As some of you know, I did devise a restaurant guide for Bouchercon. (Click on "My website" up above.) But -- note the title of this blog -- I forgot a few places. The Brewer's Art is a mile north of the hotel, according to Google. I don't go there often because it makes me feel old, but it has outstanding beers. They also want you to know that they do not and have never made their fries in duck fat. Ever since they set the record straight on that, I have been longing for fries in duck fat. Bicycle Read more [...]

Thanks to the folks who have worried about the missing chapter in the serial; it turns out the Times had a special publication this week, so there was a gap. Meanwhile, although I haven't been publishing the reviews of Hardly Knew Her here, I got one today so nice that I feel compelled to quote it. Bear in mind, I still believe that good reviews are probably more damaging to a writer's mental health than bad ones. And I'm not crowing or gloating. But it's just a really nice review that highlights Read more [...]

James Crumley, one of the most influential crime writers from the second half of the 20th century, has died. I might have more to say about this later, but for now I'm just going to post the transcript of an interview I did with Jim for CrimeSpree: ETA: This was a transcript I found on my laptop and I had screwed up the title of Crumley's first book.ETA: Actually, I had it right, trusted someone else, changed it, made it wrong. Now it's right again. Sheesh. I first met James Crumley in the Bahamas Read more [...]

But just in case some TMP denizens missed <a href=" http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/07/magazine/07serial-t.html ">it</a>.

And if anyone new is dropping by: Welcome. This is a blog of sorts, based on a writing exercise I once used. I also hijack it at times to link to career stuff.

For reasons I can't quite fathom -- actually, they are totally fathomable, but I am in denial -- I threw myself into a very rigorous office cleaning yesterday and today. And, possibly, into tomorrow. I am lucky enough to have a nice office with lots of shelf space. But it's never enough, is it? So I began weeding my book collection into two piles -- "Give Away" and "Keep but Box." Years ago, while I was interning at the Atlanta Constitution, I remember the television critic -- Richard Zoglin, at Read more [...]