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 […]
Branching Out? By Rosalie Spielman Read More »
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,
The Long and the Short of It by Roger Johns Read More »
Until my late sixties, I never thought of writing fiction, let alone a novel. In high school, I rarely did homework; with a few exceptions, I could score Cs on most tests. The exception was Latin. Mr. Jung inspired me to work on translations and understanding the dead language. I’ve forgotten it all. My English
A Beach Bum’s Journey to Becoming an Author by George Cramer Read More »
My first short story appeared in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine in 1968. Since then, I’ve been fortunate enough to sell over a hundred more to EQMM, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, and many other periodicals and anthologies, and the Short Mystery Fiction Society awarded me its Golden Derringer for Lifetime Achievement in 2020. Despite this long
THE FIFTY-FIVE-YEAR PLAN by Josh Pachter Read More »
Twenty-two years have passed since September 11, 2001. Twenty-two years since terrorists hijacked four airplanes to carry out suicide attacks in the United States. Almost 3000 people were killed and even more had their lives and families forever disrupted. Many of us remember where we were when two planes hit the Twin Towers of the
We Must Remember by Debra H. Goldstein Read More »
The first time someone asked me to present a workshop on writing for young adults, I prepared not only by mining my own experiences as a YA mystery writer, but by reading extensively on the subject. A couple of themes emerged again and again: Young adult readers are above all concerned with the emotional journey
What Preoccupies Us as Writers Keeps Showing Up by Lynn Slaughter Read More »
A Crafty Collage of Crime, the twelfth book in my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery Series, released this past June. I’ve spent much of the summer in promo mode, mostly on blog tours, podcasts, and Zoom events. At the end of this week, I’ll be attending Killer Nashville with Debra, many other authors, and those wishing
One Size Does Not Fit All by Lois Winston Read More »
One of my favorite funny stories about writing comes from my friend Susan Elia MacNeal, who has published ten Maggie Hope mysteries set in WWII. In researching, Susan read Winston Churchill’s letters, where she found he used the abbreviation “OMG.” It’s not as surprising as it sounds; because telegrams were expensive and priced by the
The Tension between Truth and Verisimilitude in Historical Fiction by Karen Odden Read More »
Have you Always Wanted to Write a Book? I could never get above a B in Honors English. My family had moved to a ritzy suburb, and I’d transferred from a rougher, less prestigious high school into a swanky one where girls wore matching shoes and purses. I wore army fatigues and boots. The kids
Guest Blogger: G.P. Gottlieb – Have You Always Wanted to Write a Book? Read More »
Debra, thanks for inviting me to “It’s Not Always a Mystery.” I’ve loved mysteries since I read my first Encyclopedia Brown and Nancy Drew books many moons ago. When I picked up my first Agatha Christie, The Murder of Roger Akroyd, I fell head over heels in love. I jumped into the deep end of
It’s Not Always a Mystery – But it’s Always a Puzzle! by Valerie Burns Read More »