Terry Shames's Blog: 7 Criminal Minds, page 154

Such A Perfect Day - I'm glad I spent it with books

Since feeding animals in the zoo is the job of trained zookeepers these days, thankfully.

By Catriona

"Where do you normally read? In bed? A favorite chair? Listen to audio when commuting?"

My ideal reading day goes like this:

Wake up at six-ish. Get coffee (either by stretching out my hand to the thermos pot of coffee on my bedside table or by stumbling out of bed and staggering to the kitchen, like Dolly said, and making my own).

Read a novel in bed until seven. It's amazing how regularly this b...

Night, night. Sweet dreams. by Cathy Ace

Q: Where do you normally read? In bed? A favorite chair? Listen to audio when commuting?


It might be easier to tell you where I don’t read; not in bed, before sleeping. That’s about it, really. Anywhere and everywhere else is fair game. 
The view from the lower deck to the upper deckI like to sit outdoors whenever I can, so the upper and lower decks at the back of the house are favourite spots. The upstairs deck has an awning which means the ultimate indulgence of reading “under canvas in...

Reading is an Everywhere Sport

Where do you normally read? In bed? A favorite chair? Listen to audio when commuting? 

- From Frank


The short answer is - everywhere.

Like I'm sure many of you do, there's a stack on my nightstand, and a virtual stack on my Kindle app. I read a lot but I wish I had even more time to do so.

When I read at night, in bed, I've usually got one fiction and one non-fiction title going. That way, I can go with whatever I'm feeling like reading at the moment. The non-fiction is usually history, and...

A Book Junkie Reveals Her Habits

Q: Where do you normally read? In bed? A favorite chair? Listen to audio when commuting?
-from Susan
I have a shelf of books I am reading on the table next to my bed: one novel; a book about human evolution or geology, for example; a book of poetry; a copy of the Tao te Ching. The first changes rapidly, the poetry stays until I’ve read one poem per night, the Tao is there to pull me back from “monkey mind” when I need it.  Like many people though, by the time I get to bed I’m already...

You Know What I Did Last Summer

by Abir

This year, summer for me began on the 24thof May, when I handed in the final edits for the fourth book in the Wyndham and Banerjee series, DEATH IN THE EAST. Looking at my calendar, I can’t believe how much has happened in the intervening months.
Kiev - of course I tried the chicken
June was a month of book events, starting with the Arsenal Book Festival in Kiev, where the Ukrainian version of my novel A NECESSARY EVIL was being launched. 
Kiev was a revelation. The city and its peop...

Is It Safe?

Any humorous/interesting/exciting tales to share from your summer?

From Jim

It’s been a busy summer, quite different from recent years. Since 2014, I’ve had a book launch every May or June, except this year. My forthcoming Ellie Stone mystery, TURN TO STONE, was pushed from June 2019 to January 2020, meaning for the first time in five years I have no new book to promote. Instead, I had a book to edit. And revise. Over and over. Again and again. Which made for a summer more relaxing than usual,...

Dog days

The end of summer is fast approaching. Did you find a happy balance between writing and social/family time?Any humorous/interesting/exciting tales to share from your summer? What are your writing and publicity plans for the fall?
by Dietrich
It’s always about a happy balance. Naturally, I want to get outside in the nice weather as much as possible and work on my writer’s tan. So, I use the mornings to write and the afternoons to play outside. There’s nothing like going for a long walk along the...

Dreaming the Past

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Summer in the City

Question: The end of summer is fast approaching. Did you find a happy balance between writing and social/family time? Any humorous/interesting/exciting tales to share from your summer? What are your writing and publicity plans for the fall?

Brenda here.
When I was a kid, summer seemed to go on forever -- and now? Now it feels as if summer only gets nicely started when we're looking at back to school commercials.

This summer did not include any travel, which is unusual, but my husband is still wo...

It Was the Best of Lines, It Was the Worst of Lines

Readers often read the opening few lines or page to a book before deciding to buy. What makes an opening sentence stand out above the rest? Give examples of openings, including your own, that you believe work brilliantly. Any tips or lessons learned for new authors about what to avoid on that first page? 

by Paul D. Marks

“It was the best of times,
It was the worst of times.”

I don’t think you can beat Dickens and that opening line. And despite the title of this post, I’m not doing the worst...