Writers Who Kill

Their Time Upon the Stage by Susan Van Kirk

2026-10-01T05:00:00.000-04:00

I was watching the credits of “Les Misérables” this week and the order of the players reminded me of the Shakespearean cliché about the world being a stage. Yes, it’s true that each player has his time and size of role. But even the most obscure part has its function. (Think of all the dead bodies at the end of the revolution or on the battlefield in “Lincoln.”)

What functions do authors have to think about when they create characters in their minds and on their pages?

Orson Scott Card, who has written multiple books about the writing craft, mentions that characters can be divided into walk-ons and placeholders, minor characters, and major characters. When drafting a novel, an author has to consider how much time and description to give to each character she creates.

The walk-ons and placeholders are part of the background of a story. They have their purposes either in large ensemble groups or in small parts. They come into the book and do their thing, and then they leave. Often, in a movie, such a character is labeled “second man with gun.” In the Sherlock Holmes’ stories the Baker Street Irregulars, a band of street urchins that Holmes relies on for intelligence, is such a group.

I’m currently finishing a book of three novellas that brings forward my character, Detective TJ Sweeney. She’s always been a major character, but since Grace Kimball married, TJ hasn’t had as much time on the stage. These three novellas give her center stage. The first story, “Doing Justice, Loving Mercy,” goes back to 1991 when Grace Kimball’s children were young. None of my readers have met those children because this story is a prequel to the series. The series begins in 2011. The children are minor walk-ons and have a role in this story, but I did give them names since they were mentioned in the later novels.

The second category, minor characters, helps the plot along, and we learn more about them than the

walk-ons. They have their purposes too, and without them the story wouldn’t work as well or take the turns it takes. In “Two Graves,” the second novella, the setting is TJ Sweeney’s 20^th high school class reunion. TJ’s partner, Jake Williams, and two of the policemen, Jim McGuire and Ted Kessler, are minor characters. But they have a role in making the climax work. They’re given names because they are more than walk-ons but not major characters.

A sub-category of minor characters is those who provide comic relief, especially in my Endurance series. Lettisha Kimball, Grace’s former sister-in-law, is always the comic relief. Lettie believes everything she reads in the tabloids, listens to all the gossip around town, and has outrageous opinions. As a minor character, she reflects the views of a small town person, but she also keeps her ears open for what’s happening. She’s an amazing cook, so when she gets mad at TJ Sweeney for something, she cuts off her pie allowance.

The major characters are the ones who play the biggest role in novels and films. We get to know them well and want to know their fates. Their lives—and often their point of view—drive the plot. I describe them in detail. We must care about them, however, to stay involved in the story. In the upcoming novella, “The Locket,” Grace Kimball becomes a minor character while Detective TJ Sweeney is the major character, and it’s her view that drives the plot.

The next time you read a novel or watch a film, think about the role each character plays, large or small. Each one is necessary to make the plot move forward. Do you read mystery series where characters are sometimes in major roles and sometimes minor?

An Interview With Carol Pouliot

2026-09-30T02:00:00.000-04:00

by Grace Topping

Murder at the Moulin Rouge

Paris, 1895. When a cancan dancer at the Moulin Rouge falls to her death from the top of one of Montmartre’s highest staircases, the police dismiss it as an accident. But, Madeleine was one of Toulouse-Lautrec’s favorite models, and the artist is certain she was murdered. Enter Depression-era detective Steven Blackwell and 21st-century journalist Olivia Watson who travel back in time to Paris to hunt down the killer. Before long, they learn that a second dancer—a ballerina and favorite model of painter Edgar Degas—has died. Two dancers dead in two weeks. Two artists grieving. Is the killer targeting young dancers, or does this case involve the enigmatic Paris art world?

From the moment Steven and Olivia arrive, Steven is out of his element. The small-town cop has no idea what techniques the French police use in 1895. Worse, he has no official status to investigate murder in one of the world’s largest cities. The sleuths soon discover disturbing secrets at the Paris Ballet. And when Olivia insists on going undercover to visit a suspect’s house alone, Steven fears he’s made the biggest mistake of his life.

Travel back in time with Steven and Olivia, as they enter the back-stabbing world of dance in one of the world’s greatest cities. Murder at the Moulin Rouge is their most daring and dangerous case to date.

To read a mystery requires us to suspend disbelief. But when the mystery involves time-traveling sleuths, one of whom lives in 1934 and the other in current day, we can forget about it reflecting reality. We just need to read it for fun. Carol Pouliot joins us at WWK to talk about her Blackwell and Watson time-travel mystery series where her two sleuths cross into each other’s time to solve crimes.

