’d been targeted by trolls who’d written nasty reviews of their books, someti...

Moors, mystery, and murder

by Carola

Moorland has provided a setting for a great deal of fictional (and some real) mystery and mayhem, at least since Wuthering Heights and probably before. The example everyone knows is, of course, The Hound of the Baskervilles, which is set on Dartmoor.

Someone recently told me the stories she had read planted an image of moors in her mind that she found to be very inaccurate when she went to England and saw the Yorkshire Moors for herself. When I was in Cornwall last month, I hiked a co...

Featuring Guest Blogger Marilyn Meredith

My Writing Process
by Marilyn Meredith The author at a writer's conference
First I should say that I am not an outliner. However, that doesn't mean that I don't plan ahead.
Because I'm writing a series, I know my main characters. I begin by thinking what kind of crime Deputy Tempe Crabtree will have to solve--usually a murder. If a murder, who will be the victim, the motive, and who had a motive--usually more than one person.
At the same time, I want something to be happening in Tempe's private li...

Stick to your theme by Bill Kirton

Earlier this year, I wrote and recorded a new story for Richard Wood’s excellent Word Count Podcast. For those of you who haven’t yet come across it, you’ll be able to link to the relevant episode here.
It’s been running for a couple of years and I’ve written several stories for it. One of the things I like about it is that Richard sets a theme and, since I tend to be reactive in most things, I like the challenge of responding to something I might never have thought of. Anyone can send in a st...