Even Fictional Detectives Have to Eat!
I was recently asked to write a blog about my books and food. My first thought was that I wouldn’t ...
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Grandma’s Roast
How is your grandmother’s roast like a period inside a quote mark? Somewhere along my path as a kid I ...
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A Drug Affair, the seventh Spencer Manning mystery, set for release.
A Drug Affair, the seventh Spencer Manning mystery, is done and will be out mid February. It was a challenge, ...
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On the Shoulders of Giants
In my last blog I followed the mystery novel from its inception up to the late 1800s. Sherlock Holmes and ...
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Recipe for Mystery
Many have asked me what it takes to be a writer. My answer is… be a reader. Read voraciously, especially ...
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Book Seven – Too Many Suspects!
The seventh book in the Spencer Manning mystery series is about one-third done. This book is about drugs, a problem ...
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Don’t Live Next to a Volcano
Disclaimer: this blog has nothing to do with Spencer Manning Mysteries… except that it also uses the art of placing ...
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To Read or Not to Read…
I recently tossed a book into the recycle bin. I have thrown a few into the garbage (the ultimate protest) ...
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Suffering For My Craft
Something you enjoy doing should be relaxing and a stress reliever. Right? You would think so… so would I. But ...
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Interview With Spencer Manning
I conducted the following interview with my detective, Spencer Manning, based on questions posed by readers. Some questions led to ...
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What Could Be Bad About a Good Review?
In my last blog I talked about bad reviews. Every author gets bad reviews. You can’t please everybody, and everybody ...
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What’s in a Review?
Writing a book is a challenging undertaking. Even more so is the marketing. Fifty thousand new books are published on ...
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Death’s Door, the Final Clue – or Be Careful When Making Fashion Choices
In a prior blog I mentioned that good writers need to read books in their genre to get a feel ...
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Spencer Manning – Development of a Character
There have been many articles written about how to be a successful writer. Of the ones I have read, all ...
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This Crazy Language of Mine
As I write and edit, I constantly find myself scratching my head about American English and wondering how anyone manages ...
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Thomas Midgley, Chemically Speaking – Part 2
My last blog left Thomas Midgley having solved the engine knock problem by adding leaded gas to the world’s troubles ...
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History in the Mystery: Chemically Speaking
Thomas Midgley was a chemist and inventor who held over one hundred patents. What he is best known for—and no ...
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My Kingdom for a Story
I have been lucky to have an idea for the next Spencer mystery before I finish the current book… until ...
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Spencer Manning Name the Dog Contest
In the fifth book of the Spencer Manning series (the working title is A Frame for Joey), Carol’s son, Billy, ...
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A Luxury Authors Don’t Appreciate
I recently played a concert with the Elgin Community College jazz band (trumpet). One of the tunes was Miles Davis’ ...
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The Mystery Spencer Can’t Solve
Spencer Manning is a private investigator. He solves mysteries. So far he’s solved them all. But then I have some ...
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So, You Want to be an Author
In the 1940s there was a series of movie comedy shorts by Joe McDoakes with the titles “So You Want ...
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Interim Spencer – Short Story
A recent request from my publisher prompted me to write a short story version of the Spencer Manning mysteries. An ...
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History in the Mystery – McDonald’s
In Missing Boy. Spencer talks about the first McDonald’s, in Des Plaines, IL. He relates an incident that happened to him ...
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What’s in a Name?
When I start a new book one of the first chores is to identify characters and assign names. You’d think ...
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History in the Mystery – Riverview Amusement Park
As a kid, I spent many wonderful summer days at Riverview Amusement Park, the largest in the country. When I ...
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Middle East Tension at its Best
Set amongst the Israeli-Hezbollah war in Lebanon in 2006, the plot of the Syrian mirrors the deceit, tension, and intrigue ...
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True Crime At Its Best
How would you feel if you were sentenced to five years in federal prison for a few ounces of marijuana? ...
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History in the Mystery – The Chicago Outfit
In my third book in the Spencer Manning mystery series, Harbor Nights, I introduced a secondary character by the name ...
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What’s In a Mystery
I write mysteries. But, in a way, so does every other writer. Every good story, in every genre, contains some ...
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Free Sample Chapters
She walked into my office wearing a red dress and a look of confusion, sat down, and asked, “Are you ...
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The Making of a Soft-Boiled Detective
Before I could read, my dad read mysteries to me. His favorite authors were Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. So ...
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