'My Heart at Evening': Love at First Sight by Poppy Gee

 My mum used to mark a J in the inside cover of library books with a soft pencil, to show that my dad had already read them. Dru Ann Love's record of what she reads evolved into an award-winning, guest-infested daily blog. Where do you sit when it comes to reading notes? Do you keep a record, write reviews, make annotations in the margins . . .?

I like writing reviews of books and I like posting them on Instagram, with a beautiful photo of the book. As I hit ‘post’, it feels like I’m throwing a bouquet of freshly picked flowers into the air, one which the book’s author will catch with joy.

A few years ago, I stopped saying ‘review’ and started saying ‘recommendation’. I’m not analysing, I’m simply saying, I found a book you might like. I don’t write negative reviews. That’s not my job. I think it’s easy to write negative stuff, it’s harder to explain why the work resonates with you, where it sits in the literary canon, and what is shows us about the human condition, or the world we live in. I often research the subgenre if it’s unfamiliar to me. It helps me understand the author’s intent, and achievement.

Below is a book rec I wrote recently. As I say in my piece, it was love at first sight… everything I learned about the book intrigued and seduced me. And when I finally read it, I was utterly enamoured. The writing is elegant, the author poetically describes the lavish miserable decadence of the Tasmanian wilderness, and challenges long held assumptions about Tasmanian history and people. At it’s core is a dark mystery, a cold case that will never be resolved.

From my Instagram, 4 October 2025:

Book rec: Very occasionally you find yourself falling in love with a book that you haven’t read. Its a rare phenomenon but it happens. Right now I’m in the delightful state of love at first sight for My Heart At Evening by Konrad Muller.

The romance began when I saw on Instagram the author doing events at Tasmanian bookshops. I was intrigued. A debut novel, set in Tasmania, with that exquisitely enchanting title…

And then I discovered that the novel is about Henry Hellyer, an architect who took his own life in 1832 at Highfield House, Stanley. That hooked me because earlier this year I visited Highfield house. In an upstairs bedroom, overlooking the ocean, I read Henry’s suicide note and the witness statements provided after his death. The statements were lavishly and strangely worded and read like the people had colluded. There were inconsistent details in other reports. I asked the house manager if she thought he took his own life and, to my surprise, she admitted that she personally didn’t believe he did. It seemed perhaps Henry Hellyer’s mysterious death was Tasmania’s first documented anti-gay crime. I was intrigued. This book is about that man.

I bought my copy at Petrachs in Launceston yesterday. It’s one of the most divinely produced books I’ve ever held. The cover is thick, and the spine feels seamless. Inside the cover is indigo to match the blue gentian flower on the cover. The blurb is short: two enigmatic, poetic observations.

Those blurbs! To die for! ‘A glossy black cockatoo of a book…’

Everything about this book feels otherworldly. Even the publisher sounds intriguing, like a character in a curious old novel:

‘Based in Lutruwita/Tasmania, Evercreech Editions publishes the boldest, strangest, and most necessary voices we can find. We value deep thought and burning intensity; work that is formally striking, emotionally resonant, and politically alive. Emerging writers, overlooked classics, and essential works in translation—if it is stunning and urgent we want to print it.’

It was so satisfying I returned to Petrachs this morning to buy a second copy for my sister.

Five stars (count them), by Catriona

My mum used to mark a J in the inside cover of library books with a soft pencil, to show that my dad had already read them. Dru Ann Love's record of what she reads evolved into an award-winning, guest-infested daily blog. Where do you sit when it comes to reading notes? Do you keep a record, write reviews, make annotations in the margins . . .?

Dru's Book Musings, by the way. 

I keep a record of what I read, here on my blog. I have no memory of why I started except that it was a round-up of my Chrtistmas and New Year holiday reading from 2019-2020 and maybe I didn't want to let go of curling up on a couch with a stack of books and turn, instead, to face the coming year. Which, as I say, was 2020. So here's what I read that Christmas:

A NEARLY PERFECT CHRISTMAS, Nina Stibbe

OPEN THE CAGE, MURPHY, Paul O'Grady

MY NAME IS WHY, Lemn Sissay

THE LADY IN THE LAKE, Laura Lippman

THE DUTCH HOUSE, Ann Patchett

CHRISTMAS ON CORONATION STREET, Maggie O'Sullivan

THE SALT PATH, Raynor Winn

THE INSTITUTE, Stephen King

THE STONE CIRCLE, Elly Griffiths

THE DARK ANGEL, Elly Griffiths

That's pretty typical Yuletide pile: a couple I'd managed to save - Stephen King and Elly Griffiths, a couple of seasonal treats, a celebrity biography - Paul O'Grady, A then adored and now disgraced memoirist ...

