He Wouldn't Eat His Mushrooms

Not sure what you did this weekend but I learned 10 new ways to poison someone. I was at the 7th New England Crime Bake (website), a conference for readers and writers of the mystery genre.  The lecture was given by Lucy Zahray (a.k.a. the Poison Lady). We learned about a variety of poisons: some undetectable, some fast acting, others you can make at home, and what was popular during the Victorian age. Though her subject matter was grim, her presentation was a lot of fun. I'm not sure I'll ever use these ideas in my writing, but you never know. Note: the title of this post refers to the punchline of an old joke about a woman whose four husbands all died suddenly. Her first three husbands died from eating poison mushrooms, the fourth from an accidental gunshot. Why an accidental gunshot for number four? Well...