Welcome to Writers Who Kill, Carol.

What motivated you to make your detectives time travelers, with one of them a bit ghostly?

I've never thought of any of my characters as ghosts. I based the series on a theory that Einstein had. He believed there was no such thing as past, present, or future but that all time happened simultaneously. He also thought time could fold over if conditions were right. That's what happened to my two main characters, Steven and Olivia, in the beginning of the first book in the series, Doorway to Murder. They've been catching glimpses of each other across a doorway for several days when, finally, Olivia speaks up and asks Steven if he's real. That leads to their discussion of what's happening to them and to each of them proving to the other that they actually do live in the time they say they do. Steven lives in 1934 and Olivia shares the same house 80 years later in 2014. I write the books as dual time periods that happen at the same time.

When 21^st century journalist Olivia discovers that Steven’s ghost is inhabiting her house, she is shocked, but doubly so when she finds herself able to travel to his 1930’s time. What has been the greatest challenge you face writing about characters who can travel to different times and places?

In the beginning, it wasn't difficult but as I continue to write the series, Steven and Olivia have gotten used to a lot of things in each other's time. Because of their jobs, he stays in the 1930s most of the time and she does most of the traveling into his time. I chose to write it that way because I'm more interested in writing historical rather than contemporary fiction.

Coming back to your question, although it's a series, I write each book as though it were a standalone so someone can pick up any book and enjoy it. In each subsequent novel, I make sure that I explain enough of Steven and Olivia's backstory so the reader understands their situation. What's tricky is that, as the series progresses, Olivia spends more and more time outside the house in the 1930s and has gotten used to most aspects of life there. She's no longer surprised at things she sees and hears. I have to constantly remember to put in little notes that let the reader know it makes sense that she's used to certain things, and that she even uses some of the slang expressions popular at that time.

Olivia and Steven live in times eighty years apart. How does Olivia account for her absence when she is with Steven in his time? Is Steven able to travel to Olivia’s time?

Olivia doesn't need to account for her absence because she lives alone. She has already told her two best friends about Steven and the time traveling, and she owns her own business—a research agency. She has an answering machine in her home office and uses email to stay in touch with clients. When she needs to physically meet with a client, she is able to do that. She spends enough time in the 21st century to get her research done and turn in the projects that her clients have requested. Steven rarely leaves the house in her time, but when he has it's been on an evening or weekend. They get together inside the house in both her time and his most evenings. As a single man living alone, he doesn't have anyone to answer to either. He's home enough evenings during the week and on weekends to answer the phone in case of an emergency at work. (He's a cop.)

Is there anyone else besides Olivia and Steven that know about their ability to travel to each other’s time and beyond?

Olivia talked with her two best friends after seeing Steven several nights and after realizing she wasn't in danger. She didn't know what was going on and was afraid she might be ill. They discussed possibilities of what might be happening. When she discovered that Steven was real, she explained everything to them.

Steven and Olivia ended up telling his partner in RSVP to Murder. I can't tell you why because it would ruin part of the story for people who have not read it yet.

In Murder at the Moulin Rouge, what was it about 1895 Paris that drew you to setting a mystery there and then? Could it have been your journey on the Orient Express?

Ha! I'd like to say yes because that trip was amazing. But it was an extra that I added in after I began writing the first draft.

Murder at the Moulin Rouge was actually the first of my five novels where I followed the advice "write what you know." I taught French for 34 years, and incorporated art and history into my classes. I've always enjoyed the novels of Balzac, which take place in the 1800s, and I love impressionist paintings. I knew I wanted to write a book that involved Steven's late mother, Evangéline, an artist from Paris. I took all those things, did the math, and came up with a year when it made sense in terms of Evangéline's age and when Toulouse-Lautrec and Degas would have been in Paris. That's how I came up with 1895.

Olivia and Steven enter the world of famous painters and dancers to solve murders. As visitors, what pulled them into investigating those murders?

It turns out that Steven's mother was also a time traveler, something he never knew. She appears in his house on Christmas Eve and tells him she needs him to go to Paris. She explains why, and he is intrigued. It also happens to be approaching the one-year anniversary of her unexpected and devastating death. Steven is still having trouble getting over that, and he realizes that he has a chance of a lifetime to spend a week or so with her even though she is a young woman and not the older mother that he knew. Olivia is a free spirit and adventurous. She's always ready for anything. She doesn't hesitate a second before she says yes, she will go with him.

