In my Professor Karen Pelletier mystery series, Lieutenant Charlie Piotrowski of the Massachusetts State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation is a large, plain, no-frills, no-bullshit kind of guy. Women readers love him.
News/Blog at Poisoned Pen Press
My Pilgrimage
I’m on a sort of Hajj. Not to Mecca, of course, for only followers of Islam are allowed there. In fact, it’s the religious duty of all physically and financially capable Muslims to make their pilgrimage to that holy place at least once in their lives. But perhaps if I turned my back to the [...] Read More →
The Game’s Afoot
by Mary Reed If my battered old runners could speak, what footnotes to my history they would reveal. But, as the Christmas cracker joke has it, while they have tongues they cannot speak, and so I shall have to be their interpreter. Every mark on their scuffed once-white surface tells a story. That long smear [...] Read More →
Goodbye to a Great Writer
The death of Reginald Hill last month means the world of crime fiction has lost one of its greatest talents. For over 40 years, Reg proved himself to be a versatile, prolific and gifted crime writer. For me, he was also a great friend, as well as a mentor and literary influence.
Writers: an endangered species?
Ann Parker here, mid-month poster on the Poisoned Pen Press blog, feeling optimistic and upbeat with a surfeit of chocolate and caffeine racing through my system (ah, yes, Valentine’s Day). As I open the bottom drawer of my desk and sneak another square of extra dark (just one more!) two images flit through my mind [...] Read More →
Love is Murder
By Jeanne Matthews As the comedian Chris Rock says, if you ain’t held a box of rat poison in your hands and thought real hard about killing your wife, you ain’t been in love. Thousands of men go to prison every year for killing their wives or their lovers – perfectly nice men who wouldn’t [...] Read More →
History’s Biggest Fan
I don’t do the present well. While I’m slogging toward goals set years, hours, or minutes ago, the world of right-now rushes by in a blur of the familiar and the unexpected. Everything changes, rendering my goals useless or outright laughable. The past–solid and unchanging–is where I’m most comfortable. Don’t even get me started on [...] Read More →
Class, cliches, and character
Political dialog these days is full of concerns about class–the shrinking middle class, the super-rich, the underclass, class warfare. “Class” may be useful short-hand for socio-economic status, for education, income, and attitudes, but it is a perilous short cut for the author. Real characters, like real people, resist pigeon holes.
Your Brain on Research
It’s a seductive quicksand, research. One little foray to look up which Peachtree Street intersects I-75, and suddenly I’m immersed in the intricacies of a Krav Maga takedown. Or a sniper rifle that can shoot around corners. Or the Siege of Savannah. But no scholarly side road is as dangerously distracting to me as neuroscience.
Psst! Want a hot deal on a book with bad words in it?
by Sandra Parshall You know those sidewalk peddlers who try to make you believe they’re selling you a real Rolex for twenty bucks? Sometimes I think a writer selling books is the literary equivalent. Sure, you’re offering people something in exchange for their money, and you think it’s something valuable, but you have to persuade [...] Read More →