Category James L’Etoile
Election Roulette
I started writing another post today and it got way too serious. I was going to talk about the balance of good and evil in the world — and the good seemed to be harder to find. Folks are all strapped for a gunfight over everything from who uses a bathroom, to politics and hate speech. Kinda gloomy, […]
You Know You’re Old When…
The Universe is a mean little kid Every now and again, the Universe sticks its bony leg out to trip you. The trip and fall might be psychic, but the sting is real enough. And the devious little bastard thinks it’s just the funniest thing ever. The twit plays dirty and hides until you’re feeling […]
Killing Time (At Airports)
I’ve been in a couple airports over the last few weeks, LAX, Phoenix, Las Vegas and Sacramento. Airports, as it turns out, are great places for people watching to pass the time. And there always seems to be time… I do the whole people watching thing and scoop up character details for new stories. You […]
Editing or Evolution
Edit or Die Time for something a bit more lighthearted and enlightening… Charles Darwin was a scientist of some renown and shaped the way we think of survival on this harsh planet with his epic, Origin of the Species, in 1859. While this monumental work got all the praise and attention, a lesser known unpublished volume was uncovered, entitled […]
How Do Drugs Get Into Prison?
Getting prohibited items inside a prison is more than a game, it’s business. Every so often, a naive junior legislator will leave a fundraising lunch long enough to pop their head into a committee hearing and express their handwringing shock and dismay over drugs and other contraband appearing inside prison walls. Contraband is any item prohibited by […]
Deadpool’s Rules For Writing
What Does Deadpool have in common with writers? Yes, there are spoilers lurking here… I was never a huge follower of the graphic novel craze that spawned Deadpool, or the X-Men character universe. Oh, sure I saw the first movie and other than the creepy old guy in a wheelchair and Rebecca Romain-Stamos in blue body […]
Prison Lingo
Every culture has a language unto itself, phrases or words that mean something completely different because of where they are spoken. Prison is one of those places. The world on the inside has a culture and language driven by life in confined spaces, honed by decades of control and restricted freedoms. I’ve mentioned before that time […]
Get Out Of My E-Mail!
The rise of the machines is happening. It began with a very not-so-subtle e-mail from my medical insurance provider. This was not the usual e-mail fluff that clogs up your spam filter recommending this supplement, or an indictment that I could stand to lose a few pounds. The timing of these e-mails are suspicious. They seem to hit the […]
Doing Time: My Path to Publishing
This week, Author Holly West, offered a guest blogging spot over at Do Some Damage, a crime fiction blog hosted by a really talented bunch of authors. If crime fiction is your thing, or if you’d like a look at the insides of the crime fiction game, this is a site you should check out. Thanks for […]
Blank Page Intimidation
That stark white space is intimidating as hell. I don’t know what it is about the emptiness that makes the obsessive compulsive in me begin to itch. You’d think that an empty page is perfect, all in order, with nothing out of balance. But, no it’s a negative space, a sucking black hole of self-doubt. […]
James L'Etoile 