After years of teaching and running your own business, what motivated you to write crime fiction?

I had been retired about five years and wanted a mental challenge. At the time, I had a subscription to Victoria magazine, which had a monthly feature article called Chimes, a memoir. I had a treasured memory that I still could see as clearly as though it had been yesterday. I thought my memory would be suitable for that feature. When I sat down to write it, an incredible feeling of satisfaction and joy washed over me. I knew at that moment I had to spend the rest of my life writing.

Do your characters arrive in your brain fully formed, or do they gradually reveal themselves as you write?

I thought of Steven first, and he arrived fully formed. I knew him as though he had been in my life forever. I knew his worst fears and greatest desires. I did add two interests for him based on those that my grandfather had. Steven was born in 1901 and my grandfather in 1900, so they would have been contemporaries. I knew giving Steven an interest in cars and baseball was accurate for a man at that time. I wanted a partner-in-crime for Steven, so I created Olivia. I made her someone who was very much his opposite, yet I gave her traits that would allow them to get along. As for the other characters—victims, suspects, killers—I create them before I write the rough draft, although they all evolve as I'm writing that particular mystery. There have been a couple of unexpected characters who popped up fully formed as I was writing my first draft. That's always a lot of fun!

How was your journey to publication? A smooth road or one filled with potholes?

My journey to publication was not pretty. Ha! I had no idea what I was doing at first and thought I was supposed to get an agent. I queried several people. Most of them loved the story idea but said the manuscript still needed work. I had no idea what that meant so I continued working on it without really improving it for a couple of years. When I finally joined Sisters in Crime, I started to learn the craft and made the improvements that I needed to. I met Marni Graff at one of our chapter meetings and learned about the author co-op she is involved with. That group ultimately published my first book, Doorway to Murder. I always knew I wanted a traditional publisher so I continued sending out query letters but to publishers this time not agents. Finally, after a year, I signed a contract with Level Best Books. I'm still with them. I will say that I found it extremely difficult and stressful to send out a query letter and not hear anything for months...or ever! This business isn't for the faint of heart.

What is the most valuable thing you’ve learned since you started writing?

When I began writing, I had a very romantic idea of a writer—someone who sits alone in a particular setting writing day after day. Sort of like the classic writer in a Paris attic. The reality is we don't write in a bubble. The most valuable thing that I learned is that we need other people—writers who understand what we're going through at all the different and challenging stages of writing a book and getting it published, as well as people who can answer questions, whether it's about publishing or poison. The most wonderful thing that has happened to me since I became a published author is the incredible friendships I've made. It can be hard later in life to meet people who think and feel the way you do about things. I treasure the beautiful friendships I've made along the way.

Where do you plan to take Olivia and Steven next?

I'm working on book six right now, Death Moved In. It's 1935, and Steven and Olivia are back home in Knightsbridge, a small town in central New York near the Mohawk River and the Adirondack mountains. A local businessman is murdered in his bed while he sleeps one night. This is going to be a difficult case for Steven. At first, there are too many suspects. Then it seems that everyone with a motive did not have opportunity and everyone with opportunity had no motive. There are going to be seven books in my series so I'm also laying more groundwork for the end of the series.

Thank you, Carol.

Finding Mystery Novel Ideas in Everyday Life:

2026-09-29T03:00:00.000-04:00

A Guest Post by Kim Harrington

One of the questions writers hear most often is, “Where do you get your ideas?” People are often surprised when I tell them that many of mine came from my real life. Which, admittedly, sounds a little alarming, since I write mysteries.

But the moments that have inspired my books weren’t dramatic crimes or terrifying experiences. They were small, everyday occurrences that most people would forget by the end of the day. But if you keep your writer hat on, you can spin everyday happenings into a compelling mystery.

My YA novel FORGET ME (written as K.A. Harrington, Putnam, 2014) grew out of a glitch on a social media site. One day, I uploaded a photo, and the site’s facial recognition feature tagged someone else. The two people happened to look a lot alike. Without wearing my writer hat, I would have just laughed it off, fixed the tag, and moved on. Instead, my writer brain went to work imagining all the ways this could have gone incredibly wrong. Then I played a writer’s favorite game: what if. What if you were uploading the photo of someone who had passed away? And what if the website tagged him with someone else’s name? Someone who looked exactly like him but was very much alive. Suddenly, a harmless technical error became the seed of an entire thriller.

