Surviving the Layers of a Mystery Until the Puzzle Disappears

The Prairie Grass Murders by Patricia Stoltey starts as a straight forward mystery, simplistic even. Nam vet discovers corpse at his family's old farm while on vacation. When he runs afoul a corrupt cop, his little sister, who happens to be a judge in another jurisdiction, comes to the rescue. Stoltey piles the clues as the perps do their best to silence the sister/brother sleuths. But as in the best mysteries, nothing is as it first seems. There're plenty of red herrings to chase, but the best parts come after the reader learns who-done-it.

What makes this book so engrossing is the well-rounded characters. Sure some of the bad guys are telegraphed from the git-go, but Stolety is deft at adding motivational twists to the action that keep the reader guessing. When you think the story line has settled onto a well-trod path, Stoltey lurches off in another direction that adds a new interpretation of the facts.

The above isn't a criticism. Most mysteries are linear: A influences B, B influences C, etc. The Prairie Grass Murders' storyline twists and turns like any good mystery, but Stoltey takes it one step further. Reading her plotline is more like peeling an onion or opening a set of nesting dolls. You never quite know what you're going to find even though you have a fair idea about where the story is going.

Read sample and other reviews at

Amazon       Barnes & Noble 

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More Interesting Reading

Against some writing advice, I always have a thesarus behind the manuscript as I write/revise. There always seems to be a page link to the origins of "bad words". When I finally looked at the page, I was amazed at the staying power of curse words. You might be too. 

Were you as amused as I was when I saw most were related to bodily functions rather than actual curses?

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Life is another subject that present layers and layers of experience. Author Kristine Kathryn Rusch wrote a blog about the important writing influences in her life, including Ursula K. LeGuin--Business Musings. It's a long blog, but thought-provoking. Think everyone has similar experiences between mentors and hinderers.

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My Writing Rut

Am feeling old. Have been trying to write new stuff for a third book in my trilogy while editing/revising On the Run, the second book. It was supposedly ready to copy edit, but I sent it back to the content editor. Result? More suggested changes. Worse, she said my chapter hooks were too weak.

Here's a look at a revision:

The PA system belched news of another arriving bus, adding to the racket bouncing off the station walls. The garbled words made no sense. Pillar ignored the announcement as she licked her fingers clean. The tenor of the air shifted. The hair on her nape rose. Pillar glanced back towards the benches in the lobby.

Taking another bite of her gooey sandwich, Pillar licked her lips as she searched for the disturbance in the station’s energy. The power became so intense even Pillar’s weak talent felt the rising pulse. A chill crawled across her shoulders and down her back. Pillar turned around. Her eyes locked on a tangled-haired girl, clutching a backpack in her hands and using the wall by the platform doors to protect her back. The girl's eyes grew wider as she scanned the station.

Pillar's frizzy hair stood at attention. A strange odor, the like of which she'd never smelled in Osseran, wafted from the outside doors. Her stomach churned, and Pillar dropped her no longer appetizing sandwich. 

Marketing is still my biggest pain in the behind. Below is one of my more recent tweets. I keep trying to come up with something that'd encourage people to sample my short stories, novellas, and book. So far, I'm falling on my face.

A land

Where mages rule in the name of a king 

Where people without magic are scum

Where demons prowl

Visit Andor where There Be Demons

#kindle  myBook.to/ThereBeDemons

#kobo  http://ow.ly/79nz30fmm9e   

#iTunes  http://ow.ly/KeZk30glC3x

Who Knows What Secrets Lurk in the Heart of Sangamon?

Pat Stoltey knows, and she reveals them in the historical thriller, Wishing Caswell Dead.

It's easy to forget that the US Midwest was once the great western frontier where fierce Indian Wars were waged. Stoltey sets her tale in the 1830s when that frontier was only partly tamed.

In those days before the Civil War, Philadelphia debutante Mary Proud goes west with her soldier husband, but she is left destitute after his death. She leads a poverty-stricken life, with her two children, sadistic Caswell and victim Jo Mae. Caswell is found dead in the opening chapter, and the reader gets to amble through the minds of various Sangamon inhabitants, learning all the reasons why people in the small hamlet wished Caswell dead.

