Patricia Stoltey

Author

Literary Mystery Fiction: Finding the Sweet Spot … by Nancy G. West

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Many people divide literary fiction from mystery fiction based on considering these elements: memorable characters and/or prose, sensory details, pacing (timing of events); high stakes; and tone (serious to humorous.) Which elements do these literary fiction authors, and one mystery writer, incorporate into their work? Most of these authors use all the elements. Since they’re …Read More

That Laptop Upgrade to Windows 10 Didn’t Go So Well

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On August 29, 2015, I posted the sad story and hoped-for recovery of my laptop, a December 2014 purchase that seemed okay the first few months and then turned into a nightmare that could only be caused by gremlins, or a curse, maybe voodoo….whatever. Or Windows 10…. With the help of a nice computer company …Read More

Is There a Magic Spell to Get Rid of Computer Gremlins?

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I just went through another round of glitches, this time with the laptop I purchased last December. The only good news about that — it’s still  under warranty. So anyway, all these glitches and snafus culminated in a blue screen with a message about my boot process — it was missing or corrupted. How in …Read More

For the love of “old stuff”: the Chaw’se Miwok and Me … by Catriona McPherson

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Don’t get me wrong, I’m very happy in Northern California but sometimes I miss the . . . old stuff that surrounded me in Scotland. The mediaeval streets, the fortified castles, the Roman walls, and of course the really old stuff: the standing stones. I’ve got an ambivalent attitude to standing stones, actually. I sort …Read More

Odds and Ends and a Rant About Phishing on Social Media

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First the odds and ends: Here are a couple of free ebooks for your Kindle — I’m not sure how long the first offer is available, but Marilyn’s will be free until the 28th of August. Wicked Game by Sasha White — this one is a thriller with romance and the plot sounds great. No …Read More

Shotgun Moon — a Mini-Review

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I just finished reading K.C. McRae’s Shotgun Moon, a standalone mystery from Midnight Ink. It’s really more than a mystery. It’s on the dark side. It’s a thriller and it’s suspense. The main character killed the man who raped her and now returns to Montana to get her life back to normal. ‘Then the great …Read More