A conversation elsewhere reminded me that Whisper’s raw transcriptions of dictation can be a bit…alarming, so I am showing three versions of a text chunk below. This demonstrates my dictation workflow but in reverse order. For clarity, the first thing you will see is my final-ish draft, followed by what I was working from: Claude’s cleanup of a Whisper transcription, using the commands I’ve shown in the past. The last thing you’ll see is what Claude was working from: Whisper’s transcription of an audio file I dictated.
Continue reading “Friday Fragments”Category: Mystery
State of the Author, 3Q2025
This really should have been “State of the Author, Mid-Year,” but I was dealing with health issues for most of June (nothing serious, just distracting) and then July was kind of busy at work, so here we are…
Continue reading “State of the Author, 3Q2025”Summer Book Sale Is Here!
Hans G. Schantz has put together one of his massive book sales, and has graciously agreed to include my novel Wolf’s Trail in the sale. Hans’s book sales always cover a wide range of genres and possibilities, so take a look! Happy Summer Reading!
Golden Age Mystery Writers: A Quick Guide to the Big Guns
Pretty much all of these authors have good and bad works, and most have a point at which they stop being consistently good, although possibly by that point you’re fond enough of their work to keep reading. Here’s my advice about what to read by them. Please note that I assume you already know these people starting writing nearly a hundred years ago, and the most prolific of them died about fifty years ago. Their beliefs, prejudices and assumptions were different from those common today. This is a big post, and I’m not going to cudgel my brains trying to remember which books contain scenes which would be considered offensive.
Continue reading “Golden Age Mystery Writers: A Quick Guide to the Big Guns”Friday Fragments: Chloe and the Wolf
An example of me getting a bit rambly during the previous week’s dictation session. This got cut because Maxim’s cousin Victor interjected himself into the conversation earlier than I originally thought. And it’s not entirely in character for Maxim to try to shield Chloe to that extent.
Continue reading “Friday Fragments: Chloe and the Wolf”Weird Wednesday: Red Right Hand by Joel Townsley Owens
This was originally published as a novella in a pulp magazine in 1945 before being expanded into a full-length novel and re-published in that form, and it feels somewhat padded in the middle. It’s a weird, rambly first person sort of thing that sounds like the author managed to get Raymond Chandler and Edgar Allen Poe stuck in his head simultaneously. Usually hyped as a mystery story with extra atmosphere, I would say rather that it’s a psychological horror story which uses mystery tropes to help ground itself. Above the cut, I will only say that Red Right Hand spends about a quarter of its length hinting in one particular direction, and the middle two quarters basically saying that possible solution out loud while simultaneously laying down markers for the actual resolution in the final quarter. More interesting than good, and not helped by the fact that the only truly sympathetic characters – the policemen and the damsel in distress – are pretty peripheral. But it’s very much its own thing, and if that counts for anything with you, it might be worth a try. Just remember, if you find yourself thinking that “obvious solution is obvious,” stick around to the end.
More detailed, spoilery thoughts below the cut. Leave now or be spoiled.
Continue reading “Weird Wednesday: Red Right Hand by Joel Townsley Owens”Frequently Seen Questions About Writing
Occasionally, I offer moral support and solutions that worked for me in the comments section of other writing blogs, but I don’t do a lot of it here. What works for me might not work for you, and vice versa. That being said, I’m seeing certain things come up over and over again in certain places on the web, and I feel like I have to put my oar in. Since nobody asked me, I can’t call them “Frequently Asked Questions,” but I feel comfortable calling this “Frequently Seen Questions…”
Continue reading “Frequently Seen Questions About Writing”State of the Author, Start of 2025
My plans for the New Year are always kind of vague, because “Mann tracht un Gott lacht” (Man plans, and God laughs).
Continue reading “State of the Author, Start of 2025”The Novels of Marie Belloc Lowndes: The Ones That End Where Agatha Christie Begins
(Note: As previously indicated, the Lowndes books I have read are mostly available on Gutenberg and/or Amazon. In past reviews of early 20th century books, I have not made any effort to offer content warnings, on the assumption that anybody reading these reviews knows better than to expect present-day attitudes on certain topics from books of this timeframe. I am continuing with that assumption here.)
Alot of Agatha Christie’s novels feel like we’re on the outside of some messy domestic situation, looking in at the situation shortly before and after it turns violent. If you ever wondered what seeing the inside of those situations would be like, you’re in luck! Marie Belloc Lowndes wrote lots of those. The characterization is a mile wide and an inch deep, and the situations tend to repeat themselves, but to me, there’s something insistent and weirdly compelling about the way Lowndes shows the reader every component in these emotional powder kegs. As a bonus, you get a good look at the kind of expectations authors like Agatha Christie set out to subvert, because the whodunnit components of these mysteries tend to be pretty banal.
Continue reading “The Novels of Marie Belloc Lowndes: The Ones That End Where Agatha Christie Begins”The Novels of Marie Belloc Lowndes: Hercule Popeau and Various Innocents Abroad
(Note: As previously indicated, the Lowndes books I have read are mostly available on Gutenberg and/or Amazon. In past reviews of early 20th century books, I have not made any effort to offer content warnings, on the assumption that anybody reading these reviews knows better than to expect present-day attitudes on certain topics from books of this timeframe. I am continuing with that assumption here.)
The second-most famous thing Lowndes did, (the most famous being her novel The Lodger), was to write a novel called The Lonely House, in which a sheltered, financially prosperous young Englishwoman fetches up in Monaco, only to be caught up in a love triangle and menaced by people who are after her money, although she has trouble grasping their bad intentions.
Continue reading “The Novels of Marie Belloc Lowndes: Hercule Popeau and Various Innocents Abroad”
Jaglion Press 