Jo Mae's attempts to gain control of her life after years of abuse is the thread that stiches the tale together. Sounds dreary, but the fate of Jo Mae provides a hook to pull the reader through the narrative. I found her the most powerful of the several raconteurs in the story. The others characters are well-drawn, with quirks, faults, and strengths, but it is Jo Mae that shines.

Stoltey weaves a tightly contstructed narrative which keeps the reader engaged even though the book is more about revealing its characters' inner lives than creating surprising plot twists. She also captures the period and speech patterns well. An enjoyable and intriguing read with a wonderful depiction of a historical time which isn't often seen.

Sample a few chapters and see the other reviews of this newly published book on

Amazon          Nook

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Other Interesting Reading

Was recently asked to do a guest blog on someone else's blog, like write a short essay or op-ed piece. "About what?" I asked. While I got very little direction, I did manage to bumble through. Margaret McGaffey Fisk has some great ideas about writing blogs. A lot pertains to writers, but it applies to many different endeavers. Take a look.

Do you like reading blogs about of books? Found a link to the 100 most influential, often read book blogs. Probably something for everyone in this list, so says the pipsqueak.

Perhaps the most interesting blog I read came via the Books Go Social author support group. Jonathn Vars, a Christian fiction writer, did a guest blog on plots, specifically HOW TO CREATE A PLOT FROM NOTHING IN 5 STEPS. Many writers might think the steps simplistic. I think their very simplicity makes them easier to understand and implement.

~~~~~~~~~~

My Writing Rut

Still working on On the Run. My editor has told me she's available earlier than she first thought. Not like getting your tail feathers lit to get you moving. Fortunately, I was more than half-way done when she told me. Below is an excerpt from the opening scene set in a bus station:

As she took another bite of her gooey sandwich, the station’s energy shifted gears, became so intense even Pillar’s weak talent felt the rising pulse. A chill crawled over Pillar’s shoulders and down her back. She dropped her sandwich to turn around again.

 “Look at all the people coming through the platform doors,” said Mari. Her eyes gleamed.

Pillar groused to herself. Nothing like being addicted to danger. She enjoyed adventures, too, but didn’t care to play with fire. Some amusements aren’t worth the heat.

Mari’s voice squeaked with excitement. “Hey, Tally, a girl just came in. She looks like she’s been traveling a reeeaaaally long time, just like a roamer. Do you think her family tossed her out?”

Must apologize. Had this written by Sunday. Yesterday, I waltzed around with my daily stuff, including getting a temporary bridge put in my mouth... Didn't get this published, but here it is today.

Piling Books Into Your Series - How Authors Keep Their Readers Coming

   My recent book store adventures continue. Found so many new books last time that a customer thought I was an employee as I walked to the coffee shop. She looked at the pile of books in my hands in disbelief when I told her the books were the ones I was buying. Yeah, I found several books by favorite authors with long series plus a couple new mysteries, including a writer I hadn't read before.

   Normally, I don't talk much about the authors I read automatically. But I've been thinking lately about characters and series and why/how they keep their wheels spinning along, a lot recently because my own reviewers keep insisting I write more about my different characters.

   The puzzle loomed higher while I was glancing through those favorite authors, trying to decide which book I'd read first. Ended up reading Christine Feehan's Viper Game even before Patricia Brigg's new Mercy Thompson. That surprised me, but then, Feehan featured Wyatt & Gator Fontenot's grandmother as a secondary character.

[Yeah, I'm into old ladies. ... Nothing prejudiced about me.]

   Romance writers have it the easiest when it comes to keeping their worlds alive, I think. They can give all those relatives, friends, and acquaintances a chance at finding their own "one true love". Mary Balogh and Stephanie Laurens do this  well. The children of Lauren's first batch of Cynsters are now in the process of finding love. Balogh is still mining the social network of the Bedwyns. Both of these are writers of Regencies, and thanks to Georgette Heyer and Nora Lofts, I remain addicted to a good Recency, though the number of fictional earls and dukes have long outnumbered the quantity of real ones in British society.

