It’s News Squib Saturday. Time to share the best, most interesting (or most entertaining, or most outrageous) tidbit of information I’ve gleaned from all the stuff I’ve read –or done– this week: Never Heard of a “Nef” Until I Went To the Palm Beach Jewelry, Art and Antique Show Continue reading “Okay folks, does anyone know what a “nef” is?”
Articles, Notes & Squibs
Hey Donald! You’re Draining Me, Not the Swamp (Behind the Scenes #5)
It’s News Squib Saturday, but I’m going Behind the Scenes today to explain why I haven’t been able to steam ahead with the first draft of Book3. I blame Twitter, TV — & Trump.
It’s been only three weeks since Donald Trump spoke about “American carnage” in his inauguration speech, but the mood of despair and dysfunction which he stirred up continues to linger and makes it difficult to focus on fiction. Editor, author, and blogger, Nathan Bransford summed it up best for me when he wrote : “There’s a lot I’ve been intending to blog about recently […] But then I read the news or go on my social feeds and writing seems like the last thing on anyone’s mind. And, in a way, the things I want to write about feel so trivial in comparison to the news of the day.” Continue reading “Hey Donald! You’re Draining Me, Not the Swamp (Behind the Scenes #5)”
News Squib: Soup Fills Empty Bowls in Palm Beach
It’s Squib Saturday. Time to share the best, most interesting (or most entertaining, or most outrageous) tidbit of information I’ve gleaned from all the stuff I’ve read –or done– this week: Top Palm Beach Restaurants Provide Soup for Empty Bowls
Imagine that you hand over just $25, and then go to eat a bowl of soup at every best, exclusive restaurant in town — for no further cost. Well, that’s more or less the idea behind the Empty Bowls annual fundraiser in Palm Beach — a town that has more exclusive restaurants per square mile than probably any other town in America. Except that, once you arrive at Bethesda-by-the-Sea Episcopal Church to pick up your handmade ceramic bowl, you find that all the restaurants have brought their most delicious soups to you. Continue reading “News Squib: Soup Fills Empty Bowls in Palm Beach”
News Squib: Murder in Palm Beach? Not In This Century!
It’s Squib Saturday. Time to share the best, most interesting (or most entertaining, or most outrageous) tidbit of information I’ve gleaned from all the stuff I’ve read –or done– this week: Local Paper Celebrates 20 Homicide-Free Years in Palm Beach
People are always getting bumped off in Palm Beach, the exclusive, upscale island playground of the rich, beautiful and famous on South Florida’s Atlantic Coast. But only in novels and movies. For my first thriller, Scandal, I chose the North End of the island as the scene for the murder of a TV talk show host while she was swimming in her oceanfront pool. Better-selling authors like James Patterson, Lawrence Sanders, Stuart Woods, and Lawrence Block as well as local authors with the Palm Beach Writers Group, like Erik Brown, have also set murder mysteries on the ultra-rich island.
Murder Milestone
In real life, however, the 5 square-mile island of Palm Beach is virtually crime-free. Where else could you have a front page headline in the local paper proclaiming: “Last island homicide occurred two decades ago.” Even then, the Palm Beach Daily News, known locally as the Shiny Sheet, got it wrong: The last homicide occurred more than 20 years ago in June 1996 when wealthy widow, Geraldine Pucillo was found strangled in the shower of her home on Seaspray Avenue. Continue reading “News Squib: Murder in Palm Beach? Not In This Century!”
News Squib: For Writers Who Procrastinate (And That’s Most of Us)
It’s Squib Saturday. Time to share the best, most interesting (or most entertaining, or most outrageous) tidbit of information I’ve gleaned from all the stuff I’ve read –or done– this week: How to Stop Procrastinating by Going To Lunch
If there is one thing writers love it’s to listen to advice on how to stop procrastinating long enough to finish their novels or screenplays. Give them the opportunity to listen to such advice over a long, leisurely lunch, and most writers will leap at it. I certainly did when I got an invitation to attend the Palm Beach Writers Group talk and lunch at the Chesterfield Hotel’s Pavilion Room this week. The subject of the talk by PBAU English professor and writer, Dr. Gene Fant? How I Learned to Stop Procrastinating and Love Deadlines. Continue reading “News Squib: For Writers Who Procrastinate (And That’s Most of Us)”