Carol Preflatish

The Kentuckiana Authors, which I am a member, are having a Black Friday Weekend sale. E-books are 99¢, including my romantic suspense novel, "Compromised." Stop by and check out the great books we have to offer. http://ow.ly/F2Gub

Does anyone besides me miss the old Sears and Penney's Christmas catalogs? What is your favorite Christmas memory?

  Yes, I'm a bit stressed and have been for about a month or so. You see, while I am published as a romance writer, I have always wanted to be published as mystery writer. I started writing my first mystery book in 2009. I have about five chapters finished on it. Why only five chapters? Well, my romance writing kept pulling me back.  I published my first romance in 2009. In 2010, I decided the mystery I had started could be a series. However, that first book would not work as Book 1 in a series, so I started the first in the series in 2010 while also working on a romance that was published in 2011.  I kept getting ideas for more books in the series before I had even finished the first book. I actually have plot ideas for fourteen books in that series! In 2012, I kept writing romance though because I was in the "groove" writing that. I published three romances in 2013 and for NaNoWriMo in that year, I started on the third book in the mystery series. Whew! ...

We finally scraped our old television that we bought in 2005 and got a new HDTV. I may never write another book again. All I want to do is look at that sharp picture. My husband and I were watching The Big Bang Theory last week and were looking at all the things in the background that we never noticed before. Shelton and Leonard actually have a book on their bookshelf about comets that is the exact same book that my husband has on our bookshelf. Nerds. Carol

I spent the weekend of October 24-26, 2014 at the Magna cum Murder mystery writing conference. For those that don't know, Magna cum Murder is a conference for both mystery writers and readers. The last time I attended it was held in Muncie, Indiana and sponsored by Ball State University. Now in its twentieth year, it is still sponsored by Ball State, but is now held at the historic Columbia Club in downtown Indianapolis, Indiana, the perfect atmosphere for discussing mysteries. While this wasn't my first Magna, I'm still sort of a newbie for this conference, last attending in 2010. I had a wonderful time this year listening to all the guests and panelists talk about the aspects of writing mysteries and thrillers. Below are a few of the things that I learned this year. 11. When sharing a hotel room, make sure to exchange cell phone numbers with your roomies prior to the conference so you can find them when you get there. {{waving at Marian and T.}} 10. Some beads ...