BIG CHANGES COMING TO THE BOOKS YOU BUY

by Korina Moss

The way some of us read books will be different in the coming year. Two days ago, I read an article in The New York Times about the demise of the mass market paperback. Mass market paperbacks are the smaller paperbacks that sell between $7.99 and $9.99. If you’re a cozy mystery or romance reader, you’re especially familiar with these. But now, publishers have decided to do away with mass market paperbacks, and bookstores will no longer carry them. Anything that would’ve been sold as mass market will soon be in trade paperback size, which will cost between $15.99 and $21.99, which means you’ll have to increase your book budget.

Mass markets of my Cheese Shop Mystery 
(and trade paperback of the Spanish translation of 
Cheddar Off Dead)

Almost all cozy mysteries, like my Cheese Shop Mystery series, are published in mass market, because our books are almost always part of a series and our readers are loyal. Like readers of romance novels, our readers are known to devour several books a month (sometimes more), and the mass market price point allows for it. Along with cozy mysteries and romance, other genres, like thrillers, mysteries, and science fiction, will also feel the effects of doing away with the smaller, less expensive printed copy in favor of trade paperback.

There are several reasons for this decision, one being the introduction of the e-book. According to the NY Times article, “… In the United States, about 103 million mass markets were sold in 2006, the year before the Kindle was introduced. Last year, readers bought fewer than 18 million of them.” Although “physical books still account for about 75 percent of book sales,” mass market paperbacks took a hit. Over the past decade, 10,000 fewer mass market books were published. 

My 5th book, Fondue or Die, on the shelf at
Barnes & Noble with the other mass market cozy mysteries

As a writer and reader of cozy mysteries, this makes me wonder how they will fare. If it’s true, as The NY Times states, that “It wasn’t publishers leading away from mass markets. It was readers,” then it’s up to us. Will cozy mystery readers shell out an extra $6 or more for the pricier trade paperback cozy mystery? Will they accept the new format and higher prices and continue to purchase as many of their beloved books? Or will the cozy mystery genre ultimately pay the price?

If you’d like to read the full New York Times article, click here: So Long to Cheap Books You Could Fit in Your Pocket. 

Readers: How will this affect your book buying? 

KORINA MOSS is the author of the Cheese Shop Mystery series, which includes the winner of the Agatha Award for Best First Novel, as well as two novels short-listed for Best Contemporary Novel. Listed as one of USA Today’s “Best Cozy Mystery Series,” her books have also been featured in PARADE Magazine, Woman’s World, and Writer’s Digest. Korina is also a freelance developmental editor specializing in cozy mysteries. To learn more or subscribe to her free monthly newsletter, visit her website korinamossauthor.com.

Korina is also a freelance developmental editor specializing in cozy and traditional mysteries. Using her experience writing her award-winning series for a Big 5 publisher, she has the inside track on what editors, agents, and readers are looking for in a cozy mystery.  Whether you're a new writer hoping to be traditionally or independently published, or you're an established writer wanting some guidance with a manuscript, she can help you strengthen your book. You can find more information on her website and contact her at korinamossauthor@gmail.com

What Is Bibliophilic Friday by Nancy L. Eady

Writers Who Kill is published by a group of talented writers (and me) who work together to present fresh content for you, our readers, every day. One way we do this is by having designated blog days. Shortly before August of 2023, I picked up the third and fourth Fridays of every month. The first Bibliophilic Friday blog was published the third Friday of August, and I have tried to keep the tradition going since then, except for November, 2023 and our December hiatus. 

But I never took the time to explain what Bibliophilic Friday is.  It’s probably time I did so. A bibliophile is a person who loves books, so my posts on Bibliophilic Friday are about books I love. And that is the only qualification for a book to be featured in my Bibliophilic Friday column. A Bibliophilic Friday post cannot, in all fairness, be considered a book review since it will invariably be positive. I have a couple of unwritten rules in my own mind for no particular reason that I’m sure I’ll break at some point, including one that the books I choose to write about must have been around for a while, preferably decades, but at a minimum, years.  

