What I Learned From Our Passover Seder by Debra H. Goldstein Confession: when I have more than four people, even if I put the food in my own bowls, I have the evening catered. This year, with only four breaking matzah and because I’ve become addicted to cooking competition TV shows, I decided to tackle […]

Keeping it Real by Michele Drier Because I write in two genres—traditional mystery and paranormal romance—I’ve been reading a LOT of genre fiction over the last few years and I see some scary trends. One of them is what I call verbalization: Taking perfectly good nouns and turning them into not so good verbs. So […]

What the Heck is “Writing What You Know”? by T.K. Thorne Write what you know. A well know axiom for writers. But is it really a rule? Is it good advice? What the heck does it mean? I can’t tell you how many times I have scratched my head thinking, okay, what do I know? […]

Can a Cat be Inspirational? Oh yes, especially if his name is ROCCO…. By T. C. Lotempio I have always been an animal lover, especially of cats. When my calico died a few years ago, I went to the Clifton Animal Shelter and adopted a handsome tuxedo cat named ROCCO. It soon became apparent that […]

Friends by Debra H. Goldstein Friends? Girl Scouts and Brownies sing of making new friends but keeping the old. The TV show Friends highlighted friendship. Even the premise of the movie, It’s A Wonderful Life, annually reminds us that “…no man is a failure who has friends.” Friends are lifelines, support systems, memory and laughter sharers, […]

Take the Last Banana by Debra H. Goldstein When a person comes up to me and says he/she has the perfect idea for a book, if only he/she could find the time to write it, I run in the other direction. The same normally holds true when someone offers me an idea for my writing. […]

5 Tips for Writing a Good Article or Blog Post by Lourdes Venard With social media, blogs, author newsletters, online news sites, and more, there’s an overabundance of items to read. If you’re like me, you’re never able to read it all. Some days, I can barely keep up with my email! So how do […]

DO YOU MISS IT? by Debra H. Goldstein “Do you miss it?” Four simple words comprise the question most asked of me in the year since I stepped down from the job I held for twenty-three years and could have stayed in for life. “Do you miss it?” My answer always is the same “No. […]

The Artist Turns Detective by John Scherber A lot of people would like to paint, and I’m no exception.  In high school I had a close friend who painted, and I always wondered how well he did with it later in life. I took a run at it myself in those days and bombed badly. […]

Impact of a Move, a Test Passed, a Reception, and a New Book by Debra H. Goldstein I planned to write this week’s blog about the recent publication of The Killer Wore Cranberry: a Fourth Meal of Mayhem. I was going to tell you how I still am happy dancing that my story, Thanksgiving in […]