And I've been doing it for nearly six years (doesn't feel like that, given the wibble-wobble of pandemic time). One benefit is that it keeps me checking in on my website and stops me forgetting to post events. Like this one!

more info (not much) here

Also, it means I've always got a photo handy for Friday Reads on Facebook and Bluesky. It's amazing how many books look great against my tomato-red kitchen bunkers, including the Library of Congress's groundbreaking crime classic THE CONJURE-MAN DIES, by Rudolph Fisher (highly recommend (when the Library of Congress is open for business again)):

Order links here

But there are limits, and CRIME INK: ICONIC, John Copenhaver and Salem West's dazzling anthology of short stories inspired by Queer icons was an assault on the eyeballs:

Order links here

I know I should probably migrate to GoodReads with all this, or double it up so I've got stuff on GoodReads too, but . . . ( three dots are not an argument, I know.)

And since I've started beating myself up, why don't I write reviews? I love getting reviews (not that I read them) because all hail the algorithm, right? So I should definitely write some. Guess what? 

. . . 

I do write jacket blurbs and I will boost like Billy-oh when a friend has a new book out. A couple of recents are Cindy Brown's stellar, Portland-set mystery ECHOES OF THE LOST. I wrote: a rattling good page-turner, for a start, but it's also an absorbing character study and a brilliant depiction of a setting and community not often - if ever - found in crime fiction. Unflinching and compassionate, Cindy Brown brings Portland's unhoused citizens sizzling onto the page, showing both their individual humanity and the rich structure of their society. I was as charmed by the background to this excellent novel as I was by the twists and zings of the story itself.

pre-order links here

And for a complete change, There's Amanda Block's wonderful adventure story, THE HAUNTING OF HERO'S BAY. I wrote: The kindly spirit of Daphne du Maurier is definitely watching over this terrific West Country novel: there are smugglers and shipwrecks, secrets and legends, clues hidden in artworks - and in hidey holes. Plus a quirky village full of irresistible characters, not one but two halting and tremulous love stories, and a protagonist whose plight and pluck are equally compelling. The Haunting of Hero's Bay was pretty much the perfect read. I loved it.

Pre-order links here

Thank God for the unwritten rule that if you don't write a blurb, it's because you "didn't get to it in time". I love telling people a fabulous book is fabulous, but I'd hate to find myself having to write things like "Fans will be delighted" or "If you loved Gone Girl, you'll like this." 

As to the other half of this question - making marks in books? I make notes in my own first editions, to cut down passages for reading out at the launch party (see above, Dec 4, Davis, CA) but that's it. I use a bookmark, I don't crack the spine if I can help it (but reading a heavy hardback one-handed in a hot bath, with a glass in the other, sometimes causes a bit of trauma), and I have used the endpapers for emergency story ideas, but overall my library will be in pretty good shape when my coil's been shuffled off and my house is being cleared. 

Although, as one of my nephews once said - about the number of signed books I've got: "It's going to take ages to check these when you're dead, Auntie Catriona. We're not going to be able to just hoy them into a skip." (Lob them into a dumpster) He doesn't foresee being laid low by grief, does he?

Cx

  

Keeping Track by Eric beetner

 My mum used to mark a J in the inside cover of library books with a soft pencil, to show that my dad had already read them. Dru Ann Love's record of what she reads evolved into an award-winning, guest-infested daily blog. Where do you sit when it comes to reading notes? Do you keep a record, write reviews, make annotations in the margins . . .?

I have, in the past, kept a running record of books I read that year. I don't know why I stopped, because it is actually a very helpful tool to have around, especially when awards nomination season rolls around. I need to get back to that.

I don't feel the need to write down what I read for others, but I also value a good Amazon review since I know it impacts how books get seen on that platform. Also, mostly because I read small, indie press books that need the attention. I certainly only will write a positive review. If a book wasn't for me, then best to say nothing since it is proven time and time again that my tastes run far away from the mainstream. Writing enthusiastically about books I truly enjoyed is a pleasure and I think a valuable part of the reading community. If you want to have discussions about books, want to share the things you love, then you should absolutely be out there reviewing, hyping, praising and otherwise shouting from the rooftops about a good book.

For example, I recently finished What About The Bodies by Ken Jaworowski and it was easily in my top 3 of the year. I constantly struggle with shelf space in my office and this one immediately made the shelf, whereas I am getting close to another book purge and I've got my eye on a few who might not make the cut. But What About The Bodies is shelf-worthy. 

As for any Ex Libris on my bookshelves – no. I don't make a big habit out of lending my books out so I don't need to brand them. I do keep a stack of doubles in my closet. If I'm out at a Goodwill or used bookstore and spot a book I have read and loved, I will snap it up and add it to the pile of books I like to have at the ready in case anyone I know needs a book recommendation. Often if we have guests over I'll offer up a book as a parting gift, and if I pull it from this pile I know it's a banger. Many, if not most, of my signed books are personalized to me so that will stand in for any sort of "property of..." or "From the library of..."