I have been a reader ever since I can remember. I am the oldest of three girls, all of us readers.  When we were in grade school in California (Navy brats) and participating in a summer reading program at a library in Chula Vista, California, the librarian becoming suspicious of the number of books we had listed. She questioned us, and to her surprise, we had read all the books on our lists. After that, we were some of her favorite (juvenile) patrons. 

I have enjoyed mysteries as long as I have loved reading, cutting my teeth on Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden and Encyclopedia Brown. I also like science fiction, fantasy, history, science, some classic works (including Polybius’s History of Rome, Julius Caesar’s The Gallic Wars, and Suetonius’s The Twelve Caesars —English translations, not the original Greek or Latin thank you very much). Lest you think I’m too high brow, Barbara Cartland, Isabelle Holland, Phyllis Whitney, and Mary Stewart are my favorites for romances. 

So, I thought I’d take this Bibliophilic Friday to give you fair warning that you’ll never quite know what I will be writing about on the third Friday of every month—except that it will be about a book I loved. 

What are your favorite types of books? How long have you enjoyed reading? 

The Vintage Bookshelf: The Mrs. Pollifax Series

By Shari Randall

 

Welcome to another episode of the Vintage Bookshelf. My name is Shari Randall and I enjoy reading books published more than fifty years ago (the current definition of vintage). In this episode, I discuss a favorite series protagonist, one of the original “silver sleuths,” Dorothy Gilman's Mrs. Emily Pollifax.

 

As aa reader who falls into the “vintage” category, (not quite antique yet, thank you), I am especially pleased to have made the acquaintance of Mrs. Emily Pollifax of New Brunswick, New Jersey, a widow in her sixties who satisfied her longing for adventure by taking on the occasional undercover assignment for the CIA.

 

When we meet Emily in her first adventure, The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax (1966), she’s sharing with her garden club the night-blooming cereus that she’s managed to grown in a box on her fire escape. Despite this impressive horticultural feat and her forays into yoga and karate, Emily longs for more and she decides to write to the CIA to ask for a job. Through a (less than believable) mix up (hang in there, it’s worth it), she’s hired. Her CIA handler, Carstairs, believes that her resourceful and improvisational personality, disguised by her ladylike gloves and hats, makes her the perfect spy. Her adventures take her to geopolitical hot spots like Hong Kong, Morocco, Sicily, Mexico, and more. She goes undercover in carnivals, souks, and sanitariums. She’s held at gunpoint, knocked out with chloroform, and kidnapped numerous times, but with sturdy common sense and gumption she vanquishes experienced foreign agents, art forgers, and a cast of other bad actors.

 

Keep in mind, Mrs. Pollifax operates in a time when the Cold War was hot. Yes, as with all books on the vintage bookshelf, one is very occasionally jolted by attitudes and language that were acceptable at the time the book was written, but no longer. Never fear, Mrs. Pollifax maintains an open-hearted and broad-minded attitude that has insured her welcome on our bookshelves today. 

 

Dorothy Gilman

It’s particularly pleasing to see how popular these books have remained. There are websites and social media groups devoted to the series. The name of a popular mystery review site run by Mark Baker, Carstairs Considers, pays homage to Mrs. Pollifax’s CIA handler.

 

If you think Mrs. Pollifax bears some resemblance to Riley Rhodes, the protagonist of my Ice Cream Shop Mysteries (written with my super-secret pen name of Meri Allen) you would be correct - and very perceptive. Riley’s background as a former CIA librarian/occasional asset was inspired by Mrs. Pollifax.

 

Here are the Mrs. Pollifax books in order:

The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax (AKA Mrs. Pollifax, Spy)

The Amazing Mrs. Pollifax

The Elusive Mrs. Pollifax

A Palm for Mrs. Pollifax

Mrs. Pollifax on Safari

Mrs. Pollifax on the China Station

Mrs. Pollifax and the Hong Kong Buddha

Mrs. Pollifax and the Golden Triangle

Mrs. Pollifax and the Whirling Dervish

Mrs. Pollifax and the Second Thief

Mrs. Pollifax Pursued

Mrs. Pollifax and the Lion Killer

Mrs. Pollifax, Innocent Tourist

Mrs. Pollifax Unveiled1990)))

 

Who’s your favorite “silver sleuth?” Let me know in the comments.

