Tag Archives: crime writer
At What Cost Sneak Peek
Pssst… Come here, come closer. Look what came in the mail today! The Advance Reader’s Edition of AT WHAT COST, published by Crooked Lane Books. I felt like Steve Martin in “The Jerk.” The new phone books are here! I am somebody! Matt Martz, Sarah Pope, Heather Boak, and all the folks at Crooked Lane […]
Shut Up And Drive
Pardon me whilst I squeeze into my ranty pants. I don’t remember them being this tight. Ahem… This morning I had the occasion to venture out in public and join in the mass migration on the public thoroughfare. Interstate 5 is a sprawling mass of asphalt and cement, up to eight lanes wide at some points to […]
The Danger of Bumper Sticker Mentality
Apparently, I must have missed the memo that said that I must publically hate someone or something to fully actualize my human experience. I’m not apathetic, at least not in the usual application of the word. I do care about stuff–in my own private way. Private, in that I don’t feel the need to plaster […]
Life As A Lawn Sprinkler
California has been going through a drought, of sorts, for the last four years. I say “sort of” a drought because, depending on who you talk with, the state’s water worries are pretend, man-made, or a parched precursor to the End of Days. In a period of introspection — which could have been fueled by […]
When You Need To Get Knocked Down a Peg or Two
I got another reminder from the cosmos that my karma is due and payable… I took a break from writing for a couple of hours this week to take the Corgis to a therapy visit at a local assisted living and memory care facility for older folks. You know, do something good, clean the mind […]
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 […]
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 […]
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. […]
The Social Media Wasteland
The social media landscape has shown the first evidence of the phenomenon called Digital Global Meltdown. *cue tumbleweeds* This meltdown, is all manmade and there is no questionable science for deniers to hide behind. We are responsible for this mess and the toxic waste left behind in cyberspace. Social media has become a vast wasteland of […]
James L'Etoile 