As to notes in the margins, well, I'm not a psychopath so, no, I don't write in my books. I'm the type of reader who prefers not to crack a spine if I don't need to. I don't dog-ear pages or curl paperback covers in my fist while reading. I grew up civilized. I might like a line or a particular turn-of-phrase, but it would never cross my mind to underline it or, I shudder to even type it, get out a highlighter. 

And it has nothing to do with the resale value of a book. I just think the book is presented as it was written. It gains nothing by me adding to the page. 

Even when I kept lists, it happened far away from the actual book. But this will jump-start me into making lists again. It's not much to keep a file on my computer and add to it when I finish a book. I'm amazed at how many books fall right out of my head the minute I close the cover. I guess that's not a ringing endorsement of the books, but life moves on, I go right into reading something new, there are so many new distractions for us these days. 

To summarize:

I endorse reading lists, writing reviews, posting about books you like on social media.

I abhor marking up books with your own thoughts or notes. It's the one thing that separates us from the animals.

In The Margins

In the Margins: Notes on the Art of Active Reading

My mum used to mark a J in the inside cover of library books with a soft pencil, to show that my dad had already read them. Dru Ann Love’s record of what she reads evolved into an award-winning, guest-infested daily blog. Where do you sit when it comes to reading notes? Do you keep a record, write reviews, make annotations in the margins . . .?

 

I’ve abandoned the idea of keeping a list of the books I’ve read. But I do leave traces —marks, asterisks, double-underlines in the margins. I suppose I fall into the “active reader” camp, which for me involves the hand, the eye, and a slowed-down mind.

    In school, I used to underline passages in literature not just to remember them, but to understand how they worked. It was like poking around inside a clock. I’d mark rhetorical structures — anaphora, antithesis, parallelism — and try to see how an author used them to build rhythm or turn an argument. Charles Dickens was a favorite for this. No one piles on a clause quite like Dickens.

    Active reading, to me, is a bit like what medieval monks did with marginalia: an ongoing conversation with the text. It’s different from the rainbow flood of highlighting I saw in high school or at university, which felt more like panic-prepping for an exam than engaging with a writer. When you mark deliberately — with pencil, pen, or even typed notes — you’re practicing discernment. You’re tuning your ear to cadence, your eye to structure, and your mind to nuance.

    These days, many readers do their marking digitally — and I get it. Kindle lets you highlight passages, even shows you what other people have highlighted. (A sort of group annotation, or maybe a literary popularity contest?) But it can feel like walking into a museum and seeing stickers next to the paintings: “Everyone liked this brushstroke.” Helpful, sure. But also, weirdly disembodied. A Kindle highlight disappears into the cloud; a pencil mark on the page feels like a footprint. Your footprint.

    Plus, have you ever tried flipping back through a Kindle to find that one quote you meant to remember? It’s like trying to hitchhike through fog.

    When I was studying Latin, I learned to scan a sentence and find the verb first. Everything radiated from that one word. I started noticing how authors arranged their ideas — where they placed the temporal phrase, how subject and object shifted around the sentence. Romance languages taught me that English’s S-V-O structure wasn’t a universal. That opened up a whole new layer of pattern recognition in my reading life.

    One trick I still use: I’ll take a sentence I love and write it out by hand. Or type it. Something about the tactile act lets you feel the sentence differently — its rhythm, balance, weight. Try it with Faulkner, Hemingway, and Fitzgerald and you’ll know what I mean. Faulkner gallops, Hemingway jabs, Fitzgerald sways.

    And then there’s James Baldwin. Baldwin doesn’t just write — he preaches, in the most literary and lyrical sense. You can hear his father’s pulpit in his cadence, but also poetry, jazz, and fire. Here’s a sentence from The Fire Next Time:

    “Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.”

    That line stopped me the first time I read it. It’s deceptively simple — but look closer:

• There’s assonance in live without / live within — a mirrored, almost incantatory rhythm.
• The parallel structure of we fear we cannot... and we know we cannot... tightens the line and heightens contrast — a classic rhetorical move.
• And then the antithesis of without vs within — it’s not just poetic, it’s philosophical. Baldwin turns a sentence into a paradox you feel in your chest.

    Copying out that line by hand taught me something about restraint and repetition — how Baldwin’s power often comes from what’s left unsaid. His sentences don’t shout. They resonate.

    So while I may not jot a J in the front cover of a library book like some wise mothers do (a system I secretly admire), I do leave behind a field of light pencil lines — artifacts of a mind at work, or maybe just at play.

    For me, that’s the joy of reading: not just absorbing the story, but developing a relationship with language itself.

Difficult to write, impossible to read - by Harini Nagendra

Handwritten or typed? Some writers, even today, will hand write a first draft. Some have 3rd grade penmanship from the atrophy our handwriting has suffered. Do you still handwrite any part of your writing process or are you all type, all the time? 