 

Shari Randall is the author of the beloved Lobster Shack Mystery series and, as Meri Allen, the Ice Cream Shop Mysteries. You can see what she’s up to on Facebook (@sharirandallauthor) and Instagram (@meriallenbooks).

 

 

A WRITING RETREAT ON A CRUISE SHIP? GO FOR IT!

 by Korina Moss

When I’m feeling writer’s block or a deadline is nearing, I’ll sometimes search for a place to retreat to for a few days to spur my writing. A change of scenery gets me out of my routine, gives me permission to ignore most of my obligations, and tends to put the mojo back in my muse. I’m able to get a lot of writing done in a short amount of time. However, the most recent retreat I’d planned wasn’t intended to increase my word count—book 4 of my Cheese Shop Mystery series had been sent to my publisher the week prior. What I needed this time was to renew, refill, and recharge my creative energy. I was low on fuel from the intense month behind me and burning lower in anticipation of the busy months ahead. 

The release of book 3 in the series, CURDS OF PREY, on March 28th has filled my calendar with extra blog posts, podcast interviews, giveaways, and in-person and virtual events. My editor would soon be sending her feedback on that book 4 manuscript I’d just turned in, expecting my new revisions before the end of the month. And let’s not forget, the clock for my next book in the series has already begun ticking, which means brainstorming and outlining book 5 is also on the agenda. Thus, the need for all those aforementioned re words. A solo retreat was in order, but what kind would trigger my creative energy and preempt burnout? 

Nothing makes me feel better more quickly than being out at sea, but I’d never tried combining writing with cruising. After hesitating to try it for years, I finally decided to pull the trigger (sorry, it’s the mystery writer in me) and take a week-long solo writing retreat cruise. If you think a cruise is the last place to have a successful writing retreat, let me tell you why it worked for me. 

No responsibilities or decisions. Unless you count which food to eat or where to write, I was completely carefree. There was nothing to figure out, no meals to plan, buy, or cook, no dishes to wash, no chores to do. I didn’t even have to make my bed. 

Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes. To borrow from Jimmy Buffett, new scenery and a warmer climate are good for the soul. Speaking for myself, a new perspective is good for my writing. Booking at a time when there were no school vacations and leaving from a northeast port made the cruise more convenient for me, less expensive, and less crowded. I could write wherever I wanted, whether it was outside by the pool or in the cozy wine bar, while listening to live music or in the solitary space of my balcony cabin, or while in the shade or soaking up some sun. And I got to be in the Bahamas in February. New attitude, here I come!

The vibe. An atmosphere conducive to writing was achieved through good planning coupled with good luck. I chose Anthem of the Seas—not a small ship, but also not in Royal Caribbean’s fleet of largest ships. The research I did showed lots of cozy indoor and outdoor writing spots for cool and warm weather. This particular ship had three pools but no big slides, and all the children’s activities were in one central indoor gaming area. There was also an adults-only solarium providing wide vistas and a smaller, quiet café. I felt all this would bode well for me to find adequate places to write and brainstorm and snack (an essential part to my writing and brainstorming). I’ve been on three-day cruises out of Miami, and I’ve been on school vacation cruises with my son. Both are as crazy and crowded as you’d expect them to be and wouldn’t have worked for my purposes. Luckily, the vibe on this cruise was decidedly chill—perfect for my retreat. I also chose a cruise with four sea days, and I skipped the two ports that didn’t entice me. This meant more time to settle into ship life and focus on my writing.

The view. Almost every spot on the ship had a great view. What better place for your imagination to roam than the expanse of the sea? Getting to be in a beautiful location sure made “working” easier. My balcony room instantly put me in the right frame of mind every morning, no meditation required. Going to sleep and waking up to the sights and sounds of the sea was a direct route to all those re words.

Limited internet. It would’ve been best to eliminate internet entirely and really unplug for the week. However, I felt I had to be available to my editor and publicist for any inquiries that might come my way, since this was my book release month. (Sure enough, I had several events that needed to be scheduled.) I also enjoyed taking my friends and social media followers along on this trip with me, but I kept it in check, as there’s nothing more creativity crushing than spending time scrolling social media. The good news is that internet is slow and sometimes hard to access on a ship. I brought my laptop to post my retreat updates and I checked my email twice a day. The rest of the time, I only had a pen and notebook. Forcing plenty of quiet time on myself—time without talking, scrolling, mindless TV, or reading all day—focused my mind on creative pursuits. 

