WHEN REALITY INTERFERES by Lisa Black
By Debra Goldstein |
More than once, I’ve come up with a great, dramatic scene, one that would make chills run up and down a reader’s spine or bring them to their knees in wracking sobs. And then some vital aspect of this scene, the perfect location or the perfect murder weapon or the evil villain’s physical condition turn […]
Should You Take a Shower with a Friend or Thank Your Local Weatherman? by Debra H. Goldstein
By Debra Goldstein |
Today, February 5, according to the National Holiday Calendar, celebrates both Take a Shower with a Friend Day and National Weatherperson’s Day. On their face, they seem to be total opposites, but a little research almost comically can tie the two together. National Shower Day was created as a fun way to educate people about […]
Using Past Lives as Fuel – Meredith R. Lyons
By Debra Goldstein |
I like to write stories with an element of fantasy or supernatural. I’ve tried to write “normal, real world” stories, but I always end up throwing in a ghost or something. I just run with it now. It may sound like I basically disagree with that old adage, “write what you know.” But I don’t. […]
Artificial Intelligence-A Gift or Return Item? by Linda Lovely
By Debra Goldstein |
With the holiday gift season coming to a close maybe it’s time to decide if Artificial Intelligence is a present we should open. In a run-up to the holidays, Artificial Intelligence-AI-captured more headlines than Saint Nick as tech firms like OpenAI, Google, Microsoft and X raced to debut their versions of interactive AI bots. The […]
The Bethlehem Writers Group and The Bethlehem Writers 2024 Short Story Award Competition by Marianne H. Donley
By Debra Goldstein |
I’m a member of The Bethlehem Writers Group, LLC (BWG), a community of mutually supportive fiction and nonfiction authors based in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania-and beyond. We are as different from each other as our stories. While we started as a critique group and still meet three times a month to critique each other’s work, BWG also […]
PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLERS: What You Don’t Know About the Genre May Keep You from Reading a Great Book! by Lisa Malice
By Debra Goldstein |
E.B. Davis is one the many amazing authors with whom I blog-share Writers Who Kill. Her November 15th post spotlighted my debut thriller, Lest She Forget, with an interview and a blunt admission-as a cozy and paranormal mystery writer, she was not a fan of genre and didn’t expect to enjoy my tale. But Lest […]
Every Main Character Needs a Sidekick by Sandra Murphy
By Debra Goldstein |
There comes a time in a mystery where the main character needs to recap the clues, red herrings, misguided non-help, and possibilities without dumping a truckload of previously read information on the page. A sidekick is necessary so the characters can bounce around ideas, ask questions about a clue the reader may have missed, eliminate […]
Branching Out? By Rosalie Spielman
By Debra Goldstein |
Thank you, Debra, for hosting me! I am one happy gal in the fall. Like many of you, I adore autumn-the leaves, the crisp air, the scent of spices in the air and in the pastries, sweaters and cozy socks… One of the additional things I love is seeing the trees being stripped bare. Don’t […]
The Long and the Short of It by Roger Johns
By Debra Goldstein |
Debra, thank you for inviting me to be on It’s Not Always a Mystery. In my case, the title of your blog turns out to literally be true. When I first began writing, with serious publication ambitions, which would have been around 2007 or 2008, it seemed as if mystery fiction, or some variation thereof, […]