I'll let you in on a little secret - I am, and always have been, short on patience. A recipe like biriyani, that calls for slow roasting of thinly sliced onions for twenty minutes? Not for me. Caramel custard? Again no... it takes patience to get the caramel just right, and I don't have any.

Is it any wonder that I never developed the art of copperplate handwriting as a child? When I was in kindergarten, we were given ruled notebooks with rows of colored lines in which we were supposed to practice cursive writing. I never got the hang of it - except for one assignment, when I was about 5 years old, and painstakingly wrote out each three letter word (think bat, cat, rat) in lightest pencil, and went over it again with a darker pencil once I was satisfied. That was when we had a new teacher whom I absolutely adored - she even came home, to my birthday party, and I was so thrilled. But alas - she only came home to tell my parents she was leaving - she'd been teaching for a few weeks, but then became engaged, and left to get married. I was so disappointed - but there usually is a silver lining, and mine was that once my teacher left, I didn't need to sweat over my handwriting exercises ever again. I reverted to my usual untidy scrawl.

I never learnt how to type. I tried teaching myself to use all fingers on both hands, using typing software (in the early days of gamification, during the early '90s) but it never 'took'. Instead, when I had to type out my Masters thesis, I started banging on the computer keyboard using two index fingers - and that's how I type, even today. I never looked back, at least not for my academic writing - my typing is at least legible. I used to hand write poems (mostly nonsensical limericks) for a long while - but these days I've become lazy enough that I type them out too.

Writing a whole draft by hand? I have nothing but admiration for the writers of old, who did just that (unless they were men who dictated their books to their long-suffering secretaries or wives). I suppose I could try using transcription software, and dictating a book to my computer - but I don't think I could get that it to work.

And so, I type away with two fingers. I don't think I could ever dare to attempt hand-writing a complete draft of a novel, or even a short story. It's not just my terrible, horrible, no good, very bad handwriting that gets in my way. A computer is essential to my process. Without the ability to cut and paste, move sections around, rewrite bits and pieces, connect threads and reshape storylines - my left hand using the Ctrl X, Ctrl V keys while I type with my right (yes, I'm dating myself with this reference) - without being able to highlight words and phrases to look up when I'm editing so I don't accidently introduce anachronisms into my historical novel, or incorrectly describe a sari or a piece of jewelry - I don't know how I would ever get to the end of my book.    

Besides, it would take too long, and I told you - I don't have the patience.       

Handwriting and the Singularity from James W. Ziskin

Handwritten or typed? Some writers, even today, will hand write a first draft. Some have 3d grade penmanship from the atrophy our handwriting has suffered. Do you still handwrite any part of your writing process or are you all type, all the time? 

I intended to write this week’s post by hand to prove a point, but it was going to take me five times longer to do it that way. So, in the end, I took the easy way out and decided to type it on a keyboard instead. And I’ll tell you why.

First of all, I would have had to use a physical dictionary if I’d wanted to check my spelling, which is impekable, but still. And, of course, I’d probably already have had a cramp in my hand if I’d been doing this the old-fashioned way.

Some people think writing by hand makes the experience more personal and somehow more virtuous than using a computer or a voice-to-text app. Pshaw! Those are the same folks who believe walking to the furniture store to carry that new queen-size sofa bed back home on their backs is preferable to borrowing a friend’s pick-up truck for the job. Or maybe just order it online using a keyboard.

While it’s true that some technological advances feel more like slippery steps closer to the singularity, typewriters and keyboards ain’t one of them. They’re not going to take over the world and subjugate us all with their tapping and clicking. Okay, we might break a fingernail, but that’s about it.

Here are a few benefits keyboards afford us:

1. Thanks to keyboards, we can erase our errors without leaving a trace. No one needs to know we’re clumsy typists. But you can’t erase pen ink, and who among us hasn’t torn a perfectly fine sheet of paper in a fit of pencil-erasing zeal?
2. Bad penmanship is a scourge of the past. We no longer need to strain our eyes and patience trying to read our own chicken scratchings. (Except on a grocery list.)
3. Spelling errors are (mostly) under control, thanks to the myriad technologies that we access via keyboards.
4. Keyboards also free us from the drudgery of alphabetical order. QWERTY is much more efficient than ABCDE, isn’t it? (AZERTY, si vous êtes français.)
5. And who can forget that pianos became much easier to play once they added keyboards. I upgraded my spinet last year and no longer need to whack away with eighty-eight handheld, felt-tipped hammers.

Let’s be honest. We rarely need handwriting these days. We can scan documents with our phones, dictate speech-to-text, and listen to text-to-speech. We can ask our digital assistants (future overlords) for all manner of assistance, including writing. And, of course, we can even create fonts that mimic our own handwriting. Smudged ink will go the way of the dinosaurs.