   Since when did reality have anything to do with romances, anyway? Still, I don't tolerate writers who don't/can't give a feel for the mental mind set of the Enlightenment lurking in the shadows of privilege.

   Back to Feehan. She keeps two paranormal series going--that of her enhanced military operatives and their female counter parts and her benign vampire series, the various Carpathians ruled by Prince Mikhail Dubrinsky. Viper Game belongs to the former series, this time featuring the brother of a former "book star". I like how Feehan has toned down the testosterone of her male protagonists; they were getting just plain annoying, even though she writes a good sex scene, around the middle of the series. Feehan's super villain is still lurking in the shadows, but the series may set up a new compound [aka fortress] of enhanced warriors and their mates. She left hints that another of her misfits might find true love--after some exciting adventures, of course.

    Patricia Briggs keeps her series going by emphasizing one main character, Mercy Thompson, a coyote walker in a world of werewolves. The latest novel, Night Broken, features the manipulative former wife of Mercy's werewolf husband coming to live in her house because she's stalked by a volcano demon/god. Added complications come from a fae walking stick which refuses to abandon Mercy and the need to conceal the powers of a half-fae friend. Yeah, Briggs piles a lot of supernatural into the northwest corner of Oregon, and her fans keep coming back for more.

    I sometimes think that Yasamine Galenorn's Otherworld series has become too complicated. Still, I keep coming back for more, including Panther Prowling, told from the point of view of Delilah D'Artigo, my least favorite of the three sisters featured in the series, though Galenorn has grown the character over the course of the series. Heaps of supernaturals are piled upon the reader in this series with the sisters bouncing around like ping pong balls trying to save Seattle and the human-based earth. Panther Prowling takes a breather from their arch-villain and concentrates on a possessed sword rather than a demon lord trying to conquer the mundane, fae, and demon worlds.

   One note on Galenorn's books. Her publisher, Berkeley, has decided to stop publishing her Otherworld series after ten years and 18 books, citing decreasing sales [if I remember right]. They want her to concentrate on her two new series. Sounds like she's going to. But...Galenorn has the ending of the Otherworld series in sight and is thinking about becoming a hybrid author.

   Interesting. The current publishing paradigm is provided opportunity for established authors as well as pip squeak writers like me to be independent.

All these books are written by master craftsmen. You are going to find tight, complicated plots and three dimensional characters, even among the secondary ones. I recommend the books as do thousands of other fans. Of course, I love Briggs depiction of the Tri-Cities area along the Columbia River.

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Interesting & Useful Links:

   What can be more useful than a laugh? Chuckles are nice, but readers of L. D. Masterson's blog often get a belly-laugh or two. I usually read her Hump Day Mish Mash Funnies on the week-end and don't comment as much as I ought. Maybe a link will make up for my lateness.

   Other stuff that pulls me out of my working schedule: The Passive Guy posted some videos on What the English of Shakespeare, Beowolf, and King Arthur actually sounded like. Take a click and see how much you understand. [I was thankful for the subtitles.]

   Then, I recently had a couple guest posts and interviews posted on various sites. You can take a peek at Pat Stoltey, The Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers, Zoe Ambler, and  Savvy Book  Writers.

~~#~~

  I've been whining -- mostly to myself -- since last week. My critique group told me the back story [relating back to my short story, Noticing Jamilla] wasn't working in either of my two attempts to add to Cassy Mae's adventures. It just confused them. Suggestion was to rewrite the whole thing from beginning to the escape and go on to her escape from the Markham's wrath. 

   And, here I wanted to get a simple short story up so I could collect my Andor stories into a print volume. Oh, well.

But the Triumph!!!!! 

   After working on the revision of my author website since December, I published it last night...when I should have been writing this blog. Oh, I still have to do a lot of checking and optimization. But it's up! Finally!  You can see it here, says M. K. Theodoratus, Fantasy Writer.

