Pen, Spoon & Dagger

I consider myself a master procrastinator. If they gave out degrees, I'd have a PhD.  I rationalize (sounds so much better than "hide") the behaviour with the logic that I actually work better under pressure. That's a cop out but it's true.  Give me an impossible deadline and I come through a winner. In the meantime, I find hundred of ways to delay/avoid tasks ranging from taxes to grocery shopping. Are you sitting there shaking your head in agreement? Are you reading this instead of tackling your daily word quota? Whether you're avoiding the dreaded synopsis or (like me) yet another round of revisions, the Internet is the front runner in fun ways to procrastinate--far better than laundry or rearranging your underwear drawer. Aside from Facebook and other social media, the Internet offers quizzes to take ( Which Pixar Villain are You? or What American accent do you have? ), games to play ( Empty Room Escape or Mutilate a Doll ), and other ways to w

Last weekend was Sisters in Crime's  Murder by the Minute, an held annually by the New England chapter.  Each state picks either Saturday or Sunday and the local members get together to read from their work, published or unpublished. The Connecticut event was held at the Fairfield County Writers' Studio, where we were warmly welcomed by co-founder Carol Dannhauser.  I say warmly because a motorist took out the utility pole 10 minutes before the event and we had to use tea lights (borrowed from a restaurant across the street), flashlights, and camping lanterns in a room with no windows or A/C.  Mystery writers are hardy people, and everyone took the extra "atmosphere" in stride Our readings, each no longer than 5 minutes, ranged from YA to noir and from thriller to cozy -- in other words, the full mystery gamut.  We had nine readers in all and an enthusiastic audience of listeners.  Events such as these are important to writers because they force us to read

Nothing is more depressing than Mud Season. For anyone not from the NorthEast, mud season is that period in New England in late winter/early spring when dirt roads and hiking trails become muddy from melting snow and rain.  And for those lucky enough to live in less rural areas, it is also characterized by giant puddles on the side of paved roads, from large piles of snow melting, with no place to drain off to. Driving on these muddy, slippery ruts becomes an X-game event.  And for those who lose, it can mean a towing bill to get your car out of the ditch (I speak from experience!) The remedy to all this dreariness is something cheery, like Gingerbread Scones.  They smell yummy and taste even better, particularly topped with a little indulgent whipped cream. Gingerbread scones 2 cups all-purpose flour 3 Tbsp. brown sugar 2 tsp. baking powder 1 tsp. ground ginger ½  tsp. baking soda ½  tsp. salt ½  tsp. ground cinnamon ¼  cup butter 1 egg yolk, beaten 1/3 cup molasses ¼

Getting out of bed on a cold, rainy (or snowy) winter's day is never at the top of my wish list, but the zing of tart-sweet dried cranberries and the savory crunch of pecans -- classic New England combination-- make it tolerable.   2 cups    unbleached all-purpose flour   1/2 cup    sugar   1/2 tsp    salt   1 Tbs    baking powder   1 cup    dried cranberries   1/2 cup    chopped pecans (or walnuts)   1 cup    milk   1/4 cup    butter or margarine, melted   2    eggs      Preheat your oven to 500°F  Blend together the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, salt, baking powder) as long and as vigorously as you want. Continue until all dry ingredients are thoroughly mixed. Add the berries and nuts, and stir them until they are evenly coated with the dry ingredients.  In a separate bowl, beat the liquid ingredients together until they are light.  Pour the wet ingredients into the dry. With a fork or wire whisk blend for 20 seconds and no more.  It’s okay if you’ve left some lumps that lo

Plot: verb (gerund or present participle: plotting) 1. devise the sequence of events in (a play, novel, movie, or similar work).   2. secretly make plans to carry out (an illegal or harmful action). When you write mysteries, plotting probably involves both definitions, but last weekend I participated in a Power Plotting workshop given by Mary Buckham to hone my craft in the first one. I’d previously taken several of her on-line courses (Active Setting, Pacing, Body Language, First Five), but never a “live” workshop. I should have been forewarned. The class, which is based on the book she co-wrote with Dianna Love titled: Break Into Fiction, was intensive and exhausting, but so rewarding.  The book includes eleven plotting templates and we spent two-days working through them (we’d been assigned the first two as pre-workshop homework). For each template, the book gives examples from four movies: Pretty Woman (templates for both Vivian and Edward), Finding Nemo, Casablanca , and

I wasn’t sure whether to file this under Fiction Friday or Tasty Tuesday because it fits both. My local library recently launched a new book group dedicated to 'food literature!' This is, apparently, a hot topic, with discussion groups popping up in all the major cities.  Goodreads lists 217 entries on its “Popular Food Literature Books” list, ranging from Julia Child’s My Life in France to  Calvin Trillin’s The Tummy Trilogy. PBS has a series titled Food and Literature.     The first book selected for discussion was Blood, Bones & Butter , a memoir by Gabrielle Hamilton, who runs Prune restaurant on East 1st St. in New York. The library expected 4 to 5 participants; 25 showed up. As a food enthusiast and aspiring writer of food-centric mysteries, I wanted to love this book.  I didn’t. Disclaimer: this is my personal opinion, others in the group disagreed with me. Vehemently. Basically, we were all looking for something different from this book: foo