Murder in the Magic City

Can Murder Make Us Laugh? was the name of our panel, the last panel of the day in Birmingham, Alabama, where Margaret Fenton and her friends made all of us authors feel real Southern hospitality.

The verdict? Well, you bet it can! Sue Ann Jaffarian was our moderator. I appeared with Rosemary Harris and Chris Grabenstein.

Ask me about my dead armadillo. Go ahead. Ask me...



I guess I was making a point.

From left to right, starting in the front: Mary Anna Evans, Sara Rosett, Vicki Doudera, Jeri Westerson, and CJ West. Second row: Chris Grabenstein, Vicki Delaney, Sue Ann Jaffarian, me, and Rosemary Harris. Third row: Vicki Lane, Nancy Means Wright, and James Macomber.

A Crafty Type of Girl

That's what my friend Rosemary Harris calls me. You know how you meet someone and even without a lot of chatter, you recognize a "kindred spirit"? Yep. That's how I feel about Ro. She's very elegant, very smart and you can almost see the wheels clicking as she listens because she's REALLY tuned in and thoughtful. (The page above is a "virtual" cupcake from me to Ro. Enjoy!)

Ro is celebrating her new book The Big Dirt Nap. Nab it now--I predict it will sell out quickly! Go to http://www.amazon.com/Big-Dirt-Nap-Business-Mysteries/dp/0312369689/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1234974099&sr=8-1

And even though she's incredibly busy, she found time to allow me the honor of guest blogging on at Jungle Red Writers. I wrote about our common love of dogs. Check it out at

http://tinyurl.com/bkzn7t

Now that blog post initiated a response from Jan, who said she'd really like to get into scrapbooking. And Ro was a bit surprised, I think, when she saw my scrapbook layouts. I brought them to Love Is Murder where Ro and I were on a panel. I had a hunch that a lot of our audience would be unfamiliar with what modern scrapbooking looks like. I remember the first time I saw pages which had been published in Memory Makers, the scrapbook magazine. My jaw dropped. You see, the publication process flattens out pages (of course, since it's translating them from 3-dimensions to 2), and often alters the colors. So the first time you see real pages in real life, well, it can be a bit of a shock.

So, Jan, here are some of my most recent pages. I've been teaching classes on doodling, and these were created specifically to show different ways to use pen marking on layouts. I hope you like them!

PS You do know you can follow me now on twitter, right? I post journaling prompts regularly. If you are a scrapbooker or a diarist or someone who needs a nudge with his/her writing, they might be useful. Go to twitter.com/joannaslan and click FOLLOW under my name.

Live from Love Is Murder

Whew, so many sessions so little time! And the hallways are packed with fascinating people, too.

I met up with Karen Syed for a chat about how she uses Twitter and MySpace. She's a genius about online social networking. Her advice on Twitter is to follow others who will often then follow you. How smart is that?

Then I heard Jeff Deaver talk about writing a suspense novel. Everything Deaver does is for the reader. Each time I'm around him, I am struck by how self-indulgent a lot of our writing is. And boy, is he a big believer in outlining.

Next, Steve Berry filled in for Alex Kava, who has a family medical emergency. (You're in our prayers, Alex.) Steve's message couldn't have been clearer: Write every day. Discipline yourself. When that big publisher wants a book every year, you'll be prepared to turn one out.

I had to leave his session early to participate in a panel on marketing. What did I learn from that? Um, can you say "Pingometer.com?" I can and I will.

Now back to the conference!

PS Big shout out to my buddy Rosemary Harris whose new book The Dirt Nap is making its debut here. Rosemary is smart and sweet and a joy to be around!