Welcome to the World by Saralyn Richard There’s a reason launching a book is often compared to delivering a baby. Books are conceived in passion—whether love, hate, anger, or shame—they begin from a deep-seated surge of emotion. The iimpetus for the book grows and develops into something tangible, something very personal and worthy. After […]
Happy Valentine’s Day by Saralyn Richard Today is Valentine’s Day, and I hope you are spending the holiday enjoying the people, places, and things you love most. As for me, I can’t help thinking of my most cherished Valentine’s Day gifts over the years–you guessed it–books. Unlike the more traditional Valentine’s Day gifts, […]
Literary Tapas and Readers By Saralyn Richard There are 124 Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes (OLLI) in the U.S., where learners aged fifty-five and older can experience higher education without grading or course credits. One of the classes I’ve taught at the local OLLI is entitled, Literary Tapas. I began teaching this literature class […]
Hurray for In-Person Events by Saralyn Richard When the pandemic hit hard in March, 2020, I had just released A Palette for Love and Murder, and I had a full calendar of events for promoting it. Launch parties, bookstore talks, organization meetings, book clubs—all had been carefully lined up, taking many hours of […]
’Tis the Season for Food, Food, Food by Saralyn Richard Holidays and food have a symbiotic relationship. You can’t have one without the other. The same can be said for mysteries and food, at least in the two Detective Parrott mysteries, Murder in the One Percent and A Palette for Love and Murder. […]
What I’ve Learned about Death Services by Saralyn Richard When I was a senior in high school, I had an English teacher who moonlighted as a mortician. I don’t remember much about the course curriculum, but I have vivid memories of his stories about dead bodies, sitting up while he worked on them. Mr. […]
BODIES GALORE by Saralyn Richard This month, it’s my pleasure to interview fellow-Stiletto-Gang-member, Gay Yellen, author of the Samantha Newman Mystery Series: The Body Business and The Body Next Door. While I’ve known Gay for a very long time, I learned a lot from this interview, and […]
Libraries By Saralyn Richard Rosenberg Library’s Fox Room I’ve always loved libraries. My mother was a regular patron at the turn-of-the-century library and museum in my hometown, Rosenberg Library, and I remember climbing the marble stairs to the third-floor children’s library, where I […]
The MacGuffin by Saralyn Richard Recently my husband and I binge-watched a collection of Alfred Hitchcock movies, each of which came with bonus material, including commentary from actors and filmmakers involved with its production. As a mystery writer, I found these commentaries almost as fascinating as the movies themselves. One of […]
What’s Happening to the English Language? by Saralyn Richard I’ve wanted to be a writer for as long as I can remember. My parents encouraged me to be an English teacher, instead. So, I spent several decades reading and grading other people’s writing. I even taught journalism and creative writing—to teenagers and later […]