Sorry to be late in posting the blog this week.

Writing and Social Networking

Do you wonder why you continue writing or social networking in spite of all the frustration and rejection? Is you answer among Pat Stoltey's reasons? Over at the Chiseled Rock, she listed Ten Things About Writing Most Writers Don't Love all of which is true. On the other hand, I'm feeling positive. All the projects I'm working on progress. Why do you persist in writing when so much can go haywire?

Why do I write?

My brain itches when I don't.

While you're thinking about why you're writing, a better question might be: Why are you blogging ... or fiddling with all the other forms of social networking. L. M. Preston did a blog on the benefits she finds in blogging. Can you say the same ... or is it a waste of time?  For a wider picture of how social networking scene can help a writer, check out Allison Pang's blog on the Buzzing of Bees.

Social networking and reading other writers' blogs can yield an unexpected chortle. Background, I've submitted my There Be Demons manuscript to a publisher, within which there is much swearing, mostly in Spanish. [Yeah, I swear as much in Spanish as I do in English, only I don't remember much Spanish, normally.]

Anyhow, while scanning through the opening hooks of my blog list, I discovered Amanda Bonilla's blog at Magic & Mayhem: The Nuances of Swearing. Seems to me that how a character swears would be a great way to delineate them from others in the story. Think what kind of girl would throw f-bombs right and left.

[My favorite expletive is sh*t, and has been since I changed my first child's first diaper at home.

Yeah, motherhood converted from the f-bomb.]

I wrote the above before I ended up in the hospital for 
exploratory surgery on a bleeding kidney.

End result. Best possible result from the kidney [no cancer cells found in biopsy], but I'm on a year watch to see if everything stays find. As usual, the hospital stay was worse than the surgery. Slowly, getting back to speed. Did get edits back to the publisher for Pat, the Pet -- a color-a-comic pre-primer.

What Do Writers and Agents Have in Common?

Writers and agents both have to be good salespeople to make money.  

Joanne Tomarkos blogged about What Good Salespeople Know That Writers Should, a guest blog at Jane Friedman's blog, Being Human at Electric Speed. #1? Believe in your product. That means you as a writer.

Want to set up something you can sell? The Passive Guy reposted a blog Dean Wesley Smith wrote about getting insulted by an editor. Smith gives some interesting insights on marketing and maybe a marketing plan if someone writes fast enough. [Not me.] The comment that snagged my interest? Two years is an "age ago" in publishing.

Of course, if all that marketing [aka selling] is stressing you out, Pat Stoltey at the Chiseled Rock blog has a list of de-stressers. They even don't cost an arm and a leg. Just get them moving.

Then:

What websites help you the most with your writing?

Angela Ackerman at The Bookshelf Muse gives you the link to nominate sites for the Writer's Digest best website listings.

Character Being Stupid

Fiction Lessons:

Review Question:  What do you do when a character acts stupidly?  

Sandra Dallas is one of my favorite authors in spite of her telling her stories instead of showing the action.  This makes a lot of sense for Dallas since she concentrates on the internal life of her characters. In her latest book The Brides House, she sets one of her characters exactly the time milieu I grew up in.  The read wasn't a happy experience.  Why?  The character kept grating on my teeth.  Why?  I had trouble accepting a smart person being so stupid.

As for Dallas' storyline as a whole, I'm wondering if it was a commentary on preordained destiny.  This is where she doesn't hit you over the head with telling you what you should think/feel ... and an avalanche of backstory ... and general internal mental constipation.  What I like best is the finesse she uses in drawing her characters.  You feel like you wished you lived near enough so you could share a cup of coffee ... or tea.

Each of the three women who live in the bride's house face the same general problem. The third story just didn't work for me.  Granted the kid was bullied.  But, for gads sake, the character grew in Chicago for most of the year.  While I'm an easy read, I just couldn't suspend belief to accept a character who could be so naive about men, even as a freshman in college.  The character wasn't dense.

Web Stuff:

