University of South Alabama Fiction Writing

08/22/2024

Blame this one on Donna Ingle Walker. Ha ha ha

07/29/2024

The scams and crooked people are really getting to me. Beware.

Authors are constantly being targeted by fake publisher scams. Here we break down one such site and explain what to look for.

07/17/2024

I have found Dean's birth certificate--he is older than I thought. And I also found Hope Harrington Oakes hiding in his beard! Lord knows what I will find at the Haunted Book Shop Saturday, 4-6, when Dean signs his new book, REQUIEM FOR A MOUSE. We may find pot of gold, or something much darker. Be sure and join us at the Haunted Book Shop to suss out the secrets Dean is hiding.

07/16/2024

My good friend (and older brother) Miranda (Dean) Jameswill be at the Haunted Book Shop in downtown Mobile, AL, this Saturday, July 20, from 4-6 for some gentle mischief and to sign his latest Cat in the Stacks mystery, REQUIEM FOR A MOUSE. I'll be at the event, along with some other Mobile writers and readers.Please plan on stopping by for some fun and a terrific read! See you there. Oh, you should let the bookstore know if you can!

07/13/2024

Don't forget this great discount for B&N members(it is free to be a member).Pre-orders help authors an awful lot. And please share.

07/13/2024

The dogs are watching DEVILS OF DARKNESS. Two of the cats are dancing the wild Romani dance (and this is obviously where I got the idea that if I ran away and found some Romani people to take me in, my hair would turn black, my eyes would flash, and I would be able to dance!) Not sure of the connection with vampires and the Romani people, but the movie is from 1965. Pray for the dogs. And for me. Andmaybe send an exorcist.

07/10/2024

Hey, guys, you can preorder my book for 25 percent off through B&N. You do have to be a B&N member, but it is free to join. And please, please share this. Pre-orders help so much. Thanks!

07/03/2024

I've been working hard on the 29th Sarah Booth book set for publication 2025. I just hit 50,000 words on the manuscript. I still have a lot to write, but I'm making progress. The working title is Dog Gone Bones.

06/30/2024

I love articles about writing.

Whether they're happy or sad, hopeful or foreboding, these literary closing lines are undoubtedly among the most memorable ever written.

06/20/2024

Okay, the craziness continues at the farm. I woke up this morning anklet the dogs out.something was bobbing and weaving in front of the barn. I couldn't tell what it was, so I put on some shoes and hustled down to the barn. Two star-shaped helium balloons appeared to be tied to a grass root. It was the craziest thing. Nothing was really holding them in place and yet they weren't moving. So I went and got them--they are very, very dangerous for grazing animals if they fall in the pastures. I took them up to the gate and I TIED them to the gate. I went back inside, had some coffee, took a shower--I could see them out of my bedroom window bobbing around--and then I went to the barn. Mandy was there and I asked her if she'd left me a surprise. No! And when I took her to show her the balloons, they were gone. Just gone. They should have been hung in the trees if they'd gotten loose. But they were gone. Dorothy says they were a special gift only for me--which is why they disappeared so quickly. Go figure. First the necklace, now balloons. Good things!

06/14/2024

Tomorrow it is supposed to be right at 100 degrees. Mid-June. July, August and September will be hotter. Damn. And now La Niña.

Forecasters say the warming climate pattern El Niño is officially over. Its cooling counterpart, La Niña, could develop as soon as July — just in time to exacerbate an above-average hurricane season.

06/13/2024

Lily is doing great. So far, so good. Thanks for all the good wishes.