What activities come to mind when you think about lakes? Sailing, fishing, picnicking, swimming, water skiing, or just hanging out with family and friends are some of the things you could do at your average blue lake. But some lakes out there aren’t so average.
This book had me hooked from page one, and it only kept better more intense, more nerve-racking with each page. I couldn’t do anything without thinking about what was going on in the book.
When someone says it’s raining cats and dogs, they don’t mean that cats and dogs are falling from the sky. That is another way of saying that the rain is extremely heavy.
Are you trying to figure out a crazy street name to use in your story? I’ve compiled a list of these for you to refer to for ideas, and the names of some streets are truly wacky. Most of these streets are located in the United States, but there are some that are in England…
Every writer wants the setting in his story to be as authentic as possible. You want the reader to feel as though he is part of the story and is right there experiencing everything right along with your characters. If your story happens to take during the fall of the year, all or some of…
What does an eight-legged creepy crawly have to do with Christmas? In Australia, a country famous for its deadly spiders, a Christmas spider really does exist. This timid spider is harmless to humans, but its unusual appearance does tend to frighten. Why is the oddly shaped arachnid called a Christmas spider? There are several species…
Arsenic, cyanide, and strychnine are the classic poisons. The seemingly innocent little old ladies in Arsenic and Old Lace, one of my favorite movies, used these three poisons in their deadly elderberry wine. One gallon of this toxic wine contained one teaspoon of arsenic, half a teaspoon of strychnine, and just a pinch of cyanide. Unsuspecting…
How much pain would you be willing to endure to be thought of as beautiful? Do you think scars are attractive? To me, scars show painful events that you have gone through. The huge scar on my abdomen is the result of a near fatal car wreck that I survived, but it isn’t something that…
In kindergarten, I was the only kid still crying when my mum dropped me off—a month into the year. Result: the other kids laughed at me, or worse, asked me what was wrong, and I just wailed, “I want my mummy!” That meant I hardly ever got invited out to play. And the odd time…
Phobias are constant, irrational fears that afflict some people. Their fear should be taken seriously. The person should never be made fun of or belittled because of their fear. But as writers, we can bless (or curse) our characters with phobias and make the story so much more interesting. What happens if someone encounters the…
