K.P. Gresham's Blog, page 11
July 25, 2022
Tipping the Research Iceberg in Austin, Texas
Tipping the Research Iceberg in Austin, Texas
By K.P. Gresham
In the process of writing the fifth novel in The Pastor Matt Hayden Mystery Series, I needed to find a venue for a fictional FFA Fundraising Gala at a revered, historical venue. My husband and I enjoyed going to such a place when we first moved to Austin, Texas, years ago.
Enter Green Pastures, a 6,000 square foot Victorian home built in 1895. The original structure was…
June 27, 2022
WHEN WORDS BALK–TAKE A WALK. SOLVITUR AMBULANDO!
WHEN WORDS BALK–TAKE A WALK. SOLVITUR AMBULANDO!
by Helen Currie Foster
This week I’ve been in the Land of Stuck. Walking in circles around the kitchen island struggling to come up with the missing scene. My next mystery’s nearly done, but… I’m stuck. Ever been there?
The poetry shelf offers a momentary escape. Billy Collins can always pull me into a poem. Often he’s going for a walk and I can’t help but feel invited. His “Aimless Love”…
June 20, 2022
Review: Nancy Peacock’s A Broom of One’s Own (A Public Service Repost)
Review: Nancy Peacock’s A Broom of One’s Own (A Public Service Repost)
by Kathy Waller
I wrote the following for my personal blog to answer a “challenge.” I intended to post it at the end of September 2009–yes, 2009. But I got all tangled up in words and couldn’t write a thing. Then I intended to post it at the end of October. I still couldn’t write it. I managed to write it after the October deadline.
In the middle of the “process,” I considered posting the…
June 13, 2022
The 2022 Writers’ Police Academy
The 2022 Writers’ Police Academy
by K.P. Gresham
I’ve just returned from the Writers’ Police Academy in Appleton, WI. The brainchild of retired cop, Lee Lofland, The Writers’ Police Academy (WPA) is a rare opportunity for writers to participate in the same hands-on training as the law enforcement officers, investigators, EMS, and firefighters. Attendees drive patrol cars on closed courses, conduct traffic stops, participate in…
May 30, 2022
Getting Texas Wrong in Fiction- Details Matter Y’all
New Blog Post from N.M. Cedeno on getting Texas right in stories.
Anyone who lives in Texas knows that Hollywood’s version of Texas and the actual Texas are very different places. Mostly, we Texans roll our eyes and dismiss the errors, but it’s difficult to ignore errors when they yank us out of whatever story we are trying to enjoy. Recently I watched a movie set in Texas and read several stories that were set in Texas or that featured Texan characters.…
May 23, 2022
Colleen McCullough and the Roman Empire
Colleen McCullough and the Roman Empire
by Renee Kimball
Reading is like swimming. Sometimes a novel is like a wading pool, low-level, light, humorous. Then there are others thattake you to the big pool but keep you in the shallow end–sitting on a cement step, water to your waist, but not really in the pool. However, when a story takes you to the deep end and the water covers your head, and you tread water because your toes cannot…
May 16, 2022
Layers and Layers
Hope to hear from readers!
by Helen Currie Foster – May 16, 2022
Cast your mind on the perfect croissant.
A perfect croissant may have hundreds of layers of dough + butter + dough + butter, made of a packet of dough enclosing a layer of butter, rolled out in a precise rectangle, folded, chilled, rolled, chilled (repeat until you have maybe 600 layers), rolled, then cut into squares which are rolled diagonally and baked…
April 26, 2022
DON’T WALK UNDER A LADDER – BAD LUCK!
DON’T WALK UNDER A LADDER – BAD LUCK!
BY
Francine Paino AKA F. Della Notte
Lucky Ladybug. Lucky penny. Lucky horseshoe. Friday the 13th. Knock on wood. Hundreds of superstitions and rituals flow through our lives, although we smile at the mention of such things, like throwing a pinch of spilled salt over the left shoulder. For an Italian, never put only two coffee beans in a snifter of Sambucca—bad luck.
Superstitions have been…
April 15, 2022
The Ardent Swarm by Yamen Manai
The Ardent Swarm by Yamen Manai
Translated by Laura Vergnand –A Book Review
by Renee Kimball
What started as a post about the use of “bees” as literary metaphor became something entirely different than I had first imagined. I searched for information, but kept coming back to The Ardent Swarm by Yamen Manai. More than metaphor, The Ardent Swarm stands as a statement about nature, life, human behavior and unwarranted…
April 4, 2022
Music to Our Ears!
The roles of music and memory in mystery
by Helen Currie Foster
On April 2 I drove with my writing compadre D.L.S. Evatt (aka Dixie) to Houston to sign books at Murder by the Book. That renowned bookstore has sold mysteries for 42 years. Huzzah!
We’d launched our books–my Ghost Daughter, Book 7 in the series, and her Bloodlines and Fencelines–at our Honky-Tonk Book Launch on December 5, 2021, at venerable Sam’s Town Point, a South…
