Terry Shames's Blog: 7 Criminal Minds, page 82

Feeling bookish

What are the best books you’ve read lately? What’s on the stack that you’re looking forward to?

by Dietrich

Nothing like pages of inspiration. Here’s the cream of what I’ve been reading lately.

I started digging into Craig Johnson’s Walt Longmire stories — top notch crime novels with a western feel on the fringes. Craig Johnson is a master of dialog, bringing characters and settings to life. I started with The Cold Dish, the first in the series, and I loved every page.

Down to the Dirt by Joel Thoma...

A Mixed Bag

 

Terry here. This week we are invited to talk about the best books we've read lately and books we're looking forward to reading.   
I’ve had an odd reading glitch lately. I usually read crime fiction. But in the last few weeks, I’ve shied away from reading it and caught up on some non-crime fiction and even some non-fiction. 
 My book club read Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson. I enjoyed it, although there were some problems with characters that didn’t quite come off well. Still, I would recommen...

My Summer Reading

What are the best books you’ve read lately? What’s on the stack that you’re looking forward to?

Brenda here.

Summer reading -- out on the deck deep into a good book, a cold drink at hand, flowers blooming and the sun beaming down -- is there anything finer in the whole wide world? I think not ...

I've been spending most of my time reading (and rereading) a most excellent books called When Last Seen by none other than ... me! It's the second in the Hunter and Tate Mysteries due out in spring 2023. I...

Con Survival Tips by Josh Stallings

 Q: With Covid restrictions starting to ease, many of us are thinking of conferences and festivals. What are you planning? Any fond memories of past events you’d like to share?

A: I went to Bouchercon XXXVI with a messy early draft of my first novel and a dream that I’d sit in the lobby and a publisher would discover me like Lana Turner in Schwab’s and sign me up. That isn’t how it happened for me or Ms. Turner. The problem with this kind of magical thinking is it gets in the way of seeing the re...

Call me Buttercup, while I suck it up, by Catriona

With Covid restrictions starting to ease, many of us are thinking of conferences and festivals. What are you planning? Any fond memories of past events you’d like to share?

I'm going to sprinkle this blog post with selected photos of earlier conventions and other gatherings in easier times. Starting with:

Women Kill at Mysteries, Bouchercon Long Beach

I write this in my parents' house in Scotland, where I've been since yesterday. Yayyyyy. I've been in *Scotland* for two weeks, mind you, with my hus...

Should I stay, or should I go... by Cathy Ace

With Covid restrictions starting to ease, many of us are thinking of conferences and festivals. What are you planning? Any fond memories of past events you’d like to share?

It’s been weird not seeing people in person. Yeah, yeah, I know it’s not just me, and I know it’s not just crime writing conferences and festivals…but that’s what the question’s about so, yes, I’m going there.

In pre-Covid times, I usually attended Left Coast Crime, then Malice Domestic…then I’d head off to Wales to see my fa...

Like Moths to Flame

 Q: With Covid restrictions starting to ease, many of us are thinking of conferences and festivals. What are you planning? Any fond memories of past events you’d like to share?

 

-from Susan

 

Thinking, yes. Going, no for the most part. I’m still skittish and heard about a lot of Covid from a recent convention. I did go to Left Coast Crime in Albuquerque in early April and most people had masks on most of the time when they weren’t eating or drinking. It was still early enough in the reanimated cycl...

To Mask, or Not to Mask. That is the question. - Stephen Mack Jones

With Covid restrictions starting to ease, many of us are thinking of conferences and festivals. What are you planning? Any fond memories of past events you’d like to share?
 

        At one point during the devastating COVID pandemic of 2020-2022 and the ensuing lockdown, fear and strictly limited human contact had gotten the best of me. More than usual I found myself slouching around the house muttering “Nature’s trying to kill us all,” or “This is our dystopian future,” or “We’re out of peanut b...

My Life is a Dumpster Fire

by Abir

If you could easily change one writing habit, what would it be? Starting earlier (or later) in the day? Become a plotter or pantser? Rush through a first draft or edit as you go?  

Once in a while, more often than I’d like, we get a question which makes me feel guilty. The guilt stems from my rather haphazard approach to writing and to life in general, and the feeling is always exacerbated when I read the responses from my fellow writers. It’s a bit like when you see everyone else’s perfec...

I’ve Grown Accustomed to My Pace from James W. Ziskin

 If you could easily change one writing habit, what would it be? Starting earlier (or later) in the day? Become a plotter or pantser? Rush through a first draft or edit as you go? 

I’m not sure I would want to change anything about my habits. But since the question has been posed, I’ll offer some thoughts on a couple of things. 

Speed of writing. It would be great to be more efficient. To write every day of the year. But in truth, I write when I’m ready to commit to the sprint. That intense period...