Time for play. How often do your daily writing breaks at home include purposeful recreation? With so much at my fingertips, I made my non-writing time count. I indulged in pool time, I attended a musical, I listened to the guitarist at the pub, I participated in a Sudoku challenge, I chatted with other cruisers, I enjoyed leisurely dinners, I read on my balcony at night under the stars… I even took a whole day off to enjoy the beach when we docked at the ship’s private island. If I’d come with someone else, I would’ve been too tempted to play all day. Cruising solo with my mind set on the trip as a retreat, my limited but purposeful “play” time was restorative.

My solo writing retreat cruise accomplished all the re words. It was the reset I needed to support my creativity and my mental health. I’d love to be able to take a cruise whenever I feel the pressures of a writing career unbalancing me, but alas, I have yet to win the lottery or a six-figure publishing deal. Until then, I’ll carry over some of the lessons learned from this retreat into my daily life at home. Now if I could only replicate that view…

Readers: Would you consider taking a solo cruise? Where would your dream retreat take place?

To read Korina's daily log from her solo retreat cruise and see more photos, go to her author FB page.

Korina Moss's latest book in the Cheese Shop Mystery series, CURDS OF PREY, releases March 28. To learn more, visit her website. 

An Authorly Experience by Marilyn Levinson

We write our books and send them out into the world. Sometimes we hear from people who are reading them because they tell us so on Facebook. Or they're kind enough to review them or send us an email. But what about the people we never know about?

Yesterday I called my service provider because my WiFi had died three times in the previous twenty-four hours. I got someone rather quickly and I explained my problem. I won't go into the details but it wasn't the warmest of exchanges. I said I was happy to speak to a supervisor whenever he or she could call me and explained that my WiFi was very important to me because I was a writer.

"You're a writer? What do you write?"                                          

"Mysteries," I told her. 

"I love mysteries," she told me. A minute later she said, "I think I read some of your books." I wondered about that but then she mentioned Murder the Tey Way, a book I'd written several years ago. 

Then came a bigger surprise. She told me that when she went to help at an Egyptian orphanage (she is Egyptian and living in the U. S.) she brought my children's book Rufus and Magic Run Amok and used it to help teach the children English. 

Wow! I was thrilled to learn that one of my books had traveled so far, and she was delighted to be speaking to a real live author! We went on to have the warmest of conversations. This is one phone call I'll remember for a long, long time.

 

The Challenge and Reward of Writing a Standalone Series

by Korina Moss

 

Cozy mysteries are my favorite kinds of books to read because they are generally standalone series. I know standalone series sounds like an oxymoron, but it’s really the best of both worlds. Although the series is a continuation of the same characters in the same town, each book’s mystery is complete--it stands alone without plot cliffhangers. I love these types of mysteries because even when I’m racing to finish and find out whodunnit, I don’t want it to end. I always want to continue to follow the characters, even doing their routine things. Just give me a few more chapters of them eating breakfast… working together… doing anything so I don’t have to leave them yet! 

I always start with the first book in a series. Being a writer of a standalone series, however, I’m aware that the first book a reader may pick up may not be Cheddar Off Dead, the first book in my cheese shop mystery series. The challenge comes in writing descriptions that draw new readers in but don’t bore those who are well-versed in my fictional town of Yarrow Glen. A friend of mine who’s an avid cozy mystery reader was put off by an author whose long-running series she loves, but who describes the town and characters the same, verbatim, in every book. As an author, I understand the temptation—it’s difficult to find new ways to describe people and places when you want new readers to know the same things that old readers know. Unfortunately, we can’t all be Sue Grafton in how cleverly she not only made her recapped descriptions work but made them comforting to return to in each book. 