Now that I've got "There Be Demons" edited, I'm looking over my idea files to see what grabs my interests.  A curious practice writers do when starting a new project -- unless they have a character chewing on their ear.  Was rather please to see Stacey O'Neal of YA Fantasy Guide writing a blog on "How Do I begin My Novel".  I've used all the techniques in various drafts I have in my files.  It'll be interesting to see what I do next -- besides revising/editing.

I'm wondering.  Anyone care to share how they decide on their writing projects?

Important to progress on your WIP is setting realistic goals -- a great discussion about which you can find from Janet Reid, Literary Agent.  How to set them and follow through, even when at first you don't succeed.  --  I totally related to this post.

How about another check list on promoting your blog?  This one by by Mavis Nong gives info about increasing traffic to your blog that I've never seen before.  I'm going to go back and study it more to see if I can get it to apply to books too.

Of course, if you don't get someone to read your story -- agent, editor, or reader -- you won't make any money.  Rhonda Stapleton, a YA writer and editor for Carina Press, blogs about how to wow and editor,  like how not to turn them off with the first few pages.   If you're revising/editing, she offer some good check points.  --  But, I'm not going back and revising Demons.  She gets to reject it in the form it's sitting in. [Guess where I'm sending it when I get untangled from from the first four things on the to-do list.]

Last but not least, I found some comments by Sebastien on creating a presentable presence on Twitter.  It's basically tips on keeping a professional image.

Thought that was the last comment, but then I read Pat Stoltey's blog on how she revises.  It's close to what I do ... though I don't read out loud as much as she does.  I linked to her personal blog rather than Chiseled Rock so you could click to the correct entry.

There.  I think I've almost got a total revision plan up there in those blogs as well as some ideas on how to squeeze the most out of your networking time.  Hope you find them useful.  [Enough of this blog.  I've got to go on to my next project.] Care to reveal any secrets to your success?

Progress:

Things are in transition around here.  My to-do list keeps growing:  get blog up, get trailer data to producer, get author's accounts set up, get free story posted [Cavern Between Worlds], get vocabulary sheets for the new project that just appeared set up, combine chapters of There Be Demons so I can submit it, finish the next chapter of Quest [Bad Haiku]  ... etc.

New project?  I'm drafting new pre-primer stories to see if I can still write them ... while the artist explores whether she can still draw them.  Why?  A publisher has indicated an interest in doing several books.  Not enough details available to say much.  Just complain about the extra work.  {Still, project gives a warm, fuzzy feeling.} 

Do you ever feel your to-do list keeps growing without any tasks getting crossed off? 

Trivia:

Miller time has arrived.  Not the beer, but the moths.  So far, we haven't had many.  Just enough to keep Wiggles hunting.  Nothing like having a 16 pound cat jump on your head so he can jump on at a moth.  I think I even have a bad haiku drafted about it.  [Those who follow me on Facebook and Twitter ... grit your teeth.  You have been warned.]  

Fiction Formulas

The Read ...

Follow all the rules and formulas, and you increase your chances of being bought and read.  Again, I have two books to comment on since their covers were turned out on the bookshelves, and I liked them enough to buy them after reading the cover copy.  Two cozy mysteries by the "National Bestselling Author" Cleo Coyle: On What Grounds and Through the Grinder.

I'm still puzzled at the number of serial killers that turn up in "cozies", and the MC always seeming to slip through the killer's fingers with ease.  [Maybe that's their purpose.]  But both books made adequate who-done-its with enough twists and suspects to make the reader work to solve the mystery before the end.  There's at least one more in the series, but I'm not going to go searching for it.  I'm reading the Hunger Games.

As usual with cozies, the lives of the characters are important as well as the backgrounds.  In this case, you may learn a lot more about coffee than you ever wanted to know.   The "formula" here:  A little prologue that let's you see into the killer's mind (a bit).  First chapter opens with the main character.  After that, they follow the general formula for writing a mystery which the major complications appearing in about the "right" portions of the book -- with nicely drawn characters -- without making me pause to appreciate the author's skill or get out my mental red pencil. 

