http://www.loraroberts.net Wed, 26 Apr 2006 00:23:44 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Hi, everyone! You might not know who I am. I write mystery novels (listed here somewhere)--nine so far, and another one in gestation stage. And I do other things. I'm a medical editor, I procrastinate, and I think about my garden. Now I've got this spiffy new page, with some old ... http://www.loraroberts.net/2006/04/25/new-page-for-lora/ Mrs. Isabella Beeton was an intrepid young woman who saw her numerous younger siblings to adulthood on the untimely death of her mother, married and produced her own family, and found time to write and publish a thousand pages on every domestic issue known to woman before suffering an untimely ... http://www.loraroberts.net/2006/04/24/mrs-beeton-the-domestic-art-of-observation-and-sherlock-holmes/ Long ago, children, before there was such a thing as AOL, I wrote my first mystery. I was inspired by local events in the quaint hamlet of Palo Alto, where a real estate frenzy raged and folks were tearing down nice old houses to build ugly monstrosities. (This was long ... http://www.loraroberts.net/2006/04/24/another-fine-mess-for-bridget/ You have a reason other than parental burnout for locking yourself in your room where the kids can't get at you. It's okay to eavesdrop on the conversations of others. You can save by getting red pens by the gross. Your ... http://www.loraroberts.net/2006/04/24/top-ten-reasons-to-be-a-mystery-writer/ It started with the petits-fours. I saw them in the catalog of a certain Maven of Style (note initials). Cute little cakes in different shapes, beautifully decorated with fine-lined frosting curlicues. I wanted them. I was turning 50, and thought it would assuage my pain to have fifty little cakes ... http://www.loraroberts.net/2006/04/24/little-cakes-and-murder/ The first Liz Sullivan mystery, Murder in a Nice Neighborhood, featured a vagabond amateur sleuth who lived in her VW bus for reasons of economy and expeditiousness—it was cheap and easy to get away quick if you needed to. It never occurred to me that Liz Sullivan should have a ... http://www.loraroberts.net/2006/04/24/how-the-dog-got-in-my-mysteries/ ...or how to do a who-done-it Mysteries require a sharpening of the elements found in any good traditional novel. There must be conflict on many levels—personal, situational and systemic. Something important must be at stake for the viewpoint character, something the reader wants that character to have. Unlike other forms of ... http://www.loraroberts.net/2006/04/24/anatomy-of-a-mystery/ Those who love crime fiction divide it into many sub-genres—espionage, private investigator, police procedural, cozy. Those of us who are often slotted into the cozy arena prefer the term Amateur Sleuth, because it more accurately describes what happens in the book. My books, for instance, feature a viewpoint character who ... http://www.loraroberts.net/2006/04/24/not-so-cozy-amateur-sleuths-with-attitude/ My first mystery was inspired because of circumstances unique to the Bay Area, and to Palo Alto in particular. In the early 80's, the age of redevelopment, buildings were routinely torn down and rebuilt better—i.e., bigger. Down the block from our aging house, two lovely Queen Anne houses—big front porches, ... http://www.loraroberts.net/2006/04/24/bay-area-mayhem-killing-in-my-own-backyard/ Here it is in a nutshell: Born and raised in Missouri, moved to California 30 years ago, lived here ever since with spouse and children. Well, children have grown up and gone their own ways (though they still help me out with technical issues--thanks for the new web page, Jeremy!). Writing ... http://www.loraroberts.net/2006/04/24/my-life-and-times/