Another YA novel THE DEAD AND BURIED (Scholastic, 2013) started with a newspaper article. I’d always wanted to try my hand at a haunted house novel, but I wanted a fresh spin. One day I read an article in the real estate section about “stigmatized properties” (murder houses) and how they can be great bargains for families looking to trade up to a nicer town or a bigger house. So I thought, instead of a crumbling Victorian home, what if my haunted house was an ordinary suburban McMansion that a family purchased to get into a more upscale town? And what if the ghost wasn’t centuries old, but the victim of a recent murder? And the ghost would haunt my main character until she figured out who amongst her friends at school was the killer? One newspaper article became the seed of my idea that blended a modern ghost story with a murder mystery.

Some ideas don’t become books right away. When my son was small, we used a baby monitor during naps. One day, I heard an adult’s voice coming through it. I raced upstairs, but no one was in his room. I eventually realized our neighbors had brought their new baby home and were using the same type of baby monitor, which was causing cross-talk. First, I got rid of that baby monitor! Then, I wrote in my idea notebook, “Rear Window meets a baby monitor.” I had no idea where I’d use it. Years later, while brainstorming the second book in my middle grade SLEUTH OR DARE series (Scholastic, 2012), I searched through the notebook and found the entry. Within minutes, I had a plot about kids babysitting who overhear something suspicious on a baby monitor. The idea had simply been waiting for the right story.

Most recently, my debut adult mystery, A KILLER FOR CHRISTMAS (Crooked Lane Books, 9/22/26) was inspired by a conversation with my husband. One night, I told him I was heading upstairs to watch TV in bed. He asked, “What is it tonight? A Hallmark Christmas movie or a murder show? Because it’s always one or the other.” I laughed and said, “If only there were a cozy Christmas town, a romance…and a serial killer.” We both laughed, and then my writer brain lit up. And I knew exactly what I wanted to work on next.

Notice that none of these stories began with earth-shattering events. They started with a social media glitch, a newspaper article, a faulty baby monitor, and an offhand conversation.

That's the wonderful thing about writing mysteries: ideas are everywhere. The trick isn't waiting for something extraordinary to happen. It's paying attention to the ordinary. Keep your writer hat on. Stay curious. Ask "What if?" every chance you get.

You never know which seemingly insignificant moment will become your next novel.

Have you ever had a small, everyday moment spark a story idea?

Kim Harrington is the author of A Killer for Christmas, her debut adult mystery from Crooked Lane Books. She is also known for her teen novels Clarity, Perception, The Dead and Buried, and Forget Me, as well as books for younger readers including Revenge of the Red Club, the Sleuth or Dare series, and Gamer Squad series. Her books have been published in ten countries. She lives in Massachusetts with her family and never leaves the house without a book. She has an MBA but would rather plot twists than business plans. When not writing, she's most likely reading or dreaming about her next vacation. Visit her on the web at https://kimharringtonbooks.com/ or on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/kimharringtonauthor/

Decorations by Nancy L. Eady

2026-09-28T01:00:00.000-04:00

Five days after the official beginning of fall, the state of Alabama is taking a deep breath. The temperature has finally condescended to inch below ninety degrees for a high, and we are loving it. Even the dogs have an extra spring in their step. Two of them opted to bake in the yard for about a half hour today before they wanted back in, which hasn’t happened since spring.

Fall and Halloween decorations are slowly appearing around town. However, no one is displaying real carved pumpkins yet. Even with our present fall temperatures, there is not a real pumpkin that has a chance of making it the 33 or 34 days left until Halloween in good shape.

Fall wreaths and fall colors are popular decorations; they add a pop of color to landscaping that has been devoid of flowers since spring, unless you live in a house with enough shade to grow azaleas. Spring is our big time for azaleas, but an increasing number of varieties bloom in the fall as well. Seeing the fall azalea blooms feels serendipitous; a little wink from the weather to remind us that, yes, we are in the South, and yes, the temperature has stayed too high for too long, but fall will arrive.

With Halloween decorations, I enjoy houses that go all out with a non-scary motif. Homeowners do lots of neat things with skeletons. Examples include skeletons sitting around campfires, toasting s’mores; skeletons in beach chairs toasting passersby with their beer of choice; and skeletons sitting on pool floaties in the front yard, waving. I also enjoy the houses in ritzy, sedate neighborhoods that decide to “do” Halloween. I’m not sure the sedate neighbors enjoy it that much, but I do.