Web Stuff ...

Is the effort worth it?

New York Times best selling author Allison Winn Scotch has a blog on What an author owes her readers?  While I grit my teeth to agree with her, I found the comments especially illuminating.  You might want to pop over there if you're wondering if social media is worth it.  [Remember, I hate computers.]

This is a little late for some, but:  Maybe even more important illustration is my friend Pam Wolf's experience of what can happen with the right search labels.  She wrote a blog about a koret cat which the Animal Planet picked up for a segment.  Yeah, a national television crew in our town because of her blog.  The example?  Pam only has 7 followers but made a national splash.

If you want to read more comments on this read Pat Stoltey's blog and what her readers said in response. 

Progress ...

I'm still editing Dark Solstice.  I have a choice:  to complete rewrite it to follow the current fiction structure or leave it as its semi-literary-navel-gazing-while-the-characters-save-their-country ... and, for Mariah, save her grandchild ... self.  Maybe, it'd be better described as woman's fiction crossed with high fantasy.   I'm sure there are parts were I don't make things clear, but I'm liking it the way it is.

Another reason I'm not getting much reading done:  Watching the second season of True Blood.  I can understand why the cinematography is so dark, but I wish it was lighter [ lumins not atmosphere] so I could see more of the background.

Trivia ...

The wisteria is blooming.  It had to crawl over the rose of sharon to be seen, but it's there in all its spindley glory.  Who says the stuff doesn't grow in Colorado?

Resisting the Query Itch

Queries ...  Queries ...  Of course, I've been studying how to write effective queries ...  I've got the query itch.  With three manuscripts in the hopper, I want to query.  Long to query.  --  So, I have every unpublished, unagented writer's problem (with a completed manuscript).  To query or not to query.

Last week, I thought writing a hooking query was my major problem.  After listening to a couple critique partners, I'm worried more about whether my manuscripts are up to snuff.  (Britt and Emma)

Writing an effective query seems simple enough.  Here, I'll give the "stage" to my guru-in-chief, Janet Reid ... an agent who doesn't represent what I write (dang it).  Here's the link to her guidelines:  http://tinyurl.com/2djd38m

Every other, agent I remember repeats Reid's theme ... if not the specifics. Agent Rachelle Gardner , a very nice person I've met thanks to the Northern Colorado Writers and who also doesn't represent what I write, offers some pointed comments on why an agent wouldn't want to bite on your wonderful, maybe glorious query.  http://tinyurl.com/28z76hm  [Though yesterday, Reid did extend a fin offering a temptation to query even if you think your manuscript is inappropriate.]

Now, I'll tell you a secret in case you didn't read Rachelle's post.  You can write the most glorious query in the world.  If the agent you send it do doesn't represent the genre of the book or hates horses (or whatever), you'll get a form rejection.  Sounds self-evident, but from the agent blogs -- inappropriate submissions happen all too often.  Maybe incompetent submissions more often. 

[I now have only three queries out there -- for Emma.  The rejections should more or less land by June -- one's one of those "if you don't hear from us, it's a rejection." types.  I don't see why if agents can automatically acknowledge the receipt of a query -- they couldn't sent an automatic "Your project isn't for us".

The Read ... Well, I now know what all the comment was about when I finally got to the end of Changes by Jim Butcher.  No spoilers here.  I'll just say the action gallops along to the end with a little rumination about doing the right thing.  A lot of loose ends were tied up ... but huge dangling questions left Dresden simmering.  My disappointment, Mab didn't appear at the end to tell Dresden what she thought about her new Winter Knight's adventure.

One thing I noticed in this book, Butcher is still promoting the Codex Alera series.  I don't know what it's doing nationally, but I don't think it's doing too well where I live.  Two used book stores didn't take the two books I had in trade.  (I more or less just skimmed the books.)  The Friends of the Library gets them to do whatever with.