But don’t fret. Handwriting will always have its place for signing documents. Oh, wait. There are digital signatures now. Damn!

Perhaps when the singularity comes, a robot will forge our signature and sell our house out from under us. In that case, we won’t need that queen-size sofa bed.

570

Sldkghhslkhn

The pen is mightier

Handwritten or typed? Some writers, even today, will hand write a first draft. Some have 3rd grade penmanship from the atrophy our handwriting has suffered. Do you still hand write any part of your writing process or are you all type, all the time?

by Dietrich

Let’s face it: a final manuscript must be typed. What editor or publisher would touch a handwritten draft, no matter how neatly penned? That said, there’s something special about handwriting those early brainstorming notes or even an entire first draft, something that transcends mere nostalgia. 

No question, handwriting is slow, but that’s precisely its strength. The deliberate pace forces me to linger, letting ideas simmer and take shape. The rhythmic scratch of the pen allows me to pause, reflect, and refine as I write. For me, this slowness unlocks creativity. And a plain notebook becomes a quiet sanctuary, free from the distraction of incoming emails, pop-up ads and social media. No “quick Twitter checks” that spiral into an hour-long doom-scroll. In a world of constant digital noise, that’s no small thing.

There’s also evidence to back this up. Studies suggest handwriting can improve retention of conceptual information compared to typing. When I jot down ideas by hand, they do seem to stick with me longer. Am I alone in this?

But let’s not romanticize handwriting too much. When it’s time for the second draft, the keyboard is king. Typing is fast, fluid, and efficient, letting thoughts pour onto the screen almost as quickly as they form. It’s perfect for capturing a rapid-fire burst of ideas or restructuring a scene with a few clicks. Cut, copy, paste—try doing that with a pen. Anyone else nostalgic for the days of Wite-Out?

Using a computer makes revisions a breeze. I can reorganize entire chapters, tweak dialogue, delete that paragraph I thought was brilliant at 2 a.m. but now reads like crap. And let’s not forget backups—cloud storage and external drives keep the work safer than a notebook.

The sweet spot lies in blending both worlds. I love marking up a printed second draft by hand, circling awkward phrases and scribbling notes in the margins. Reading the draft aloud, pacing the room with pages in hand, helps me catch clunky dialogue or pacing issues that might slip by on a screen. It’s a tactile way to reconnect with the work.

Ultimately, it’s about what fuels the creativity. I don’t always write my first draft by hand, sometimes the keyboard calls from the start. But staying open to both methods keeps my process fresh and flexible. One day, I might be sprawled on the couch with a pen and notebook, lost in the flow of ink. The next, I’m hammering out a scene at my desk, the keyboard keeping pace with my thoughts.

I'm Typing as Fast as I Can

 

Terry here, with the question of the week: 

Handwritten or typed? Some writers, even today, will hand write a first draft. Some have 3d grade penmanship from the atrophy our handwriting has suffered. Do you still handwrite any part of your writing process or are you all type, all the time? 

 When I worked full-time in the tech world, I’d sneak out into my car every day at lunch and write. Handwrite, on yellow pads. Snippets of stories. Beginnings of books. Anything that struck my fancy. I know now what I was doing was learning my craft. By hand. 

 Eventually I settled down and wrote a few books. By hand. I’d transcribe them to the computer, which was a great way to do a first edit. Moving from handwriting to print made me see things in a different way. 

 I don’t remember how or why I transitioned to writing my first drafts on the computer, but now I wouldn’t think of writing a first draft by hand. Maybe not for the reason you’d think. In 2016 I had shoulder surgery that went bad. The radial nerve in my right arm (dominant hand) was damaged and for months I couldn’t use the hand at all. It was totally limp and unusable. In fact, I wrote my fifth book, The Necessary Murder of Nonie Blake entirely typing with my left hand. There’s no way I could have handwritten it with my left hand. Thankfully, I’m a good typist and my left hand did the job. And by the way, the book won a critic’s award—for which I credit my left hand. 

As for that 3rd grade penmanship, when my right hand gets tired, I write almost illegibly. And my left hand, as good as it was at typing, has never really done well with handwriting. 

But even if my right hand hadn’t suffered trauma, I would not have continued writing first drafts by hand. I type fast, and my typing keeps up with my brain. 

There was some claim several years ago that writing directly to a computer made writing “too easy” and that writers didn’t take the time to think things through before they typed thei first drafts. But honestly, I never thought things through (is this a confession?) in first draft. I always just plowed ahead. It’s in the editing process that I look critically at what I’ve written. 

I’m honestly often surprised at how well my brain has organized my thinking while I’m pounding out words. For example, in my next book, The Curious Poisoning of Jewel Barnes, which comes out December 2, I began to panic at 70,000 words. I had no idea what had actually happened. I didn’t know who poisoned Jewel Barnes or why. Yeah, cutting it pretty close. 