Sadly, I have not yet trekked into the garage to find our box of Halloween decorations. I suspect it's hidden among the stacks of the other boxes that have yet to be unpacked. Our Halloween stuff is for indoor decoration. I have a few fall outdoor decorations, but maybe it is time for me to expand into the outdoor Halloween business.

Or maybe I’ll just continue to enjoy everyone else’s Halloween decorations while imagining all the added spaces those decorations create for hiding bodies and committing crimes for me to write about.

Has fall started where you are yet? Do you decorate for fall, or Halloween, or both?

Mystery in the Midlands Goes Short 2026!

2026-09-27T00:30:00.000-04:00

by Paula Gail Benson

For the past few years, The Southeast Chapter of the Mystery Writers of America and the Palmetto Chapter of Sisters in Crime have teamed with Michael Bracken to organize a FREE half-day program on the craft and business of writing mystery short stories. This year, mark your calendars for Saturday, October 10, from 11:15 am ET (10:15 CT/9:15 MT/8:15 PT) to join us again for a great day of information from some true experts in the field. We’ll start out with Joseph S. Walker talking about structure; followed by a panel of Ashley-Ruth M. Bernier, Carla Damron, and Art Taylor—all of whom have created larger works out of connected shorter stories; and finally editors Alex Mattingly, Katy Munger, and Roger Nokes talking about how to make sure your submissions are noticed and accepted.

All you have to do is register using the link below:

Registration link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/H7AkECfcQB-9Ej98_UX2DQ

Here’s the schedule with panelists’ biographies:

11:15 am Welcome Michael Bracken and Paula Gail Benson

11:30 am -12:25 pm Some Loose Thoughts on Tight Structures

Joseph S. Walker is an Edgar-nominated author of short mystery fiction and the current President of the Short Mystery Fiction Society. His first collection, Crime Scenes, was published by Level Best Books in March 2026.

12:30 - 1:25 pm Short Stories as Building Blocks

Moderator: Paula Gail Benson

Ashley-Ruth M. Bernier’s short fiction has appeared in many publications, including Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2023, and has earned an Agatha Award and nominations for the Derringer and Anthony Awards. Originally from St. Thomas, USVI, Ashley-Ruth now lives in North Carolina. Her first novel-length work, a novel-in-stories called The Bush Tea Murder, was published by Crooked Lane Books in 2026.

Carla Damron is an award-winning novelist and short story writer who uses fiction to examine social justice issues like human trafficking and mental illness. A retired social worker, she lives with her husband in South Carolina and teaches writing classes on Writers.com.

Art Taylor is the Edgar Award-winning author of two collections and of the novel in stories On the Road with Del & Louise, winner of the Agatha Award for Best First Novel. He is a professor of English at George Mason University.

1:30 - 2:25 pm Editors Reveal All

Moderator: Michael Bracken

Alex Mattingly is the editor of Cold Caller Magazine, and his stories have appeared in PANK, North American Review, Shotgun Honey, Tough, Rock and a Hard Place, and other publications. Writing as Craig Francis Coates, his story “Grendel” was selected for Best American Mystery and Suspense 2025.

Katy Munger is the co-editor of the neo noir literary journal Dark Yonder and has edited numerous short story anthologies in her role as a senior editor for Thalia Press. She is also the author of 18 mystery novels and was a book reviewer for the Washington Post’s Book World.

Roger Nokes is the Editor-in-Chief at Rock and a Hard Place Press. He writes fiction under the pseudonym Stanton McCaffrey. His short stories have been featured in Dog Named Dog Magazine, Tough, Reckon Review, Dark Yonder, Mystery Tribune, Vautrin, Shotgun Honey, and more. He has published two novels: Into the Ocea; and Neighborhood of Dead Ends. His short story, “Will I See The Birds When I Am Gone,” was featured in The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2024.

2:25 - 2:30 pm Final Questions and Comments

We hope you’ll join us on Saturday, October 10.

Editing: The Writer’s Seven-Layer Salad

2026-09-26T03:00:00.000-04:00

By Kait Carson

Seven-Layer Salad

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1/2 cup sour cream

2 tsps apple cider vinegar

1 cup frozen peas, defrosted and drained

1 head chopped iceberg lettuce

1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1 cup cooked and chopped thick-cut center-cut bacon

3 or 4 hard-cooked eggs, cut in quarters lengthwise

1 cup halved grape tomatoes

¼ cup shredded Parmesan cheese

¼ cup snipped scallion tops

Stir together mayonnaise, sour cream, and apple cider vinegar to make the dressing.