Trivia ... Pat Stoltey, a friend from the Northern Colorado Writers, gifted me with a BFF Blogger award.  Only I don't know what to do with it.  Maybe, I'll have to go to the office after the chiropractor's to find out.  Must thank her though.  Her mention got me a couple new followers, I think.

The No Name Award

E. J. Wesley of The Open Vein [http://the-open-vein-ejwesley.blogspot.com] put me up for the No Name Award.  He's a YA/MG writer who blogs about writing and sometimes snarls when the world slaps him in the face.  Visit him.

Normally, I'd ignore this (and I have permission to), but since I think it's designed to increase readership, I'll pass it on.  It's also simple:  receivers reveal seven facts about themselves, and then list seven other blogs.  I don't know if I have to tell them I listed them, and if I had to, I wouldn't know how -- so you are excused if you never learn I gave you the award.  (I can't seem to get the message dealie to work when I want to welcome a new follower.  The system just wants me to follow myself.)

Seven Facts ... without stretching the truth.

1)  I had an imaginary friend named Jerome when I was three.
2)  65 years later, my brother, Jerry, is still bitching about it and wishes I had kept my mouth shut.
3)  I have a hard time keeping my mouth shut -- even when I'm trying to be polite.
4)  I hate store tortilla chips -- I rather fry my own tortillas.
5)  I wanted to move somewhere else two days after I arrived in town back 1966.  I'm still here.

(It's getting harder to think of something).  

6) We once had a Ford-made car, and I didn't get 80,000 miles out of it.  The Subaru has 140,000+ miles.

 (The Studebaker Lark got 200,000+ miles.)

7)  I think marketing a novel is a form of hell.


Seven blogs.  Any of my useful blogs are worth checking out, but I'll name people with less busy lives and fewer readers.  Warning:  I enjoy every blog listed below.


1)  Pat Stoltey:  http://patriciastoltey.blogspot.com
2) The Dark Wyrm:  http://darkwyrmreads.blogspot.com
3)  Jaime Reed:  http://jreedwriteordie.blogspot.com
4)  Kirsten Lesko:  http://disobedientwriter.com/  [Anyone who's disobedient has my vote.]
5)  Tim Northberg:  http://thedarthwriter.blogspot.com
6)  Haggis:  http://whatdoyoumeanishouldstartablog.blogspot.com
7)  Sarah Ahiers:  http://falenformulatesfiction.blogspot.com

There you have it.

Trivia:  I wasn't going to blog today, but E. J. Wesley made me do it.

Living Dangerously ...

Lessons from My Reading:  Am going to be brave and go for broke.  During the Christmas excesses, I allowed myself to buy any book I thought interesting -- including two hardback mysteries by a friend.  (With luck, she'll stay a friend.)  So, here goes my impressions of Pat Stoltey's The Prairie Grass Murders which I think is Pat's first published book.    

Yeah, to put you out of your suspense, I liked it even though I had a few nit-picks.  The biggest:  While I liked her using a deprivation clairvoyant for a secondary character (Willie, the MC's brother), I think she could have have given a sharper delineation of how it happened in the first chapter.  In two sentences or less, of course.

Basically, Stoltey's rolls through the story's three acts without slowing down, but it's a gentle ride in spite of two murders.  (Is that what they mean by a "cozy"?]  There are twists and turns, but I liked the ending.  Rather than the big confrontation scene, she drags the solution on until one of the suspects moves in next door to the MC (that's from Illinois to Florida).  Even better, the MC side-steps the co-conspirator's revenge.  [Which, I assume didn't bother the MC over much.]

Progress:  Really am concentrating on Emma, but  the manuscript keeps growing.  Last week, I had six chapters to go.  This week I have eight.

Have spent the last three days reworking one chapter with major flaws.  It's now two chapters after I took care of the questions critique partners asked.  Like my adventurers found their quarry much too fast and with little effort.  Tonight I hope to polish my revisions.

What's taking so long?  Well, I'm juggling changes in four different chapters.  Seem to have this fixation that chapters are supposed to flow smoothly ... even if I fall flat on my face. 

Have I mentioned that critique partners are worth their weight in gold?

Demons. (or Gargoyles, Whatever).  I think the ejections have started invading my in box. Got two today.

Trivia:  Granted there's serious stuff happening today, but we decided to celebrate Winnie the Pooh Day by going out to eat lunch at an Scots-themed restaurant.  A little dose of  innocence can't hurt you, can it?

Haiti.  Just thought I'd say, I'm enjoying the improvement on the delivery of the news.