Women Writers

Sidekicks can make or break a story. In a great mystery, the main character’s “helper” is as important as the plot itself. I mean, how else will the heroine find the killer without another viewpoint? This assistant needs to be loyal, supportive under duress, offer inspiration, have unique skills, and never, ever outshine the protagonist, […]

As the author of seven cozy mysteries, beginning to write a historical novel was like hiking an unexplored trail. A mystery writer constructs a fictional puzzle and uses small revelations and a bit of misdirection to build and maintain suspense – none of which seemed like the right tools to unpack for a historical World

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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 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