October: the month for general spookiness. Halloween ghosts, tombstones, skeletons, etc, have been popping up in my yard/neighborhood, and probably in yours, too. Even in my historical mystery-writing, it’s been all about the spooky lately. I’ve been elbow-deep in a scene where my spirit medium character, Madame Durand, attempts to get answers from the spirit…
Welcome to Friday! Today, we’re doing a pictorial tour of foods that are so beautifully crafted that they look “too good to eat.” The inspiration came from Janet Rudolph’s blog, “Dying for Chocolate” – specifically, her recent post on the Cocoagraph Company: Dying for Chocolate: Cocoagraph: Edible Chocolate Bars from Your Photos. Really? Chocolate that…
What fictional forms were the precursors to mystery stories? Many point to Edgar Allan Poe’s (1809-1849) work, especially his August Dupin short stories. While his influence is huge, there’s more to the origins of the modern mystery. Let’s look at another contributing genre: Victorian Sensation Fiction Critics agree that Victorian sensation fiction (approx. 1850s to…
After slogging through the dog days of summer, we’re now being rewarded with crisp days and chill nights. Soon the frost will be on the pumpkins, and those pesky mosquitoes will be gone. What better way to celebrate than with a “taste” of the fall season? This time of year, we crave the flavors of…
I was copying my lesson quietly, in one of those sewn-together marble composition books that never seemed to stay flat, trying not to smear the lead pencil dust along the paper as my left hand progressed across the page. If I were writing Hebrew, I’d be golden, but this was a 5th grade Catholic school class…
Welcome to Flashback Friday, where we take a look at an interesting bit of history. A writer friend of mine, Anne Paris, sent me a rare, silent film clip of a school outing to Coney Island. It is a group of girls from Miss Knapp’s Select School (a boarding school). The super-cool thing, for me,…
As I labor to clean the Aegean Stables research a sticking point in the current draft of my second novel (hope you like to read about 19thc masquerade balls, because that’s what I’m working on), I’m sharing an earlier post of mine, about those boy super-sleuths, the Hardy Boys. Enjoy! ———————————————————- Welcome to Masters of Mystery,…
Welcome to Flashback Friday! The title above had you guessing a bit, didn’t it? Maybe I’m running amok and reviewing some chick-lit book about new mommies? First dolphins, then storks…what’s next, faeries and unicorns? Bwahaha… Well, thanks to restaurant historian Jan Whitaker – who is graciously allowing me to re-post her fabulous material – you…
