Today's Pet Peeve
by Amy Hatvany As an author, I don't really have many pet-peeves. I work alone, so really, the person's behavior who tends to annoy me most is my own. But I have to say the one thing that can wriggle...
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Cute Story, Cute Story...
By Cornelia Read I am in Vermont right now for the weekend, because tomorrow is my Aunt Julie's seventieth birthday. And she is awesome. This has been another intense week... turned in the final,...
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The Rapist's Wife
By Elaine Viets Thursday morning, this e-mail slithered into my mail box, addressed to me and mystery writer Nora Roberts. I’ve changed the names in the e-mail. Once you read it, you’ll understand...
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Did They Think No One Would Notice?
by Harley Years ago I saw Dead Poets’ Society. I recall nothing about it because I was with my friend Laurie. Laurie does wardrobe for film and TV, and she spent the whole movie outraged about collar...
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Candy, Little Girl?
By Sarah I was working on the outline of a novel the other day involving a neurotic mother who worries about her children's every move. (Sound familiar?) But something was missing. WHY was this woman...
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Noir? No Way!
Margaret Maron I recently taught a seminar on mystery writing to people who were fairly unfamiliar with the genre. To give them an overview, I drew a continuum from the lightest fluffiest cozy to the...
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Thanks for the Memories!
The Tarts are all running around like turkeys with their heads cut off, but we want to pause and thank you all for friendship and support and sharing life experiences that we sometimes adapt for our...
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Slipping into the winter dark
by Barbara O'Neal As the long winter nights close in, the most basic human desire is to curl up by the hearth and rest. Nap and be quiet. Read. Tell stories to children, tales of adventure, tales of...
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New Rules for Funerals
By Nancy Pickard This is not going to be the most sensitive blog post you'll ever read. If you have recently been involved with a funeral of someone you loved and whom you miss terribly, you might...
View ArticleAnd happy last day of the Thanksgiving weekend.
The Book Tarts and friends are taking a day off today, but they will all be back by Monday, starting with The Three H's tomorrow (that's Hank Phillipi Ryan, Heather Graham, and Harley Jane Kozak for...
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TOO MUCH TO DO!
HANK: Happy Thanksgiving! Oh, wait, that’s over. Hope you had fun…but now—don’t stop dancing! You know what comes next. You’ve known it from the moment you put away the tree last year. You’ve known it...
View ArticleThe Love/Hate Conundrum
The Love/Hate Condundrum By Kathy Reschini Sweeney, who knows what she likes Are there things you want to love, but for various reasons, you just hate? Maybe those reasons have to do with your...
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Butch? Or Sundance?
Butch? Or Sundance? by Nancy Martin The first movie that made me bawl BUCKETS of tears was not Bambi or Dumbo (because we lived in a small town too small for a movie theater, I didn't see those movies...
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Member of the Family
By Elaine Viets In the last ten days, our cat Mystery has been to the hospital twice. She was unable to keep down her food. On the first visit, the vet gave our ten-pound cat fluids for dehydration,...
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The Ears Have It
By JOSHILYN JACKSON SO My nine year old daughter, Maisy Jane, has been agitating for pierced ears since she was seven. I objected. Strenuously. Not because I grew up in a VERY conservative church...
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Things I Want to Do in New York...
By Cornelia Read So, I'm totally broke. And as usual when I'm totally broke, I daydream about things I want to do the next time I have money. Okay, not exactly like go buy myself an emerald Hindou...
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Real Christmas Weather
By Elaine Viets Christmas lights reflected in the pool. Twinkle lights on the palm trees. Shoppers in T-shirts battling for bargains at the mall. It’s Christmas in Florida. Do I miss the cold weather...
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Just on the Tip of my Tongue
by Hank Phillippi Ryan So a pleasant looking young woman pokes her head in the door of my office, obviously just passing by on her way somewhere else. "Hi, Hank," she says. Very sprightly. I look...
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Obsessions
By Sarah Okay, I have a problem. Yesterday, I received two gorgeous skeins of this, Rowan Kid Silk Haze Creation, each of which will make a scarf in an hour, and I still hit the Knitting Studio to pick...
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Cheap Christmas
Cheap--But Meaningful--Christmas by Nancy Martin As the Christmas season approached, it became clear that our garage was falling down. It's 90 years old, built of brick and had a slate...
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