Many crime fiction protagonists don’t have to take care of anyone except themselves. They are single, divorced, or widowed. Some are young and haven’t found anyone to start a family with. Others are older, or jaded, or have lost what family they had. Being single makes the sleuthing life of an amateur – or a […]
Characters Who Need Caring For by Edith Maxwell/Maddie Day Read More »
Did you know “Mystery”, the genre we all know and love, wasn’t a genre in the early 1800s? There was romance (which did not mean what it does today) and horror (which does mean what it does today), history, and biographies, but no Mystery. In addition to writing full-length mysteries, including my current release Guilty
Once a Mystery, Always a Mystery? By TG Wolff Read More »
People often ask me where I get my ideas for my books. A lot of my ideas come from real life. Yes, I write murder mysteries, but that doesn’t mean that I have been involved with murders. Sometimes a building or a house will spark my imagination. One of those buildings is a stone mansion
SETTING BASED ON REAL LIFE by Valerie (V. M.) Burns Read More »
Why is “Murder She Wrote” set in Cabot Cove, Maine? Probably first and foremost because the creators of the popular series wanted a charming backdrop that provided a plausible home for a retired teacher/mystery author turned amateur sleuth. And the small tight-knit community meant Jessica Fletcher had access to everyone and everything she needed to
Why There? Because Settings Matter by Mary Lee Ashford Read More »
“Relax,” said the librarian in the history department at the Los Angeles Public Library. “If you can’t find it, probably no one else can.” Probably. Hmmmmm. Probably doesn’t mean won’t, and knowing my luck, some self-important blowhard is going to find some uber obscure factoid that I missed in my latest historical mystery and work
TERROR IN THE RESEARCH RABBIT HOLE by Anne Louise Bannon Read More »
How do you write science fiction or fantasy? Just like any other fiction, it takes two main ingredients, a story, and a setting. One usually pops into the writer’s head before the other, but both are required. Where science fiction and fantasy differ from mainstream fiction is the setting of the story. Which the author
Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy by Ray Tabler Read More »
Four million books entered the marketplace worldwide last year, and at least some of them entered their path to publication via a query letter, addressed to either a literary agent or a publisher. A strong query letter can push your manuscript farther up in the slush pile. Considering that agents receive thousands of queries each
Query, Query, Quite Contrary by Dianna Sinovic Read More »
In 2018, I wrote my first mystery novel, MURDER IN THE ONE PERCENT. In the months after the book launched, I took it on a whirlwind tour of ten U.S. cities, where I met with people at bookstores, libraries, museums, and private homes. One of those cities was Chicago, where I had lived for several
Why Mysteries? by Saralyn Richard Read More »
Years ago, I attended a presentation on young adult fiction at a writer’s conference in which the speaker exhorted us to “get parents out of the way” and relegate them to the periphery of our stories. In my opinion, her advice was both on the mark and totally off. Yes, in YA fiction, our teen
Echoes from Childhood by Lynn Slaughter Read More »
Not long ago, a friend asked whether I had a favorite time of day and location to write. My response was that, to me, writing is much more about inspiration and mood than time or place. I have written at my desk, at the dining room table, on an airplane, and in hotel rooms, among
Writing From Inspiration and Mood by Bob Rothman Read More »