Literary detectives rarely work alone. Sherlock had Watson. Nero Wolfe had Archie Goodwin. Poirot had Captain Hastings. Then there are Nick and Nora Charles, Tommy and Tuppence Beresford, Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs, and Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane. Authors make good use of the sidekicks throughout the series. The sidekick provides […]
Love-Hate Relationship with English Grammar by Saralyn Richard Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash I taught high school English for many years in the days when students had to write ten mandatory papers per quarter, or forty papers per year. According to my estimates, I’ve graded over seven thousand papers, not counting major assignments, where I […]
Writing a Series—It’s All in the Protagonist by Saralyn Richard A man wearing a hat photo – Free On Image on Unsplash I never planned to write a series. My first mystery novel, MURDER IN THE ONE PERCENT, set in the lush landscape of Brandywine Valley, Pennsylvania, centered around a birthday party where […]
Woman of the Year By Saralyn Richard I found out in April that the Galveston Regional Chamber of Commerce would be celebrating me as a Woman of the Year for 2023. The announcement, broadcast live on social media, came as a total surprise—overwhelming to this day. The honor entails participating in an all-day video […]
Work Life Balance by Saralyn Richard I was recently asked in a video interview what my work-life balance looked like. I had to laugh. I’m sorry to say I’ve never perfected work-life balance, and I’ve never really tried. While I’m a perfectionist in many things, anything that requires me to pay attention to time […]
What Makes Me Happy By Saralyn Richard Recently, one of my writer friends, Kathleen Kaska, featured me in her newsletter, the theme of which was: What Makes You Happy? I had fun answering Kathleen’s questions and thought I’d share them with you. What makes you happy? children and dogs! A long-time educator, I taught […]
Fighting the Good Fight—For the Arts by Saralyn Richard My first foray into the world of teaching was as an English instructor, and I learned a lot about working with students in a required academic subject. Several years into that career, I earned a graduate degree in administration, and I switched out of the English […]
Are You a Readaholic? by Saralyn Richard I’m a readaholic, and my addiction began when I was two years old! My mother realized that I was reading, and she encouraged me by taking me to the children’s section of the library and loading me up with all the books allowed for checkout at one […]
Teaching Creative Writing By Saralyn Richard I always wanted to be an author, but I was sidetracked into teaching by my parents, who felt writing was not a real job. I didn’t mind that much. I loved teaching, too, and when the opportunity arose for me to teach creative writing to high school students, I […]
Focus by Debra H. Goldstein Focus. From a writer’s perspective, the word embraces a simple but necessary concept – concentrating on the task at hand. It sounds easy: pay attention and the idea will be conceived, executed, eventually published, and promoted. But, that’s not how the real world works. Life offers each of us major […]