Evenly layer lettuce, cheddar cheese, peas, bacon, eggs, tomatoes, and Parmesan in a pretty glass salad bowl. Top with scallion tops.

Serve unmixed with the dressing on the side.

Don’t like something? No worries, change it up to your taste.

Those of you who follow me know I’ve been in edit mode with my novel, No Return, for the past year. Yep, not a typo. I think Leo Tolstoy wrote War and Peace in less time. Not really, rumor has it that Tolstoy took six years to write and edit his book, and some say it went through fifteen revisions. Not much over the course of six years, but when you stop to realize every iteration needed to be handwritten…well. My hand hurts. So does my head, but I understand Tolstoy’s handwriting was just as illegible as mine, which makes me feel a little better.

What took so long, you might ask? Last August I submitted the manuscript to a traditional publisher who rejected the novel in October with a lovely critique and offered to reconsider the book after editing. Yes, rejection stings, but this rejection offered a ray of hope. Besides, when I considered the suggestions, I realized the editor was one hundred percent correct, and thus began the editing saga.

Somewhere around the six-month timeframe, it occurred to me that editing is very like constructing a seven-layer salad:

First layer, outline if you are so inclined, or sit, stay, and write if you’re not.
Second layer, let the story marinate, and take a day or two and read the manuscript in its entirety. Any longer and you risk losing sight of the sequence of events and might miss the ever dreaded plot holes.
Third layer, annotate every chapter, note if it needs to stay, move, undergo revision, or, heaven forbid, deletion. Because I write mysteries, while I’m in this phase, I list red herrings, the characters they affect, clues, the chapter each is resolved, and which suspect the clue or red herring clears or condemns. This is also where I add, delete, or combine characters.
Fourth layer, make the necessary revisions, construct a solution timeline.
Fifth Layer, reread the manuscript for continuity.
Sixth layer, find and resolve overused words and phrases.
Seventh layer, read one last time, make any necessary changes.
Crunch topping, Submit.

I’m finishing up the seventh layer now and anticipate moving to the crunchy topping this week. I’ll let you know if we get to crack open that champagne bottle in my wine cooler, or open a bottle of Writer’s Tears when I hear. Wish me luck!

Kait Carson writes the Hayden Kent Mysteries, set in the Fabulous Florida Keys, and is at work on a new mystery series set in her adopted state of Maine. Her short fiction has been nationally published in the True Confessions magazines and in Woman’s World. Kait’s short story, “Gutted, Filleted, and Fried”, appeared in the Silver Falchion Award-nominated Guppy Anthology Hook, Line, and Sinker. Her nonfiction essay was included in the Agatha Award-winning book Writing the Cozy Mystery. She is a former President of the Guppy Chapter of Sisters in Crime, and a current member of Sisters in Crime and Guppies. Check out her webpage at www.kaitcarson.com and while you’re there, sign up for her monthly newsletter.

Learning About the Short Mystery Fiction Community

2026-09-25T00:30:00.000-04:00

by Paula Gail Benson

For the past few years, I’ve had the privilege of working with Michael Bracken to organize a virtual online conference dedicated to writing short mystery fiction. We are excitedly anticipating our next installment, Mystery in the Midlands Goes Short 2026, to take place on Saturday, October 10, beginning at 11:15 am ET and concluding at 2:30 pm ET. The lineup of speakers features some truly fascinating short story authors and editors.

We hope you’ll be able to join us or watch the recording of the program. It’s free of charge! Just register at this following link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/H7AkECfcQB-9Ej98_UX2DQ

To give you a better chance to get to know some of our presenters, I asked them to respond to a question or two or more. We had a quick turn-around time for responses and not everyone had time to answer everything, but what they did have to say gives true insight into the short mystery fiction community.

1. Were you intimidated by writing short or naturally drawn to it?

Art Taylor

Art Taylor: I’ve always been drawn toward short fiction, largely because of having read so much of it in my formative years, both within the genre—I subscribed to Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine as early as junior high, during a school subscription drive!—and without, reading and studying Poe, Chekhov, Hemingway, O’Connor, Welty, and so many more in high school. It’s a form that seems a good fit for how I work.

Ashley-Ruth M. Bernier: I used to find the form very intimidating, actually! There's so much more pressure on the short story author to make sure a piece is tight, connected, and meaningful. Ever since I was a teenager, I'd "write long", meaning that I always had a novel-length work on my mind. Once I had kids, though, I didn't have the time to write anything long anymore, and I found that writing short stories was actually a lot more fun than I thought it would be BECAUSE of the challenge of making them tight, connected, and meaningful.

