A.D. Price

Believe it or not, L.A. has a huuuge book festival every year. Lots of great authors and, of course, celebrities hawking their tell-alls and children's picture books (what's with that phenomenon?). And, in Booth 360, Teal Section, there's me and a half-dozen other Mystery Writers of America, SoCal chapter authors, meekly trying to sell our books. For one hour. I'll be there the 18th, 10 AM. Stop by for your free bookmarks!

@BookNoteApp The cover is blowing my mind!

this book is blowing my mind

Writers' scam alert! If you receive an email that starts "I’m Emily, Author Relations Coordinator at Speak Up Talk Radio. Our podcast audience includes readers and writers who enjoy [fill in the genre and subgenre] making your work a strong fit for our platform," don't be fooled. Speak Up Talk Radio is legit, but according to the company's rep, they don't send emails like this, and there's no one named Emily in their employ.

Oooh, a new collection of obscure mystery classics! Everything from cats to clipjoints. I enjoyed The Tule Marsh Murder quite a bit.

"Helped to identify killers." Today's #history article pick from Damn History, a free newsletter for readers/writers of #popularhistory. Congrats to writer @ADPrice14 & @AspectsHistory! Read/subscribe to Damn History: damn-history-16d93f.beehiiv.com/subscribe aspectsofhistory.com/turning-cold-c…

@BeckyLTuch Sounds like a case of literary ouroboros!

The thing is, writers can create original work that sounds just like AI. This is a problem. If we read it, we absorb it. I just had this experience: A writer submitted an essay to me. I asked her if she used AI because it read like she did. She said Yes. I asked her to please rewrite the piece in her own voice. She thanked me for the encouragement, and did so. When she came back with the revised draft, it STILL sounded like AI. I asked for another revision. This time, she said she couldn't take it any further. It WAS her own voice, in this later draft. She didn't know how to make it sound more like herself. I believe her. I just think her "own voice" unwittingly imitated AI in this later draft. Point being, this is quite messy & complicated business. Read great literature, so you absorb that, and not the slop everywhere. (Though the slop is legit hard to avoid!)

Kitten purrs . . . turn up the volume!

The spring sale is on! For a limited time, Devils in Paradise is only .99 p/c on Amazon UK and US. amazon.co.uk/Devils-Paradis… amazon.com/Devils-Paradis…

#KindleDeals Holand Press titles on promotion. Just 99p/c A Rogue's War, by Ed Klekowski amazon.co.uk/Rogues-War-Ed-… Devils in Paradise, by @ADPrice14 amazon.co.uk/Devils-Paradis… Never Let Me Go, @AnnHHowell1 amazon.co.uk/Never-Let-Me-A… #Historicalfiction #Dealoftheday

If you're feeling guilty about the hours you spend reading mysteries and streaming crime shows, take heart! According to Psychology Today, consuming mysteries is a survival skill for living in an unpredictable world—like ours right now. From Psychology Today, "Why We Love a Good Mystery": From an evolutionary perspective, mysteries also serve as cognitive exercises, sharpening our minds and keeping our problem-solving skills active. They encourage critical thinking, pattern recognition, and deductive reasoning—abilities that have historically helped us adapt and thrive in an unpredictable world.

@TigerBites You are not alone! What's funny in my case is that I spend as much time reworking and tossing out my cover ideas as I do reworking and tossing out my chapters. Apparently I enjoy some variety in my obsessive creative processes.

Meet Poppy, the newest member of my extended family. On the left is what she looks like now at 2.5 months (aww, so cute), and on the right is what ChatGPT says she'll look like all grown up. We'll be checking back in a year or so to see if the bot nailed it, or botched it.

@MostOkayMcKay Ha-ha! Excellent idea. But at Kitten Rescue, it's more likely I would be in the suit of amour and the cat would be taking the picture.

An idea for your promo photos of the residents of Kitten Rescue, @ADPrice14?

This is one of my favorite New Yorker cartoons because it captures in one image three of the biggest parts of my current life: writing, dogs and cats.

@MostOkayMcKay Only in Minneapolis! Are the cats as nice as the people?

Brilliant!

@MostOkayMcKay Not just cats in sheet music, but cats on vacation in sheet music. Fabulous!

How adorabibblebobble are these, @ADPrice14?!

Last week, the NY Times ran a piece about those internet scammers who target writers. I get at least four of these scam emails a day. Some are very clever in how they present themselves. Some, including one mentioned in the Times, which offered to turn the author's wonderful book—a collection of crossword puzzles—into a surefire screenplay, are clumsy. From the article: The scammers use A.I. to generate personalized, well-written emails. They often impersonate actual people, from a HarperCollins editor in London to a book-club organizer in Manhattan. And they are very, very patient. They invest a lot of words in buttering up the writer and trying to soothe any doubts,” Strauss said. “The theory is that the deeper you get, the harder it is to say no.” But there is one other element that seems essential to these scams: the victim’s vulnerability. A lonely heart yearns for love and companionship; an author yearns for sales and validation. “It’s all based on exploiting human frailty,” Strauss said.

If writing from experience were a requirement for publishing, we'd have no historical, sci-fi, fantasy, and horror books. And no ghost writing of any sort. I had a male writing professor tell me that women can never be great writers because they don't experience life and death situations like men do. I'm pretty sure he had a mother who gave birth to him.

So, along with dozens of Snoopy pictures, retro furniture ads, Dolly Parton's banana pudding recipe, Yellow Submarine artwork, flowers and cats, Pinterest suggested this rando bit of writing dos and don'ts:

@MostOkayMcKay Very cool!

How cool is this, @ADPrice14?!