Write By The Rails Workshop

06/08/2024 – Greetings one and all from Curious Penman. The Curious Penman staff were out and about in Old Town Manassas to attend a workshop held by Write By The Rails, a member organization of the Virginia Writers Club. This group event was at 10 am at Bull Run Unitarian Universalist Church at 9350 Main St in Manassas, VA, and it was awesome! Mary Ellen Stone hosted the event. Nine people joined the workshop and discussed poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. This was a critique and support workshop, where writers brought samples of their work.

After laying down the ground rules for the workshop, no dominating the conversation, make sure your input is constructive and don’t be needlessly negative or positive, give specifics, etc. Curious Penman joined the fiction group with a sample of an upcoming Knight Shade Files story, and listened to other ineresting works; a short story about the day in the life of a Naval Academy graduate, a Christian thriller, and an epic Irish fantasy tale! Subsequent Write By The Rails workshops will be held at Bull Run Unitarian every first Saturday at 10 am, the next one slated for Saturday, July 6, 2024.

Catch you on the flipside!

Spilled Ink VA

05/29/2024 – Hello and Happy Summer from Curious Penman! Spilled In VA was held on Friday, May 24, 2024 at Jirani Coffeehouse at 9425 West St in Manassas VA at 6 pm, and it was a blast! Curious Penman and the host of Happy Hour Café were among those in attendance. Curious Penman and the host of Happy Hour Café were among those in attendance. Curious Penman read excerpts from an upcoming book in the Knight Shade series to be published later this year. Jirani Coffeehouse is a regular hub of writing activity during fourth weekends, with Happy Hour Café moving to Jirani from 4-6pm every fourth Friday, followed by Spilled Ink VA from 6-9pm. Happy Hour Café is a place for aspiring writers to meet and discuss work, accompanied by exercises to encourage creativity (Bring pen and paper). Spilled Ink VA is an open mic venue for new and established writers to road test new material in front of a built-in audience. And beginning in June, the Java Press Book Club will host monthly get together venues at Jirani every Fourth Saturday at 12:45 pm! If you’re looking to grow your writing skills, meet fellow scribblers, or just see what there is to offer, be at Jirani Coffeehouse every Fourth Friday at 4 pm and every Fourth Saturday at 12:45 pm!. Catch you on the flipside!

Ian Fleming Biobite

Today’s Happy Birthday shout out goes to Ian Fleming, born May 28, 1908.

Ian Lancaster Fleming was a British writer, best known for his postwar James Bond series of spy novels. Fleming came from a wealthy family connected to the merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co., and his father was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Henley from 1910 until his death on the Western Front in 1917. Educated at Eton, Sandhurst, and, briefly, the universities of Munich and Geneva, Fleming moved through several jobs before he started writing.

To read more, go to Wikipedia.

To check out “Poems in the Key of Carlin,” or to see what else Curious Penman has to offer, check out our Browse Books page.

Dashiell Hammett Biobite

Today’s Happy Birthday shout out goes to Dashiell Hammett, born May 27, 1894.

Samuel Dashiell Hammett was an American writer of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories. He was also a screenwriter and political activist. Among the characters he created are Sam Spade (The Maltese Falcon), Nick and Nora Charles (The Thin Man), The Continental Op (Red Harvest and The Dain Curse) and the comic strip character Secret Agent X-9.

Hammett is regarded as one of the very best mystery writers. In his obituary in The New York Times, he was described as “the dean of the… ‘hard-boiled’ school of detective fiction.”

To read more, go to Wikipedia.

To check out “Poems in the Key of Carlin,” or to see what else Curious Penman has to offer, check out our Browse Books page.

Arthur Conan Doyle Biobite

Today’s Happy Birthday shout out goes to Arthur Conan Doyle, born May 22, 1859.

Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for A Study in Scarlet, the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Holmes and Dr. Watson. The Sherlock Holmes stories are milestones in the field of crime fiction.

Doyle was a prolific writer; other than Holmes stories, his works include fantasy and science fiction stories about Professor Challenger, and humorous stories about the Napoleonic soldier Brigadier Gerard, as well as plays, romances, poetry, non-fiction, and historical novels. One of Doyle’s early short stories, “J. Habakuk Jephson’s Statement” (1884), helped to popularise the mystery of the Mary Celeste.

To read more, go to Wikipedia.

To check out “Poems in the Key of Carlin,” or to see what else Curious Penman has to offer, check out our Browse Books page.

Dorothy Salisbury Davis Biobite

Today’s Happy Birthday shout out goes to Dorothy Salisbury Davis, born April 25, 1916.