The best part of writing this kind of series is being able to develop my characters and their relationships over many books. I was thrilled when my publisher offered me a second contract to write three more books in my cheese shop mystery series, for a total of six books thus far. It means I can think more long-term about my characters, and it allows them more room to grow. My readers can get to know them even better and see how their personalities and relationships change over time. When readers open another cheese shop mystery, I want them to immediately feel they’re back among old friends. 

The second cheese shop mystery, Gone For Gouda, releases on September 27th and is available for pre-order. Cheddar Off Dead is available wherever books are sold. You can go to korinamossauthor.com for more information. 

Are you like me and always start a series from the first book or do you pick up the latest book? 

Books and Reading by Marilyn Levinson

An hour ago, I downloaded a book that's on sale and sent it to my Kindle. It was a psychological suspense novel, the genre I'm into these days. Nothing unusual for me to acquire another book since I read and listen to several at a time. The question I ask myself is will I get to the hundreds of books on my Kindle, the few hundred on my bookshelves, and the ones I keep downloading via Libby and other sites? So many books. So little time!

A few years ago, I was discussing this problem with a fellow book lover and author. She had just provided me with several new titles I had never heard of but knew I would enjoy.                                                "How will I ever manage to read all the books I want to," I complained.                                                  "Did you ever think you would?" was Johanna's reply.

Undaunted, I try to make a dent in the number of books waiting for me patiently to pay them the attention they deserve. Some books, like the ones I read for my book club and those I'm asked to blurb, sneak ahead on the To Be Read list. That list grows constantly as new books are published and I try to read more books that friends have written.  Still, it's a nice feeling to have several choices available when I'm about to start a new book. I simply scan my Kindle titles or the ones on my bookshelves and I'm off on a new reading adventure.

A Time to Move by Kait Carson

Things at Casa Carson are up in the air. At least those things that aren’t already in boxes. My husband and I had been talking about permanently moving from Florida to our Maine home for a long time. Somehow the time never seemed right. Or something came up. We were all set to go three years ago. Then Irma blew through. Dealing with insurance and repairs took two years. While we were making repairs, we decided to turn the house into the one we always wanted. 

All well and good, except once all the renovations were done, we realized we simply didn’t want to stay in the Sunshine State. Maine was exerting its siren call, and we were more than ready to trade beaches for woods. 

We were deep in planning when COVID-19 threw a major spanner in the works.

Oddly enough, COVID-19 also became the deciding factor. My husband and I realized how uncertain life can be. A simple trip to the grocery store can result in terminal illness. If that happened, we wanted to be in Maine. The time had come. We put the house on the market and made our plans to go.

The current plan is to be in Maine by late July – whether or not our Florida house has sold. We decided not to move in the winter, and that can start in mid-August some years. We wanted to pick our time and acclimate. 

There is one catch. We’ve always sold the incumbent house before the move and then had packers from the moving company do the boxing-up honors. In this time of a pandemic, we can’t count on a fast sale, so we are packing ourselves this time. Okay, my husband is packing. I committed to starting with my books. With the exception of writing craft, autographed series collections, and some books with sentimental attachments, I figured the majority would go into the donate pile. Easy peasy.

Here’s a tip. Never let a writer pack the books. I have rediscovered so many volumes I had forgotten I owned. Naturally, finding a forgotten book means opening it and maybe reading, well just the dust cover. NOT. It means sitting on the floor, starting at page one and promising yourself a fifteen-minute visit with this old friend to decide if it goes in the box or on the donate pile. FAIL. With the exception of the books already on my donate pile, I’ve learned to simply put all the books on my shelves into the boxes. There’s plenty of places in Maine to donate, including the St. Agatha Library funded a few years ago by the Stephen and Tabatha King Foundation.

It’s always best to travel with friends.

How about you. Are you able to read a few pages of books you loved enough to shelve and then put it in the donate pile? What’s your secret?

Three Words I Never Thought I'd Write by Susan Van Kirk

I’m new to Writers Who Kill, and A Death at Tippitt Pond—my fifth mystery—is coming out June 15 from Encircle Publications. It’s a first mystery in a new series, and the plot relies completely on the results of a DNA test.

Seems simple, right? Uh, no. Not for me.

