Month: January 2012
Friday Cocktail
The Chinese New Year, beginning on January 23, 2012, ushered in the Year of the Dragon. To celebrate, try this week’s Friday Cocktail, the Green Dragon. This drink dates back at least to 1964, as it’s included in the Old Mr. Boston de luxe Official Bartender’s Guide (28th edition) from that year. Coincidentally, 1964 was… Read More ›
Dragon Bones, Dragon Blood
To survive, Wardwick of Hurog plays the role of simpleton; to regain a kingdom, Ward must prove his mettle and his worth. “Hurog means dragon.” As we discover several times during the course of the two novels that–to date–tell the story of Ward, heir of the Shavig throne; his family, and the land of the… Read More ›
The First Mystery I Ever Read
He wears a deerstalker hat and trenchcoat. Equipped with a magnifying glass and his trusty detective manual, he searches for clues and solves cases. No, not Sherlock Holmes. It’s Detective Mole! I’ve long remembered that very first mystery story I ever read. Well, bits and pieces. I remembered it was a Detective Mole story. He was investigating… Read More ›
Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
When we first meet Flavia de Luce, she has been tied up and left in a closet. Does she panic? Oh, no. She quite calmly extricates herself and inwardly chides her two tormentors—her older sisters, Ophleia and Daphne—for their ineptness while at the same time planning up a revenge scheme of her own. Need we point… Read More ›
Blackout
Imagine waking up, alone, and not remembering who you are. “I was a killer. I woke up knowing that before I knew anything else.” Cal Leandros hasn’t forgotten everything, just the important parts of his life. Who is he? Does he have family? Friends? And, more importantly, why is the beach where he came to… Read More ›
Hawkes Harbor
In an asylum, Dr. Phillip McDevitt “is intrigued by his newest patient, a troubled young man recently transferred from the state hospital for the criminally insane. Jamie Sommers suffers from depression, partial amnesia, and an unaccountable fear…” In 2004, S. E. Hinton released Hawkes Harbor, her first novel in 15 years. Best known for gritty… Read More ›
Friday Cocktail
The Poisoned Martini whips up a new creation for this week’s Friday Cocktail. Perfect for cold winter nights and apropos for January 6th, it’s the Twelfth Night cocktail. In Shakespeare’s time, the Tweflth Night marked the last bout of merrymaking before the long, cold winter settled in. One of Shakespeare’s most famous and popular comedies, Tweflth Night,… Read More ›
A Year of Reading
52 weeks, 52 books. No writer can live in a vacuum. The things we see, hear, smell, taste, touch … all these experiences add to who we are and what we might create. Watching a movie, reading a book … they can inspire our own writing, and we can learn from them. Each year I try… Read More ›
A Year of Writing
1000 words a day. It seems simple enough. Write a minimun of a 1000 words each day. Say you type 30 words per minute. In one hour, you could type 1800 words. That means the average writer could easily achieve over 1000 words each day in just one hour. But what should one write about? Writing, of course, isn’t… Read More ›
The Poisoned Martini 