By Jenny Milchman For those of us who are parents of a certain age and stage, it’s college decision season. The months—years—maybe as much as a decade plus of hard academic work that our kids (and we!) have put in is coming to fruition. By this point in the spring, acceptances, spots on waitlists,...
FIVE LESSONS LEARNED FROM RUNNING THE FBI OBSTACLE COURSE AT QUANTICO
By Isabella Maldonado The FBI National Academy is an advanced course for law enforcement executives from around the world. For approximately three months, over 200 men and women move into college-style dorms at the FBI training campus at Quantico. The academic portion of the program is...
HOW PATIENCE PAYS OFF
By Karna Small Bodman Our Naples Public Library hosts four best-selling fiction authors a year at luncheons that draw some 600 readers and are major fund-raisers for the library. At one, the speaker was Pam Jenoff. Her latest book is Code Name Sapphire: A World War 2 Novel. Inspired by a true...
RITES OF PASSAGE
By Chris Goff Officially, Spring began on March 19th and, if I'm being honest, it's beautiful in Western Michigan. We moved here a year ago and I'm still acclimating. The transition from Coloradan to Michigander has been more difficult than I ever imagined. I am a mountain girl at heart. I grew up...
ON TOUR WITH DEAD WRITERS: THE SHELTON
By Z.J. Czupor On Tour with Dead Writers is Z.J. Czupor's new installment on Rogue Women Writers. Guess the correct dead writer and be entered to win a free book. This is a postcard rendition of the 31-story Shelton Hotel, once heralded as the tallest skyscraper in the world, which opened in 1923....
HOW OLD ARE YOU—REALLY?
By Karna Small Bodman Satchel Page once said, “How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are?” That’s an intriguing question. I recently discovered one clever way to find out. I read an article in The Wall Street Journal about three companies/laboratories who use a DNA sample to estimate...
FINGERPRINTS AND FISH TANKS: Does that really work?
By Lisa Black Remember that scene in Beverly Hills Cop II where Eddie Murphy uses Judge Reinhold's turtle tank and some superglue to develop a fingerprint on a matchbook? It was 1987, and that was not commonly known technology to the average viewer, who probably wondered if that actually worked....
ON TOUR WITH DEAD WRITERS: O CANADA
By Z.J. Czupor On Tour with Dead Writers is Z.J. Czupor's new installment on Rogue Women Writers. Guess the correct dead writer and be entered to win a free book. The Univeristy of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, Canada is where this award-winning writer re-united with her old high school...
MY FAVORITE PART
By Tosca Lee Sometimes people ask me what my favorite part of writing is. It’s not first drafts. Pull my fingernails out with pliers, why don’t you. Rewriting and editing is much more fun. That’s where I roll my sleeves up and really get to work. Because now I’ve got that messy lump of clay on the...
WHEN TO CELEBRATE A NEW NOVEL
By Alex Kava I just launched novel #23! Actually, I completed the manuscript months ago, but the book was just released into the world December 17th. As an author I’ve always wavered back and forth about when to celebrate a new book. When I was traditionally published, sending the finished...