Carla Damron: I was intimidated! A short story is a very small canvas. The writing must be much leaner than in novels.

Joseph S. Walker

Joseph S. Walker: I was naturally drawn to writing short. I seem to have a short story brain; every time I start planning what I might do in a novel, I immediately start feeling like I'm just unnecessarily padding things. I think what appeals to me is the focus and intensity of a good short story. You're not getting a vast panorama. You're getting a close-up of a very limited scope of action, and your job as a writer is to convince the reader that this little sliver of space and time is important and engaging.

Katy Munger: I was naturally drawn to it for two reasons. One is my ADHD, which includes a lack of patience for delayed gratification. 😊 The other is that I outline my novels very extensively, with each scene getting a thorough synopsis before I dive in and write. I think this love of framing a pivotal event in very few words carried over into short stories, especially when I started reading at Noir at the Bar. I found that people responded much better to a fully fleshed out story with a plot structure compared to reading a section from a longer work.

Michael Bracken: I started writing professionally when I was a teenager, and I was too young to be intimidated by anything. So, I wrote everything, trying to find my place in the literary ecosystem. I wrote every length from one-sentence fillers to full-length novels. Ultimately, though, I settled into short stories, and have found my greatest writing success with them, with more than 1,300 sales across multiple genres. The past dozen years or so, I have written more crime fiction than anything else and now, when I have a story idea, it almost always fits into one of the crime fiction subgenres.

2. Do you have a favorite short crime fiction author? Have you met that person and what was it like?

Ashley-Ruth M. Bernier

Art Taylor: I admire so many short mystery and suspense writers, but shouting out even one or two would leave out too many more—I can’t do it! But looking back further, there are several writers whose work I keep coming back to as guidance and inspiration: Daphne du Maurier, Stanley Ellin, and Ruth Rendell. Never met any of them—and would’ve been too intimidated even if I had the opportunity!

Ashley-Ruth M. Bernier: They say not to meet your heroes, but I've met a few of them, both online and in person, and they're all lovely.

Joseph S. Walker:I can't say I have a single favorite; there are just too many writers who excel at the form, including a lot working now. In terms of inspiration, though, I don't see how anyone can touch Edward D. Hoch. There's a reason the Short Mystery Fiction Society's lifetime achievement award is named in his honor. Nobody will ever do anything to match his run of having a story in every single issue of Ellery Queen for more than thirty-four years. What makes it all the more astonishing is that all of his stories are smart, entertaining, quality pieces of work. He set the bar we should all be aiming for. It's one of my great regrets that my own writing career started a few years too late to meet him.

Katy Munger: As an editor, I feel like it would be inappropriate for me to name a favorite current author, although there are definitely a handful who make my day when they send a new story in for me to consider. All I can tell you is that I grew up reading a steady diet of Flannery O'Connor, Carson McCullers, and Shirley Jackson. It shows. I love dark stories, but I prefer dark stories about human nature rather than supernatural events or creatures.

3. From whose POV do you write: protagonist, villain, or observer?

Art Taylor: Ooh! All of the above at different times. That’s part of the beauty of the short story—the ability to experiment, to try different things, and to break free of any sense of brand or limitation. “Observer” strikes me in some ways as the most interesting and most underused or under-appreciated: the effect of a crime on a witness or a bystander, their decisions on how to handle what they’ve seen…. that’s ripe for plot development and fertile emotional territory too.

Ashley-Ruth M. Bernier: I mostly write mysteries from the sleuth's point of view, but when I write a straight-up crime story, it's usually from the villain's point of view. I usually write in first-person or close third, so I've never really experimented with writing from an observer's POV. I like to get as close as I can to the main character's thoughts.

Katy Munger

Katy Munger: I tend to write from the view of the protagonist because it's such a great way to convey who that character is and their past. When a reader really gets to know and appreciate (not necessarily like) a protagonist, I find they are more invested in the story and stick with the whole series.

4. Fill in the blank: "If I had to do without ___________, I would find it incredibly difficult to write short stories."

Art Taylor: Thesaurus. Finding just the right word is key to economy and efficiency in your prose.

Ashley-Ruth M. Bernier: "the mystery-writing community and my support network". The mystery writing community is incredibly generous, helpful, and supportive, and I've made lots of writer friends and gained many wonderful opportunities because of it. My support network at home, like my husband and helpful kids, gives me time to write and grace when I need to focus on a project.

