Usually, I write my blogs in advance and have them prescheduled to pop up at six in the morning. With Yom Kippur, the most important Jewish holiday, during which we atone for our sins and on which our fate for the next year is sealed, being this past weekend and a number of other things […]

Touched by the Bard – Shakespeare’s Influence on the Haydn Mysteries by Nupur Tustin It was from the Cambridge Companion to Haydn that I learned that the great composer’s library contained the complete volume of Shakespeare’s plays—in the original English at that. Shakespeare’s plays were quite popular in the German-speaking world. They were enacted in […]

Writing to a Theme by Carol L. Wright Remember back in school when the teacher would give you an assignment to write on a particular theme? Something along the lines of “What I Did on my Summer Vacation” or “What I Want to Be When I Grow Up”? Well, for those of us who grow […]

Do You Love Me?  by Debra H. Goldstein Many of you know I love Broadway shows. There is a Facebook test making the rounds where one identifies how many, out of one hundred shows, one has seen either on Broadway or in some other theater production. I’m so nerdy, my score was over 80 – […]

Day of the Dark, an anthology of eclipse related short stories, was published by Wildside Press on July 21, one month before North America experiences its first contiguous total eclipse in forty years. In my last “It’s Not Always a Mystery” blog, I introduced you to the anthology’s creator, Kaye George, my short story, A […]

It hasn’t happened in almost four decades.  For some, August 21, 2017 will be the only time in their lives to experience a total solar eclipse passing over the contiguous United States. August 21, will you be somewhere between Oregon and South Carolina, wearing proper eye protection, watching the moon pass between the earth and […]

Writing “As If” to Reignite Your Creative Mojo by Bryan E. Robinson, Ph. D. Act as if you’re a writer. Sit down and begin. Act as if you might just create something beautiful, and by beautiful I mean something authentic and universal. —Dani Shapiro Raise your hand if you’ve ever been unsure which direction to […]

My birthday was in March. It wasn’t a milestone birthday nor did I celebrate it in any special way, but I did receive two cards during my birthday week that I saved because they had quotes I thought might make interesting blog topics. Since March, they have been sitting on a table in my bedroom […]

How I became a Rogue Woman Writer   By S. Lee Manning   I’ve always loved spy stories. There’s something that has always fascinated me about a secret world, where politics matter, and the stakes are high. Spies exist in a parallel plane to the real world, something like the magical world of Harry Potter. […]

Song Lyrics: Using Them in Books by Manning Wolfe (click for comments) Writers often include music references in their manuscripts to establish a mood or setting without consideration of the legal issues surrounding their use. Song lyrics are copyrighted, just like books. And, like books, the copyright is created the minute the tune is written, […]