But somehow, in the panic stage, I realized what had to have happened. Not only that, but I also realized that my little brain had been busy organizing the story behind my back (or inside my head, or whatever) so that it all fit together. Sure, there were edits to be done, but the storyline was there. 

 I’m curious to know if others write by hand. Not me, baby! 

Let It Snow by Poppy Gee

Have you ever themed a book or a story around a holiday or a specific time of year? What do you think about writing something aimed at a certain holiday or event? Are you limiting your audience or taking advantage of the season like a singer releasing a Christmas album or a TV show doing a Halloween themed episode?

Nope, but I would love to. I love Christmas movies: I am here for the faux-nostalgia, the magic and hope, the love and redemption, romance and beautiful decorations, the transparent pretence of the idea of a perfect family Christmas. Plots often include a storyline about someone trying to get home for Christmas, and it shamelessly tugs at my heart strings. 

I have a big pile of Christmas picture books we bring out in December. I like reading them as much as my kids do. Many of these are books I was given as a child. For Australian children, Christmas is a wonderful fantasy of white wonderland. All the books I was given as a child featured children living in the northern hemisphere, hanging woolly stockings on the ends of their beds, blazing fires, falling snow, mistletoe and holly, and Santa’s sleigh landing on snowcapped roofs.

In reality, December in Australia is mosquito nets and ceiling fans, balmy evenings and sun-kissed days, and Christmas trees that die of heatstroke days before 25 December. My grandmother would serve a hot roast lunch followed by plum pudding, which we’d eat in the heat of midday, before heading to the beach. These days, we favour a cold seafood oriented lunch. But we love a Christmas-in-July party!

One of my favourite new picture books is Julia Donaldson's Stick Man. It’s about a stick who lives happily with his wife and three children. Right before Christmas, he gets separated and goes on a perilous journey, facing dangers like being a dog's fetch toy, thrown in a river, and being used to make a swan's nest. Eventually, he helps Santa Claus who brings him home for Christmas. It’s heart-wrenching and heart-warming.

I especially like the stories about Santa and his toy making workshop, and his summertime commitments of training the reindeer. As a child, I was obsessed with the logistics of Santa’s gift-giving operation. Like visions of sugarplums, these images dance in my head!

Once day I will write my Christmas novel. And it might be sooner than later. I think that now more than ever, this world needs stories about hope, magic and kindness.

It's the most lucrative taaaiiime of the yearrrr! by Catriona

Have you ever themed a book or a story around a holiday or a specific time of year? What do you think about writing something aimed at a certain holiday or event? Are you limiting your audience or taking advantage of the season like a singer releasing a Christmas album or a TV show doing a Halloween themed episode?

Have I? 

I have. But I didn't mean to. When I wrote SCOT FREE, the first of what was supposed to be the Last Ditch Motel trilogy, all I wanted was to start off with Lexy Campbell changing her mind about having immigrated to California and fixin' to go. As she'd never say. She had her ticket bought and her bags packed and she was outta here. As she'd also never say. It occurred to me that the funniest day to leave America was the Fourth of July. So that book opened on a holiday.

Then, in an entirely unrelated creative decision, I started SCOT AND SODA at a Halloween party. It had occurred to me, you see, that it's the perfect day to carry out a murder in the US, if you need a bit of breathing room before dealing with the corpse. All you have to do is prop it up on your porch and leave it there. The grislier the better.

Then came SCOT ON THE ROCKS. I wanted Lexy to be feeling her singleness and grumping about all the blissed-out couples in her life. Valentine's Day seemed lke the perfect day for her mega-pout.

So book-by-book and completely by accident my series had a theme. Kinda. The books aren't always about the holiday to much extent but they do open on holidays. And that was when I decided: after book three.

Although the very next one, SCOT MIST, opened on an anti-holiday, a low day and an unholy day, Friday the 13th of March, 2020, the day they shut Disneyland and cancelled the tax deadline. Yes, I wrote a lockdown comedy. Not a pandemic comedy, though - and there is a difference.   

Busines as usual for the next installment. SCOT IN A TRAP opens on the morning of Thanksgiving, with Lexy ranting about the menu like a pumpkin-spiced Grinch, especially the number of pies, especially given the amount of brown sugar and number of marshmallows innvolved in the so-called savoury course preceding. This was Lexy's opinion. Lexy Campbell, a fictional character. Nothing to do with me.

Then, for HOP SCOT, the last of the second trilogy - which might have been the end of the series -  I went for my favourite holiday of all, Christmas, and took the Ditchers to Scotland for some snow (well, slush) and some fun (well, murder (obviously)). Because if that was the end there was no way I was going to let it happen without Lexy getting the chance to rant about the &%$@ing cinnamon. This was less strictly fictional. Because Oh. My. God. The cinnamon!

