english blog

By Art Taylor This week's question is "If you could choose different aspects of famous writers, who would you use to construct your ideal writer?" and trying to patch together my own "Franken-author," as Meredith termed it on Monday , has sent me in a number of different directions—including one less focused on craft than on production and profitability: Erle Stanley Gardner's writing speed (a book a week!), Stephen King's bank account, Tana French's overnight success, etc. From a craft angle, I first tried to browse my own shelves and see which books and authors both struck me on initial readings and have then stuck with me over this years, and from there I started to think about the white-hot energy of James Ellroy's writing and the coolly controlled intensity of Donna Tartt's, of the stylistic texture of Philip Roth's novels and the experimental structures of Mario Vargas Llosa's books, of the style and texture and structure of Ia...

As Pope Francis' first Consistory revs up, the longest Stateside vacancy has likewise been resolved: at Roman Noon, Papa Bergoglio named Msgr Carl Kemme (left), 53, vicar-general of Springfield in Illinois, as bishop of Wichita. In the Kansas post leading 125,000 Catholics – home to one of the nation's largest crops of seminarians, a rare tuition-free school system funded through active stewardship and all around, an unusually energized ecclesial hotspot – Kemme succeeds Michael Jackels , who was named archbishop of Dubuque last April in one of Francis' first major US appointments. Having pastored five parishes in Illinois' capital church, Kemme – a product of St Louis' Kenrick Seminary – was named vicar-general by then-Bishop George Lucas in 2002, while keeping his full-time ministry in the trenches. After serving as diocesan administrator for the year between Lucas' 2009 transfer to Omaha and Bishop Thomas Paprocki 's arrival, the "Holy Goalie" ...

By Alan If you could choose different aspects of famous writers, who would you use to construct your ideal writer (ie, plotting from James Patterson, characters from Carl Hiaasen, setting from Charles Dickens, etc)? Here’s my dream team: Plot – Michael Connelly Characters – Tom Wolfe Setting – J.K. Rowling Pacing – John Gilstrap Prose – Dennis Lehane Hook/Premise – Michael Crichton Plot twists – Jeffery Deaver Humor – John R. Powers (go look him up!) Emotional heft – Reed Farrel Coleman Storytelling – Stephen King Ka-Chingability – James Patterson Feel free to agree/disagree/add your own choices in the comments!

By Vicki Delany But… time to move on. Life is about comings and goings, and it’s time for me to go.  I’ve been with the 7 Criminal Minds Gang since 2011, when I was invited by Kelli Stanley. I’ve loved the format of question of the week.  It has definitely got me thinking about new things and about old things in a new way. I am delighted to know that the blog will be carrying on in good hands, both new and old. I have invited my good friend Robin Harlick, who writes as R.J. Harlick, to take my seat at the panel table. I know she’ll do a great job. I am going back to my old stomping blog of Type M for Murder .  Way back when the Internet was a new and exciting thing and people said, “What’s that?” when they heard the word blog, Rick Blechta, Charles Benoit, and I decided to try one.  Charles came up with the name, I did all the work, and Rick… well Rick has been carrying the load ever since I left.  I have been lured back with promises of chocolate and champagne....

If you could choose different aspects of famous writers, who would you use to construct your ideal writer (ie, plotting from James Patterson, characters from Carl Hiaasen, setting from Charles Dickens, etc)? by Meredith Cole It sounds like a diabolical experiment: building the perfect author. And kind of funny, too. I can't even imagine what a Patterson/Hiassen/Dickens writer might sound like. But I think the combo author would lose the unique flavor of each writer as they were added to the mix, and that would be a shame. Here's what I do know: I would love to write mysteries as funny as Timothy Hallinan's Junior Bender series. I'd love to be able to write beautiful descriptions like Reed Farrel Coleman. I would love to write a painful coming of age mystery story like William Kent Krueger. I would love to be able to write fight scenes like Lee Child. I would like to be able to write a complex politically charged mystery like Sara Paretsky. I would love to write a well r...

For those of us in the States, a long holiday weekend's on – Monday marks the Federal observance of Washington's Birthday, more commonly known as Presidents' Day. As veterans 'round these parts will recall, though, there's a fun confluence with this beat: the actual birthday of the Father of the Country, 22 February, is marked in the liturgy as the feast of the Chair of Peter – in other words, "Pope's Day," given the ancient celebration's focus on the ministry of the Bishop of Rome. That's why the feast of Chair has been the most common moment for the creation of new cardinals, as Francis will do for the first time next Saturday, 13 years exactly since one Jorge Mario Bergoglio received his own red hat. (For the record, of the nine consistories since 1998, four have taken place over February 22nd, and a fifth – B16's first intake in 2006 – was announced on the Petrine feast.) In token of the civil holiday, keeping with house custom, below...

(And now for something completely different...)   by Paul D. Marks   Hmm, is there a classic love story I'd like to improve with a nice messy murder? Well, let's see.    Aren't I the lucky one falling right on Valentine's Day itself. So for that special occasion, a special love story. Well, the kind of love story you might find running 24/7 on the Discovery ID channel.   So, as cleanup hitter for this week's question here's my Valentine's paean to love and death and some stories that could be improved with a murder or two in them:   In an alternate universe Jane Austin's Pride and Prejudice and other stories morph into stories the Discovery ID Channel would be proud to air. In Pride and Prejudice , Elizabeth strikes a blow for freedom and goes on a killing spree, murdering the condescending Mr. Darcy first. She then sends a text through time and space to a woman named Lizzie B. "borrow ur axe, pls?"   Lizzie replies "sry, alread...