If you’re thinking of getting any of my books for the holidays, it couldn’t be easier. I’ve got you covered, even for autographed books!
I’ve been recommending this essay for years to every writer I know. And it’s free to read online…
I compiled a list of fun facts about this brilliant mathematician after reading two biographies. The oddest little things stayed with me, and here they are…
I have a short story in a new anthology that is published today! I’m excited to tell you about it because, believe it or not, it’s my first appearance in a fiction anthology. The book is a collection of 24 short stories by 24 different writers who contribute to the SleuthSayers mystery blog that I am always crowing about here…
I spent a stupid amount of time over the holidays consuming advice for authors in the form of articles, podcasts, and videos. Some of it was actually helpful. A lot of it was just nonsense designed to a) make you insecure, and b) spend money on whatever service the person doing the spouting was selling. Since the rise of self-publishing, a LOT of people are marketing courses and software for writers. I jumped for a lot of those things at the beginning, thinking it would give me the edge. But I’ve soured on most of it.
My latest post for SleuthSayers, the mystery writers blog, shows what happens when stuff annoys me…
I’ve slowly been sharing all the old posts I’ve written over at SleuthSayers during the time I fell off the edge of the world and disappeared. With today’s post, I’ll be finally caught up. In a sense, I’ve saved the best for last. Back in fall, I wrote about one of my favorite childhood books, and how I finally figured out why it moved me as much as it did way back when.
The book I’m talking about is called From the Mix-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, by E.L. Konigsburg. And if you haven’t read it, how can you call yourself a grown-up child?
January is revered by Sherlock Holmes geeks each year because the biggest Sherlock Holmes geek ever—the late William S. Baring-Gould—decreed that Sherlock’s presumed birthday is January 6th. The best-known mystery magazine, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, actually pubs a Sherlock Holmes issue each year at this time. And at the top of the year, I too try to do some sort of Sherlockian post at SleuthSayers, the mystery writers blog that I write for…
I have a post up on SleuthSayers, the mystery writers blog, today talking about a tiny-yet-important piece of advice on how writers can sell more books over the holidays. It’s a post entitled:
If you’re curious, I hope…
I have a post up on SleuthSayers today, which is the day after Thanksgiving here in the United States. Since it’s been a busy week, I’m repurposing a post I wrote back in 2010 for another site. I’ve always liked this article, and I’m glad to have reclaimed it and updated it slightly for a new audience. Here’s how it opens:
Yesterday was Thanksgiving in the United States. But if you happen to be an American mathematician, yesterday was more than just turkey and families. It was Fibonacci Day, so named because the month and date—in American notation, anyway—expressed the first four digits in the famous number sequence: 1, 1, 2, 3. (Oh, to have been alive on 11/23/58!) To talk about that, I’m repurposing an article I wrote years ago for a website that has since gone dark.
I’ve got a post running today over at SleuthSayers on the topic of indigenous mysteries for kids. November is the start of Native American Heritage Month in the United States, and I’ve wanted to talk about some of the books I picked up when we visited Cherokee, North Carolina, back in summer. The three I’m recommending today…
Back in 2015, I attended the Bouchercon mystery conference in Raleigh, and sat listening to a panel discussion in which a bunch of mystery writers recommended some of their favorite books. When her turn came, the New York Times Bestselling author Laura Lippman mentioned a children’s book entitled The Egypt Game, by Zilpha Keatley Snyder. I remember her saying it was an unusual book for kids, because its key subplot deals with the murder of a child.
Published in 1967, the title was named a Newbery Honor book. That’s one of the top two awards a children’s book can receive. Clearly, it was highly regarded by many in its heyday, though I had never heard of it…
These days when I need a recipe in a hurry, I turn to the web. But if I have time, I turn to the legion of cookbooks that we have collected over the years. Besides the cookbooks we each brought to our marriage, we have a number of books rescued from the estates of loved ones who are no longer with us.
I recently wrote about two books of mine that I have long treasured. They are books on French cooking by an interesting author named Edouard de Pomiane (1875-1964), a medical doctor and food scientist who also presided over a popular radio show in France during the 1930s. He espoused a philosophy of simple cooking, which is unusual when you consider the complexity of most French cooking techniques.
Pomiane wrote a lot of books, but these two are the ones most easily found translated into English…
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