But then I signed another contract - yay! - for another trilogy - yay! - and SCOTZILLA opens on the Midsummer Solstice and Lexy's wedding day, with her most eff-infested and heartfelt rant yet. Lexy, as the title suggests, has not responded well to the pressures of being a bride.

Then what? Well first came love, then came marriage, and here comes a bundle in a baby carriage. Right? Wrong. For a start, Lexy would call it a pram but also it's not working. The new book, coming in December is called SCOT'S EGGS and opens with an Easter morning disappointment, requiring super-plus tampons.

And I've got one more in this third trilogy to go. I know what it's going to be about and I'm looking forward to the opening scenes, but I'm not going to talk about which holiday is in my sights. I will say it's not Memorial Day and it's not Labor Day. In fact, I'm not sure I get what their essence is or how I could make a rant about one of them entertaining.

Could I write a fourth trilogy? Are there enough imagination-sparking holidays left? I haven't touched the equinoxes yet. What about Cinquo de Mayo? Cesar Chavez? August Bank? President's Day? Whitsun? No idea. I could start recycling. I could have an American Christmas and a Scottish Thanksgiving aka Thursday. I could, I suppose, stop starting the books on holidays completely. Who's going to stop me? (Me. I'm going to stop me. That would bug me to death.) 

For now, it feels good to have the eighth book in the trilogy coming soon and to know as much as I know about number nine,

Cx

    

That time of year by Eric Beetner

 Have you ever themed a book or a story around a holiday or a specific time of year? What do you think about writing something aimed at a certain holiday or event? Are you limiting your audience or taking advantage of the season like a singer releasing a Christmas album or a TV show doing a Halloween themed episode?

I've never written anything specific to a time of year, though I'm not opposed to it. There is something fun about a holiday movie or something that is timed to a time of year. Obviously people are reaching for scary books right now. A collection like the Hanukkah-themed anthology Eight Very Bad Nights may well have renewed interest every year.

It can be limiting, pinning your story to a specific place and time. For that reason I've never dealt much with current events. Until now. 

It's not a time of year, but the novel I just turned in embraces the current political climate. It's something I've never tackled before specifically for the risks of making your book locked into a particular time that will inevitably move on and become history.

But for me it was both a challenge and something that needed to be said. If it gives the book a shorter shelf life, then so be it.

On the other hand, like a Mariah Carey song or a Charlie Brown special, sometimes the nostalgia is the appeal. Surely we read many types of books in order to bring ourselves back to a certain way of feeling. Or to learn about a time when we weren't around. It's not a sound marketing strategy, but there is the potential.

I'll be the first time put on the Christmas music (after Thanksgiving though, this steady creep of early Xmas is too much) or cue up the horror movies in October. In looking at my bookshelves, I don't see a lot of holiday themed books. At least not a lot that make the time of year the focus. Brilliant books like The Ice Harvest are certainly Christmas novels at heart, and since people love compiling lists and arguing over them, books get lumped into themes all the time. Horror novels don't need to be set at Halloween to get put onto a list of great October reads. 

So in thinking about it, I don't think it limits an audience. I'm warming to the idea more and more. I'd love to have a book make a list of must-read holiday entertainment. I'm certainly hoping I don't limit my audience with a current events-themed book. I know there is a risk, but probably more so for the political element. I come out vehemently anti-fascist and though I don't mention names of certain wanna-be dictators, my political positions will be clear. 

Writers are often warned against weighing in on political issues, which is ridiculous of course. We put pieces of ourselves into our books no matter whether we try or not. And when issues are large enough to warrant speaking out, then of course we use our words to do so. If I get a few angry emails or one-star reviews, that is a small price to pay for speaking out when my silence would be far more hurtful to my ego. 

So who knows, maybe this time next year I'll be in the midst of writing a novel with snow, tinsel and a pine tree. I'll conjure up my inner Mariah and try to write a classic that people return to year after year. I'll see if I can create a character as well-known as The Great Pumpkin. Alone at night in a pumpkin patch waiting for a mysterious creature to rise? Hmmm, sounds like a horror story to me...

Seasons, Symbols, and the Truth Beneath the Gimmick

Have you ever themed a book or a story around a holiday or a specific time of year? What do you think about writing something aimed at a certain holiday or event? Are you limiting your audience or taking advantage of the season like a singer releasing a Christmas album or a TV show doing a Halloween themed episode?

I’ve never set out to write a story centered around a holiday, though seasons often work their way into my fiction—not as backdrop, but as metaphor.

Autumn isn’t just orange leaves and crisp air. It’s decline. It’s beauty giving way to death. Winter, too, is a mood: a kind of silence, a stripping-away. Spring carries the weight of rebirth, whether we want it or not. These associations are ancient, even archetypal. Pagan ritual, the liturgical calendar, folklore—they all whisper through how we experience time. A single image, like a bare twig with a bird chirping in the cold, can echo through literature for centuries.

