When I was in junior high school (the early ’80s), an English teacher handed out a page of funny writing rules. It didn’t attribute any authorship, so I always thought it was hers. I loved these guidelines so much that I kept them for many years until the paper became severely worn.
Read MoreI hate serial killers.
You might consider that a ludicrous statement as 99.9% of all people who’ve ever lived hate serial killers, too. The only ones who don’t hate serial killers are the killers themselves and their mothers.
Read MoreAs an author, the most frequent question I’m asked is, “How do you write so much?”
I consider that a huge compliment. It wasn’t that many years ago that I didn’t write at all. I had lost my confidence and looked for excuses not to put words onto paper.
Read MoreAny list that says it’s the best of anything is subjective.
I just checked a top 10 list of dogs that like to play, and the Vizsla isn’t listed there. Hello? Rose the Office Dog would argue that its author has lost her mind. Rose is a frisbee maniac. A ball hog. The girl won’t stop playing. Spend a day with her, and you’ll put Rose at the top of a dogs-that-like-to-play list.
Read MoreA reader (Bryan) asked a question concerning the Cozy Up series. He wondered if the “Little Sister” nickname that U.S. Marshal Gayle Goodspeed call’s Beau was somehow related to True Grit. The question surprised me, and I asked why he believed it to have originated from there.
Read MoreWhen was the last time you had a performance review?
I have had more than a few in my life. There was one that I’d like to forget, but the others have passed mainly by without a hitch. I believe that the goal is to acknowledge the things that have gone well and find an item or two that can be improved.
Read MoreA friend asked why I joined the Army when my dad was a Navy veteran. It’s sort of a funny in a shallow, teenage way. I joined the Army for two reasons.
Read MoreRecently, I was on the highway and spotted the little blips of paint separating the lanes.
Read MoreI recently bought a photo scanner to start the process of importing my old photos into the digital world. There are several reasons to do this, but none are interesting enough to share.
Read MoreOver the years, I’ve dabbled with writing poetry. In full disclosure, I don’t pretend to be a poet, and I’m not too fond of 99.9% of the poetry out there. While in college, the only poetry that ever “spoke” to me were some of the war poems written by soldiers.
Read MoreMy flagship series, the 509 Crime Stories, recently had its covers upgraded. For some, that was a change to the title font. For others, that was a complete redo.
Read MoreThe Public Safety Writers Association held its annual conference in Las Vegas this past weekend (July 14-17, 2022). According to the PSWA website, the association was formed in 1997 as the Police Writers Club and “exists to support people involved in writing about public safety.”
Read MoreThe call came about 6 A.M. on the morning of Friday, July 16th, 1999. It was from my boss, Rick.
“Have you seen the news?” he asked. “There’s a fire at the Fairmont. Get down here as soon as you can.”
Read MoreThere’s a saying that the days are long, but the years are short. Well, that means the months are pretty darn quick themselves. It’s amazing how fast three of them just went by. I feel that a couple of things cause this.
Read MoreIn August 2021, I released a double collection of short stories—Murder by Any Other Name and Black and Blue in the Lilac City. I dubbed both “509 Crime Short Stories” and created a series separate from the 509 Crime Stories.
Read MoreIn An Unfinished Story, I shared a letter from my dad written twenty years ago. He mentioned that it was “nice to see something without a lot of swear words and cussing.”
Read MoreIt’s been a minute (as the cool kids say) since I wrote The House of Dog, my recap of the first year with a vizsla. Since then, things have calmed down with Rose, but there are still plenty of stories to share.
Read MoreI’ve been wondering how you keep your series separate in your head. Do you find yourself writing and then saying, “Oops, wrong character/genre/storyline!” - Coleen
Thank you for the question, Coleen. It’s a great one!
Read MoreI read several personal finance and real estate blogs daily during this time. I also listened to podcasts related to those fields. The one thing that always left me feeling underwhelmed was that no one ever talked about how personal finance could link to commercial real estate (an area I worked in).
Read MoreI imagine most every city has an official nickname, and it’s something horribly drab that was likely coined by an equally drab civic group. Yet those cities also developed more organically cool nicknames, too. And those are the terms that the residents hold dearer to their hearts.
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