I should explain that science was the bane of my existence in high school. Imagine my horror when I realized I was required to take a science class my junior year—me, the English and history person. Pictures of my sinking GPA coursed through my brain. This would be a nightmare. I signed up for chemistry and quickly realized my teacher was speaking in a foreign tongue. Moles, protons, Bunsen burners, and possibly explosions—leading to expulsion or possible prison if I killed people—haunted my sleep. How was I going to survive this class? I was nothing if not resourceful. I grabbed a brilliant lab partner who was going into the medical field. With her lead on experiments and endless cramming before tests, I survived. Yolanda saved my GPA. Victory was mine. I had defeated science.

Fast forward to college. Since I had foolishly signed up for physics my last year of high school and dropped it after two hopeless weeks, I now had a one-semester college science requirement. Where was Yolanda when I needed her? Could I survive a second time? The first day of Biology 101, the professor teamed me with a lab partner—a guy from New York City. Imagine my horror when we dissected a fetal pig, and he saved the heart to send to his girlfriend who had recently and unceremoniously dumped him. I thought he was kidding. He wasn’t.

Nor am I.

Let’s simply say I sighed with relief when I passed the biology class, and figured I’d never have to deal with science—or my mad scientist lab partner—ever again.

Then I decided to write mysteries. I honestly believe I subconsciously chose to write cozy mysteries rather than detective procedurals because I knew if I wrote the latter I would have to wrestle with science.

Forensics=science.

My publisher waited two full years before releasing my second Endurance mystery. To keep my audience reading, I decided to self-publish a novella in between the novels. When I wrote The Locket: From the Casebook of TJ Sweeney, I forgot forensics=science and focused the plot on my detective who was trying to solve a cold case from the 1940s. Sweeney had a murder victim, but identifying her proved difficult because no DNA information existed back then, and unless she was in a missing person’s database, Detective Sweeney had no chance to figure out the victim’s identity or what happened to her. So far, I was relieved—no science for me.

Whoa. How was my detective going to identify this person? With great reluctance, I began researching the science of DNA. I read forensics books, and I talked with a county coroner who was quite an expert on it. While I can’t tell you the solution and spoil the mystery, let’s just say that I figured it out and began to feel a little better about my past wrestling match with science. After all, in this competition I was three and science was zero.

In my latest book, A Death at Tippitt Pond, we’re dealing with a possible inheritance that hinges on a DNA match. Remember the famous trials you’ve watched on television in years gone by? The DNA evidence took FOREVER to come back. My plot couldn’t wait that long. I’d have to tap dance for two hundred pages. Then I discovered a 2010 article about a new DNA test whose results took four hours. HOURS, not months. The study was first published in Analytical Chemistry. Bingo. While the new test wasn’t yet widely used by police departments, the science was there, and—bonus—I could understand it. In the past year, an even faster DNA test has become available. This solved my plot problem and made identification of people and their relatives much faster.

Hooray for science—three words I never thought I’d write.

A Mind Like A Steel Sieve by Nancy Eady

I have a mind like a steel sieve.  Coupling that with an innate tendency toward absent-mindedness causes interesting results.  Odd, random facts pop up from the depths based on something I read or studied years before or just yesterday.  At work, I am the institutional memory, since a) I’ve been there since the law office first opened in 1991, b) there’s a good chance I might find the brief, complaint or discovery request we did in 1995 if the asker can give me facts about the case and it was one I worked on, and c) no one else seems to be able to do it. 

On the other hand, I have returned to the den from the kitchen (five steps) to re-ask such burning questions as “did you say you wanted Cream of Chicken or Vegetable Beef soup for lunch?”  I’ve caught myself searching for my glasses more than once while wearing them.  One time I visited the drive-through at Wendy’s for lunch.  I was really irritated when the line didn’t move for five minutes.  At least, I was irritated until I realized that I was waiting behind a parked car instead of the drive-through line.

Occasionally, I leave the house knowing I need to go to Store A and “wake up” ten minutes later to realize I sailed past Store A five minutes ago.  A similar phenomenon occurs with groceries.  I leave the house to go to the grocery store because I need butter.  I return to the house thirty minutes later with one hundred dollars’ worth of groceries, but no butter.  When I’m writing, I keep the names of the major characters straight without too much trouble, but in the writing zone where my fingers dance over the keyboard with a mind of their own, I might insert the name of a minor character with a moniker such as “Judge _______” or “Greg/Bill” and check their true identity later. 

