WARNING: Today’s blog contains material that may not be suitable for children or grown adults who run around wearing a Zorro mask.
Hey! Let’s talk about sex!
Sex is an issue that writers have to deal with all the time. In our novels, I mean. Different genres have different standards. Each publishing house has its own rules. […]

It rained all night. A slow soaking rain. So this morning the grass was taller and greener, getting closer to where I’ll have to mow it. The grass seed I sprinkled on a bare spot in the back finally got enough water and warmth to start growing. Man cannot do with a hose […]

Today is my wife, Carol’s, birthday. She keeps having them but, to tell you the truth, I can’t see where she’s getting any older. Anyway, Saturday her parents took us to her favorite restaurant to celebrate. The Balaton. It’s a great Hungarian restaurant in Shaker Square, a cool old shopping area on the edge […]

Life comes in snippets. Here a week’s worth:
Ten years ago I was walking in the woods at the family farm and found a strange looking rock. I surmised it might be a meteorite. It was heavy for its size and one side had a black shiny crust, caused, I figured, by its entry into the […]

The other week, Casey pondered the importance of book covers. I thought I’d ponder the importance of book titles and author’s names.
Would J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye have been the classic it is if it were called Shortstop in the Oats? I’m guessing no.
How about Joseph Heller’s Catch-22? It was originally called Catch-18. Really.
The […]

Mike and I met 23 years ago. We were on the staff of Beverage Industry, a business magazine that covered, you guessed it, the beverage industry. Now Mike teaches news writing at the University of Akron and I do whatever it is that I do.
Once a semester I speak to Mike’s class. They interview me […]

Note: My posting today kicks off “Agents Week” here at The Little Blog of Murder. Whenever any of us speak to groups, we’re sure to be asked about agents: Do you have one? How’d you get one? Do you need one? So, every day this week we’ll be talking about our own experiences. I’m not […]

Well, depending on whether I correctly set the clocks last night, it’s either 7:20 a.m., 8:20 a.m. or 9:20 a.m. And according to the color-coded, looping regional radar weather map on my computer, the big March snow is over.
It was a doozy. We got a foot and a half, I’d say.
Back a few days, […]

I had hoped to tell you my big secret this week. I had a lot of fun last week teasing everybody and figured I could tell you more this week. Unfortunately, things aren’t wrapped up. All I can say is that an offer has been made in Hollywood for one of my novels and that […]

The Wise Wife of West Akron has forbidden me to write about what I was going to write about. So I’m telling you right up front that today’s blog is Topic B.
Saturday started early, at 7:30, with WWWA and me walking the dogs on the golf course. They love it. Especially when it’s covered with […]