Hey Bill, what do you think of that new Agatha Christie biography reviewed in The Wall Street Journal? Without having read it, I can tell you that it’s a good family-authorized book with all the pluses and minuses that it implies. That’s because “Agatha Christie: A Mysterious Life,” was published in 2006 as “Agatha Christie: […]
You should seriously consider whether or not you need a pseudonym. There are reasons for choosing one. First, how common is your name? If your name is “Mary Brown,” no search engine will ever find you until you have built a reputation. Type in “Michael Jackson” and an overwhelming majority of the results will be […]
Update: Last week, I talked about how I entered a contest in 2001 to write the conclusion to an unpublished Mark Twain novella “A Murder, A Mystery, and a Marriage.” The Buffalo public library, which ran the contest to bring publicity to the fact that it acquired the entirety of the manuscript to “Huckleberry Finn,” […]
It’s Wednesday, and that means it’s time for Sherlock parodies day! Today, despite popular demand, I’m returning to the Washington Times for another adventure about the great detective, Mortimer Mudge. (The last one was “Mortimer Mudge and the Fur Watch-Chain.“). This piece of macabre silly logic by the anonymous “Rhoda Montade” appeared in the Aug. […]
Writing, for most of us, is normally a solitary occupation. We retire into our garret – or basement office under the stairs – and block out the world to produce words and worlds. Writing involves many skills and talents: one of them that doesn’t usually show up in the mix is salesmanship. I won’t say […]
It’s been awhile since I updated you on the TwainLock project. Actually, except for a page on the Peschel Press website, I don’t think I’ve said anything about it. That’s what happens when you’re not doing that well at sharing. TwainLock: In the Beginning … It started with a contest. I had just started working […]
Today’s Sherlock Holmes’ parody was the product of the “Mad” magazine of the Victorian era. “Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday” was a weekly comic magazine that is considered to be the first to feature a recurring character. A “sloper” in slang is someone who slopes around evading creditors and other people they wish to avoid. A […]
Saturday was a typical Pennsylvania February day, chilly, damp, and enough fog to star in a Stephen King novel. Which made it the perfect day to jump in the car and meet some local romance writers. For the past couple of years, Ashcombe Farm and Greenhouses in Mechanicsburg has hosted a “Love Is In the […]
As I explained last week, in the process of researching material for volume 6 of the 223B Casebook project, I came across some Sherlock Holmes art by Frederic Dorr Steele that appeared in the Washington Times newspaper. This is the second half with illustrations from four of the stories. First, from “The Lion’s Mane,” one […]
Two announcements: This coming weekend, Teresa and I will be visiting Ashcombe Farms for their “Love Is in the Air” event. This event is for romance writers, so we’re not going to be selling books. We’re just attending. But we are going for a specific reason. Self-education is an important part of any business. Seeing […]