One of the few memory things I am truly good at, for some odd reason, is numbers.  Not numbers as in arithmetic, but numbers associated with such things as Social Security, driver’s licenses, and telephones.  I remember such numbers easily after only a few uses.  I may be the only person left in America who dials phone numbers rather than punching a button on my contacts.  It’s easier using the number I already know without having to find the contact. 

When I reach a number I don’t know yet, the memory process becomes fascinating.  Say, for example, that I have a new phone number I dialed in the morning and then in the afternoon tried to dial from memory.  Without exception, when I get the number wrong, I’m only off by one digit (for example, a 6 instead of a 7) or I’ve transposed two numbers (1-8 instead of 8-1).  My guess is that my brain is close to storing the information, but hasn’t finished yet.   

My absent-mindedness and steel sieve tendencies still kick in from time to time even with numbers.  The best candidates for number malfunctions are numbers I’ve known for a long time, but haven’t used for a while.  For example, once I forgot the PIN number to my ATM card because, for whatever reason, I hadn’t used the ATM for a while.  (This was in the days before debit cards, when all ATM cards let you do was retrieve money from the ATM.)  I kept trying to remember for months, but finally broke down and called the bank to get a new number.

The other memory task I’m superb at is books—plots, authors, and titles.  I love reading and remember the titles and author’s names of books I enjoyed.  Such literary memory storage is useful when I’m trying to locate old favorites I read from the library years ago to keep at my house.  All such quests are part of the pre-Kindle era, but a few remain uncompleted.

So what type of memory do you have?    Short or long?  Strong or weak?  Facts, numbers or people’s faces?  Let me hear from you! 

Procrastination or Recharging?

PROCRASTINATION OR RECHARGING? by Debra H. Goldstein

I don’t want to write this blog. In fact, I don’t want to write anything. For that matter, I don’t even want to mark the grocery items on my delivery app so someone in a green t-shirt can restock our larder. Other than attending Mystery in the Midlands, all I’ve been in the mood of doing since we returned from Alaska is playing games on my computer, watching TV, listening to music, and reading.

And reading. 

       And reading.

              And reading.

I can proudly report I’m caught up on my backlog of periodicals and I made a dent in my TBR pile by reading Kitchen Confidential (Anthony Bourdain), Poppy Done to Dead (Charlaine Harris), Someday Someday Maybe (Lauren Graham), Black Fedora, Glitter and Glue (Kelly Corrigan), The Hangman (Louise Penny), Kitty Kitty Bang Bang (Sparkle Abbey), Beach Trip (Cathy Holton), Dead Storage (Mary Feliz) and The President is Missing (Bill Clinton and James Patterson), How to Write Pulp Fiction (James Scott Bell), I Know What You Bid Last Summer (Sherry Harris), The Day I Died (Lori Rader-Day), By Cook or By Crook (Maya Corrigan), Relatively Dead (Sheila Connolly), Classified as Murder (Miranda James), Necessary Ends (Tina Whittle), and Tiny Beautiful Things (Cheryl Strayed).

I should be writing.

Instead, I’ve also been keeping up with most of the blogs I need to pre-review, short stories I am asked to critique for the Guppy Emerald’s group, two books that shall remain nameless that I read for blurbing purposes, and reading and writing Facebook posts.

I should be seated in a chair and writing – not watching TV or playing on my computer.

Does meeting friends for lunch, attending charity events, or posting list serv responses and handling tasks for various volunteer organizations count at least for the “seated” part?

When I was a high school debater, we defined “should” as “ought to but not necessarily will.” That’s me – I should be writing, but I’m not necessarily listening to that voice inside my head.

I should be kicking myself for wasting the past month, but I’m not. You know why? Because I think taking a break (though maybe not this long) recharges one’s batteries. The only problem is knowing when to know I’ve recharged enough and have now slipped into procrastination. I think I reached that point today during a spider solitaire game. I got bored. That’s a sure sign that it is time for me to return to writing.

What about you? What brings you back to the task at hand? Or, are you one of those who only talks about writing?