Dorothy Margaret Salisbury Davis was an American crime fiction writer.

Davis, an adopted child, was born in Chicago and raised in Illinois by Margaret (Greer) and Alfred J. Salisbury. She worked in Chicago in advertising as a research librarian and as an editor of The Merchandiser, prior to taking up fiction writing. She was married to Harry Davis, the character actor, from 1946 until his death in 1993. She published many novels and short stories. Among them are two sets of series novels, but she mainly wrote standalone novels.

To read more, go to Wikipedia.

To check out “Poems in the Key of Carlin,” or to see what else Curious Penman has to offer, check out our Browse Books page.

Dana Stabenow Biobite

Today’s Happy Birthday shout out goes to Dana Stabenow, born March 27, 1952.

Dana Stabenow is an American author of science fiction, mystery/crime fiction, suspense/thriller, and historical adventure novels.

Many of Stabenow’s books are set in her home state of Alaska, where she was raised by her single mother who lived and worked on a fish tender in the Gulf of Alaska, and feature numerous descriptions of Alaska’s geography, geology, weather, and wildlife.

Stabenow received a BA in journalism from the University of Alaska in 1973 and, after deciding to try her hand as an author, later enrolled in UAA’s MFA program.

Her first novel, Second Star, was bought by Ace Science Fiction in 1990. It was followed by two other science fiction books. Her first Kate Shugak mystery, A Cold Day for Murder, won the Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original in 1993. Her 2011 Kate Shugak mystery, Though Not Dead, received the 2012 Nero Award.

To read more, go to Wikipedia.

To check out “Poems in the Key of Carlin,” or to see what else Curious Penman has to offer, check out our Browse Books page.

Charlaine Harris Biobite

Today’s Happy Birthday shout out goes to Charlaine Harris, born November 25, 1951.

Charlaine Harris Schulz is an American author who specializes in mysteries.[3] She is best known for her book series The Southern Vampire Mysteries, which was adapted as the TV series True Blood. The television show was a critical and financial success for HBO, running seven seasons, from 2008 through 2014.

Harris was born and raised in a small town in the Mississippi River Delta area of the United States. She lives in Texas with her husband; they have three children. She began writing from an early age, and changed from playwriting in college to writing and publishing mysteries, including several long series featuring recurring characters.

To read more, go to Wikipedia.

To check out “Poems in the Key of Carlin,” or to see what else Curious Penman has to offer, check out our Browse Books page.

Carole Nelson Douglas Biobite

Today’s Happy Birthday shout out goes to Carole Nelson Douglas, born November 15, 1944.

Carole Nelson Douglas was an American writer of sixty novels and many short stories. She has written in many genres, but is best known for two popular mystery series, the Irene Adler Sherlockian suspense novels and the Midnight Louie mystery series.

Douglas was a theater and English literature major in college. After graduation, she worked as a newspaper reporter and then editor in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul area. During her time there, she discovered a long, expensive classified advertisement offering a black cat named Midnight Louie to the “right” home for one dollar and wrote a feature story on the plucky survival artist, putting it into the cat’s point of view. The cat found a country home but its name was revived for her feline PI mystery series many years later. Some of the Midnight Louie series entries include the dedication “For the real and original Midnight Louie. Nine lives were not enough.”

To read more, go to Wikipedia.

To check out “Poems in the Key of Carlin,” or to see what else Curious Penman has to offer, check out our Browse Books page.

Write By The Rails Meeting

9/30/2023 ‑ The Curious Penman attended an impromptu morning meeting of local author’s group Write By The Rails, hosted by Ms. Mary Ellen Stone, at Panera Bread in Manassas VA on Saturday, September 30, 2023. Coffee was consumed and extensive conversation was enjoyed. New ideas and favorite topics were discussed at length, with the Curious Penman addressing current projects and upcoming venues such as Spilled Ink Virginia and the Write By The Rails Winery book event.

Exchange of ideas ranged from monster fiction and gargoyles, the classic monsters to television shows, fantasy fiction such as Lord of the Rings versus Outlander, and pulp fiction such as the Philip Marlowe, Sam Spade, and Conan stories.

Spilled Ink East continues on second Friday’s with the upcoming October 13, 2023 7:00 p.m. meet up on Zoom, an online open mic forum. Write By The Rails is hosting a Writers Enrichment venue at Barrel Oak Winery on Saturday, October 14 at 11 am.

For Write By The Rails, check out their Facebook page. Catch Spilled Ink Virginia every fourth Friay at 6pm at Jirani Coffeehouse. Check out what Curious Penman has to offer in our Books section!