Did you watch "The Big Bang Theory" last night? I loved Raj's experience with Siri! Check out these other cool gadgets.
Happy Friday!
Take a break on this lovely Friday and check out Slush Pile Hell. It's full of sample query letters and the agent's comments. I'm just glad that none of mine were listed.
Happy Friday! Keep writing!
Here's are seven things I learned from Meredith Cole, Mary Burton, and Ellery Adams. They put on a great panel for writers at the Sisters in Crime - Central Virginia meeting in January.
1. Go to writing conferences.
2. Write every day. No excuses!
3. Choose your other creative projects carefully (especially ones that take away from your writing time).
4. Do your research before submitting to agents.
5. Writing is a business. Be professional!
6. Persistence is as important as talent.
7. Save some of your first advance to market yourself.

(l-r: Mary Burton, Ellery Adams, and Meredith Cole)
Check out Copyediting. It's a great website. You can subscribe to the blog for email updates. There are wonderful tips for writers (and technical writers). Thanks, Jeb for the link!
We took the Jax (4 including my sister's) to the Outer Banks of North Carolina for New Year's. We were fortunate. It was in the mid-60s for most of the week, so we enjoyed spring-like temperatures in December and January.
The pups got their first beach experience. They enjoyed long runs in the sand and digging for sand fiddlers. They also climbed the dunes at Jockey's Ridge and barked at the hangliders. And they were the only ones who enjoyed the four flights of steps in the beach house. They turned the stairs into a racetrack.
I hope you had a wonderful holiday season! Best wishes for 2012!

"Yes, we do want to go for a walk!"
Riley at Jockey's Ridge.
The Jax take the beach at OBX.
Tig and Riley between naps.
I heard this on the way home yesterday from work, and I had to go back and read the blog posting. Americans make up HALF of the WORLD's richest 1%. That changes the whole meaning of the 99 vs 1%.
I was stunned. Read Jack Cafferty's post. And it takes only $34K to be among the world's richest.
Even with all of the problems and strife, America is truly blessed. I hope we don't take it for granted.
The Sisters in Crime - Central Virginia chapter is hosting an author's panel on Saturday, January 21 at 11:00 AM at the Bon Air Library in Chesterfield, Virginia. Authors Meredith Cole, Mary Burton, and Ellery Adams will talk about developing and selling your mystery.
Email me if you want more details.
Richard Yancey has an interesting sleuth in The Highly Effective Detective, set in Knoxville, Tennessee. His protagonist, Teddy Ruzak, is a night security guard until he inherits money from his mother's estate, and he decides to become a PI. He hires his favorite waitress from a local diner to be his secretary. He has no business or investigative experience.
Ruzak is unusual in that he has no confidence, no police skills, and not much success in his life. He became a security guard when he washed out of the police academy. Despite all of the strikes against him, he manages to land two cases and solve each in the end.
He waxes long and gets philosophical at times. If you can get past this, the novel has some interesting characters and a few funny spots.
I also read The Highly Effective Detective Goes to the Dogs. (I'm a sucker for mysteries with dogs.) Ruzak is in pretty much the same state as the first mystery. The state of Tennessee shuts him down for not having a PI license. He meets a goth girl at the animal shelter, and he eventually adopts a dog that is infatuated with the secretary's son. In this novel, the second in the series, Ruzak discovers a dead body in the alley. He has no paying client, but he spends the novel solving the crime when the police think they have their man. By the end, he has to pass the next PI exam, or he's out of business permanently.
The characters are interesting. I've never read a mystery with a sleuth quite like this before.
Happy holidays!