Patricia Stoltey

Author

Knowing When to End the Perfect Evening

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Last evening I spent two hours with one of the critique groups I helped organize last year through Northern Colorado Writers. This group now calls itself High Plains Drafters. Don’t you love the names writers come up with for their groups? Another group I facilitated at the beginning is focused on mystery fiction. They named …Read More

Tending the Worms

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But First, The Mysterious Me If you haven’t already read Jean Henry’s interview of moi at Mysterious Writers, it will be up all week. Tending the Worms I spent a productive hour in my yard today, pulling a few weeds, spreading the composted yuck (from one of my worm bins) around my roses and lavender …Read More

I’m a Mysterious Writer This Week!

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I’ve been interviewed by Jean Henry Mead at Mysterious Writers! Come on over and check out Jean’s excellent blog, and see what she was able to learn about my writing life.

The Return of Nagging Whisper

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Nagging Whisper is after me again. She says (over and over) I need to finish revisions. She says I need to write query letters. She says I need to write the two blog posts I owe The Blood-Red Pencil for September. She reminds me I need to promote the interview I did for Jean Henry …Read More

My Writing Life: Sources of Inspiration by Rabbi Ilene Schneider

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My guest today is one of the first six women rabbis in the United States, Rabbi Ilene Schneider. Student, educator, columnist, birder, gardener, and writer, Rabbi Schneider says she “hasn’t decided yet what (or who) she wants to be when she grows up.” She is currently Coordinator of Jewish Hospice for Samaritan Hospice in Marlton, …Read More

I Love My Critique Group

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Before I get started on today’s topic, I want to announce my guest blogger for tomorrow, Rabbi Ilene Schneider, author of the Rabbi Aviva Cohen mysteries. One of the fun things about mystery writing is finding that special niche that suits the author and doesn’t mimic the millions of other mysteries on the market. A …Read More

It Was the Tree Guys’ Fault

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My schedule was thrown totally out of whack yesterday, just because the tree guys came two hours earlier than I expected. And then they sang Carly Simon’s “You’re So Vain” while they worked. I never really got back on track. I know that’s more my fault than theirs. I claim to be a “go with …Read More

South Pacific on Tour

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A performance of South Pacific on stage from the Lincoln Center in New York was carried on one of our PBS stations this week. I recorded it, then watched it all the way through Saturday night. I had forgotten how much I love this story and its Rodgers and Hammerstein music. Adapted from James Michener’s …Read More

One Lovely Blog Award

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Friday the 13th, little more than a week ago, was my lucky day. Rebecca Thompson at Sonshine Thoughts passed her One Lovely Blog Award on to eight lucky blogger friends, and she included me. I’m honored, so many thanks to Rebecca for thinking of me. If you haven’t visited Sonshine Thoughts before, drop by and …Read More

Listen to Nagging Whisper (or Whatever You Call Her)

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That well-rested manuscript I had once declared finished…well…it wasn’t. Even though I pitched the novel to an editor at a writers’ conference in March, something held me back from sending a partial. It was tiny Nagging Whisper who told me: “It’s not ready.” Nagging Whisper has a thin face with a pointed chin and sharp …Read More