Not Another New Year's Post (I'll Cry at the Chinese Buffet If I Want To) or read here:

While everyone else on planet earth blogs about New Year's resolutions and ushering in the new year, I tell a different tale tonight. A tale of woe, heartache, and pain told in my usual "laugh at myself" style. My life is awesome. I laugh a lot. I'm overall happy as a person.…

i suppose i should take the tree down,

it is so pretty,

the candles, the perfume.

i suppose i should get back to work,

with a vengeance, and all  my energy.

i learned so much over these feast days,

of people, families, my life, their lives,

i must remember this.

i suppose i should put it all away,

and stop dreaming,

but it is so pretty,

the colours, the shine.

I will pack it…

I met Carol when I returned to Atlanta, to college, in August of 1990.  By then I was convinced that Bob Marley was a prophet, and that Bab-y-lon would soon fall.  When it did fall, I would be safe because I'd seen it coming and had covertly stacked up walls of protection:  critical essays, vegetarianism, cotton fabrics and research, lots of research.

Along with my two comrades, I rented a two-bedroom house.  Comrade number one, my promised fiance'; and comrade number two; one…

http://http://keebletalk.blogspot.com/2010/11/short-portrait-of-woman-tell-my-story.html

The last issue of Kings River Life in 2011 is up and filled with mystery fun. We have an article on some of the Sherlock Holmes books that have come out in 2011 http://kingsriverlife.com/12/31/sherlock-holmes-in-books/

And a whole big group of mystery book reviews for your 2012 reading list including Ian Rankin's latest…

A special thank you to those wonderful individuals who made 2011 (my first full year as a published author) such a memorable year. I've blogged about it, and even named a few names at http://tinyurl.com/768m2ml. Happy New…

Here is a link to my blog post: http://writenowlife.wordpress.com/2011/12/21/running-towards-what-we-fear/

Enjoy!

“The historian, if honest, gives us a photograph; the storyteller gives us a painting.” (Leon Garfield) The photograph shows us the historical facts. The storyteller takes these facts and creates a story surrounding a fictional family. I have learned so much about our country and the revolution by reading historical fiction. When writing this genre, you must be accurate when it comes to history. Writing historical fiction or historical romance can be a challenge but a lot of fun. First, you…

I love this world we are in. Daily, I am awed by the beauty surrounding us. Yesterday, as I walked the dog, I was greeted by a bright, winter blue sky with ripples of pale orange clouds skimming across. Of course I said, "Thank you for this beautiful morning."  I can always find a beauty to appreciate when I am out. Sometimes it's nature. Sometimes it's the smile of another human, a gesture, a laugh, a happy dog, a hawk's cry. Too much to  bore you with. You already know.

I am also…

Recently I have had the honor to do a written interview with one of my favorite authors Tessa Afshar, Author of PEARL IN THE SAND. Once I received the answers to my questions I will say I was inspired. The purpose of this interview is of course to get to know the author but also to inspire new authors or aspiring authors to not give up. Why do I say this? As you will see from the interview this is Tessa's first novel (a very beautifuly written novel that you must read), she persisted and did…

Today's final edition of Saturday Sharing for 2011 offers an animation of a John Siddique poem and video features on choreographer Bill T. Jones, plus links to Eric Fischer's beautiful maps of Twitter's language communities, Wave Book's Erasures poetry project, the Library of Congress's wonderful new ViewShare platform, and two sites where you can pin poems to Google maps. Enjoy and Happy New Year!…

Today, I am renewing my passport. I can't believe that it has been ten years since I made a New Years Eve promise to myself. Things were a lot different then. I hadn't yet published my first book. I was living on a tight budget. I did all my writing in a closet. Not a converted closet, but an actual closet with clothes in it, and also a small desk. But still, I decided to get myself a…

if there is any

affection, show it.

but, it is my neck

sir, and

i shall say it

to keep us

out of troublle.

well, someone

has to

I'm so grateful for the chance to have had this Best Sex Writing 2012 book trailer shot in a professional studio for free. Bigtime grateful. Enjoy!











Order Best Sex Writing 2012:…

I vividly remember the smell of blood. Deep. Rich. Muddy. Thick. Red. Blood. The scent overwhelmed as I stepped in to the doorway. The odor was raw and acrid; a pungent fleshy coppery stench that burned my nostrils. The walls seemed to pulsate like a fleeting heartbeat.

Each second floated by like a feather, slow motionless time. God pushed the pause button on me. The sparkling white bathtub was bone dry, except for the bright cinnamon red ribbons of satiny blood crisscrossing it. She…

I often read two books at a time: one on my kindle, one in hard copy—their different tones competing for space in my head. I almost always work on more than one freelance project in a given week, and really, most of the time, I’m gnawing on multiple pieces of my own fiction. To be really honest, I often have my phone, my kindle and my laptop all spread out on the couch before me…

The 2012 recipient of the Victoria A. Hudson Emerging Writer Scholarship at the San Francisco Writers Conference is Poet Anna-Marie McLemore of Sacramento, California. Ms. McLemore is a grand slam winner, whose fiction and non-fiction entries were also blind selected for top honors in the annual writing contest. Ms. McLemore is a 2011 Lambda Literary Fellow in fiction. Her work has appeared in numerous Cleis Press anthologies.

Runners up included fiction writer Katrina Anne Willis, of…

Check out my blog: Indoor Skating

We’ve all lived through another holiday. Almost. But I never really consider New Year’s Eve a real holiday. Nobody gets gifts. But Christmas (which is what we celebrate in our family—but everyone, no matter what religion, has the same issues, so I’ll stick with what I know) is fraught. Once again, family, alcohol, budgets, gift exchanges and table manners somehow get jumbled together, and what comes out is just plain ugly at times. So here is one more advice column. I speak to all of you…