Author: Cynthia MacGregor

Although the Polar Vortex is gone—at least for now—and despite Punxsatawney Phil’s predictions of an early spring (and did you know that statistically he is wrong more often than not?), most of the nation is still in a deep freeze. What to do with your free time? It’s not gardening weather; it’s too early to...

I was reading an unpublished manuscript—I don’t want to name the title or the author, and the circumstances of my reading it are irrelevant here—but the book, a work of fiction, made a group of Muslim refugees the “bad guys.”

So many writers and would-be writers, when discussing a boutique publisher or a self-publishing company, will ask me the almost inevitable question: “But can they get my book into Barnes & Noble?”

When someone does something well, do you tell them you thought they did a good job? When YOU  do something well, whether it’s cooking a difficult and impressive recipe, growing some spectacular orchids, doing an amazing cabinetry job, or giving a great speech, don’t you like to receive praise that tells you your efforts were...

Here’s a radical idea: DON’T MAKE ANY NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS! No! Instead, make a list of ACCOMPLISHMENTS you wish to see yourself attain in 2019. What do YOU want to accomplish in 2019? Declare it…and then DO it! Let’s start close to home, with readers and writers. Are you a reader? How many books did...

As the year draws to a swift close, it’s inevitable that we look back on the 12 months past. Some of us will do so with regret or even anguish, while others will do so with satisfaction or a warm glow. Where do you stand?

For a change of pace, nothing this week about books, libraries, reading, book signings and similar events, or such. Instead, we’re going to talk about words,or more specifically word choices. And, even more specifically, this will be a rant about other people’s rants.

How is a writer to write about Christmas when there’s no snow on the ground? Is that your question? Yes, I live in South Florida, where the only snow is artificial (or in snow globes),but what many non-writers don’t realize is that Christmas books are, of necessity, written long before the holiday season. In fact,...

What do you think of, what picture comes to mind, when you hear the word “librarian”? A spinster (to use a quaint term, as outmoded as this mental picture), tending dusty books in a musty library? Or perhaps, more specifically, Marian the librarian, of THE MUSIC MAN fame?