So no, I don’t write holiday stories in the traditional sense. But I’m not against them either. Writing to a season or event can be an opportunity, not just a chance to “cash in” (though there’s no shame in a little seasonally timed success). The cultural weight of a moment can act as emotional shorthand. If a writer says “Thanksgiving,” readers bring a whole web of expectations—food, family, gratitude, tension—before the story even starts. That’s powerful.

Still, what matters most isn’t the calendar but the emotional truth beneath it. You don’t need to know the specifics of a holiday to feel what it evokes: celebration, longing, loss. The right details can make the abstract accessible. That’s the work, after all—to take something broad and make it matter to a single reader in a particular moment.

For me, the real theme across my writing, even the crime fiction, is friendship. That’s the heart of it. Who stands by you in the dark. Who helps you find your way out of the wilderness. Every era has its flavor of noir, but the stakes stay the same: how to survive and stay human.

If that happens to take place at Christmas or under a blood moon in October, so be it.

 

 

Have you ever themed a book or a story around a holiday or a specific time of year? What do you think about writing something aimed at a certain holiday or event? Are you limiting your audience or taking advantage of the season like a singer releasing a Christmas album or a TV show doing a Halloween themed episode?

Personally, I’ve never written a book or a story around a specific holiday or a specific time of year, but I wouldn’t thumb my nose at those who do. Funny, when I read this question, my mind automatically went to Christmas. It is my favorite holiday and I appreciate all things that highlight that most wonderful season. And while I have never written a Christmas story, I have loved a few. One that comes immediately to mind is Danielle Steele’s, The Gift. It’s a sweet little story that is all about human kindness, compassion, and love, ideas that are becoming harder and harder to find on this current timeline.

I did contribute a story to the popular Noir series, Cleveland Noir. My story was called Bitter. The theme was murder and revenge in Cleveland. Did I feel limited writing that story? Not at all. I’d argue that, in that instance at least, having that narrowed focus helped corral all the wandering ideas that tend to sprout up while you’re trying to focus on the one story. And it was so fun to write. Imagine being asked to write a short story that includes the neighborhood you grew up in and allows you to exact some revenge, in print at least, on an old foe, real or imagined. Good times.

While some may think that writing a story based on a pre-determined theme, be it the holidays or any number of topics, are limiting for the reader, I see them as opportunities to enhance the space that the world around you is already in. I imagine that just like me immediately turning my music to my Christmas playlist the day after Thanksgiving, there are readers that can’t wait to settle down into a good story that is based on their favorite holiday.

After all, I can’t imagine anything cooler than curling up in your favorite reading spot and immersing yourself into a tale that is set exactly where your heart is at that time. And remember, whether it is Halloween, Turkey Day, or Christmas doesn’t matter. You, dear writer, still decide where the story takes you. So, my thriller, horror, suspense writers, feel free to off Santa, the Easter bunny, or the Great Pumpkin, at will, if that’s your pleasure.

 

We Will Sell No Wine Before Its Time from James W. Ziskin

We’ve all seen authors dropping cryptic hints on social media about big news they can’t share yet. Teasers that spark curiosity but also prompt questions like, Why the secrecy? and Who decides what to share and when?

With apologies to Orson Welles and the Paul Masson wine brand, “We will sell no wine before its time.”

Vaguebooking

I really don’t have strong feelings either way about it, other than to say that I doubt it’s effective as a marketing strategy. Or I should say it’s ineffective unless the you’re a big name with really big news. To be honest, if I tried to vaguebook, my FB and Instagram friends would either ignore the post or at least not comment on it. I don’t post news before its time.

In order to (attempt) to stay relevant, I usually post something every week or so, even if there’s nothing major going on in my writing life. Sometimes I resort to something personal, like cooking or cats or drawings, just to make sure my friends don’t forget me. I try not to flood my feed with too many posts too close together. I see many writers who post several items in one day, and while that may work for them, I doubt I could pull it off. I’m not that interesting.

If ever I’m bursting to share great news prematurely, I resist the urge. It’s difficult, but better to get a bang out of one good post than to have people scratching their heads wondering what I’m hinting at in a vaguebook post. I would even say that, at times, a cryptic post about news that can’t be shared is frustrating for the reader. Don’t tease me. I want satisfaction!

I haven’t had a new book out since December 2022, so there hasn’t been a lot for me to crow about, cryptically or otherwise. Every two weeks I post on FB and IG about my 7 Criminal Minds pieces, but not much else besides occasionally giving a shoutout to a friend’s book. And, of course, cats. I recently posted on Black Cat Appreciation Day. And when Tom Lehrer passed away, I put up a link to my favorite song of his, “I Got It from Agnes.” Click here to give a listen. I won’t spoil it with cryptic hints. It’s a funny song that lets the listener’s own dirty mind decide what “it” is.

And here’s a black cat, Boko, eating his salad.

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