Katy Munger: My computer. Multiple revisions are your friend! With a short story, it is all about cutting, then cutting, then cutting some more. Sometimes I play a trick on myself: when I have to take those final passes at cutting yet more of my words, I save the longer version and tell myself I will publish a collection one day of the longer versions. I haven't done that yet, of course, but I may one day.

5. Is writing short mystery fiction a diversion or a career?

Art Taylor: Are there alternatives to “diversion” and “career”? Affliction, albatross, burden, curse…? (See: I’m using my thesaurus right now…)

Ashley-Ruth M. Bernier: I consider it part of my identity, at this point. It's something I'm incredibly proud of doing. I intend to continue to give it my best and see where it takes me.

Carla Damron

Carla Damron: A diversion. I love to explore short stories when I'm between larger projects. Or when I'm stuck and need a break (I often "break up" with my novels). I'll explore short form fiction to keep my creative juices flowing.

Joseph S. Walker: In financial terms, sadly, it's a diversion. In today's marketplace, it's hard to see how anyone could make a reasonable living from short mystery fiction. It's all a matter of how you look at things, though. I do other things for money, but as far as I'm concerned, my vocation is as a writer, and this is the kind of writing I love to do. It may not pay the bills, but it's the work I'm proudest of, the work I hope I'll be remembered for.

Katy Munger: I believe it is a very necessary tool to sustain a career in mystery fiction. Writers these days, who have grown up watching visual mediums, write using way too much description and way too many adjectives. A short story forces you to focus on what is critical and essential in a story. It helps you learn to write without including excess information and unnecessary description. Even if you never intend to publish short stories, if you are a crime fiction writer, you should still be writing them -- if only for the exercise of using the written medium to its fullest advantage (which is leaving some things up to the reader, so they can fill in the blanks left in your story with their own experience and imagination).

Michael Bracken

Michael Bracken: Writing short mystery fiction is a career, though not as lucrative a one as I might wish. I have taken my love of short fiction beyond just writing short stories by editing a crime fiction magazine, helping edit another, and editing many anthologies. I’ve also established ShortCon, helped organize Mystery in the Midlands’s annual conference, and given presentations about writing, editing, and publishing short crime fiction. So, in a way, writing short mystery fiction has become more than a career; it’s become a lifestyle!

To hear more about the craft and business of writing short mystery fiction, join us on Saturday, October 10, 11:15 am ET/10:15 am CT/9:15 am MT/8: 15 am PT for

Mystery in the Midlands Goes Short 2026!

PRESENTED BY: the Southeast Chapter of the Mystery Writers of America, the Palmetto Chapter of Sisters in Crime, and Michael Bracken

COST: FREE just register at the link below

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/H7AkECfcQB-9Ej98_UX2DQ

Yes, if you can’t attend in person, the program will be recorded.

Program Schedule

11:15 am Welcome—Michael Bracken and Paula Gail Benson

11:30 am -12:25 pm Some Loose Thoughts on Tight Structures—Joseph S. Walker

12:30 - 1:25 pm Short Stories as Building Blocks

Ashley-Ruth M. Bernier; Carla Damron; Art Taylor; and moderator, Paula Gail Benson

1:30 - 2:25 pm Editors Reveal All

Alex Mattingly; Katy Munger; Roger Nokes; and moderator, Michael Bracken

2:25 - 2:30 pm Final Questions and Comments

The Very British Art of Eccentricity by Connie Berry

2026-09-24T03:00:00.000-04:00

The perfect sleuth?

Recently, there’ve been a bunch of British crime shows featuring eccentric, atypical, and/or neurodivergent sleuths. Professor T is one of the best in my opinion. The fabulous Ben Miller plays Professor Jasper Tempest, lecturer at the Cambridge Institute of Criminology. Thanks to his strictly regimented routines, his OCD and germaphobia are under semi-control—until he gets pulled into actual criminal investigations. My husband and I started watching the series when it first appeared on PBS in 2021. He wasn’t a fan then, but when we went back to the show this summer, we both got hooked, and binge-watched every episode.

The perfect setting?

If you want to watch, read about, or write about eccentrics, you couldn’t choose a better setting than the British Isles where eccentrics are not only tolerated but celebrated. The phrase “an embarrassment of riches” comes to mind. Think Hercule Poirot and Sherlock Holmes. The image at the top of the page shows the nineteenth-century eccentric Mad Jack Mytton arriving at a dinner party riding his pet bear. He also once tried to cure his hiccups by setting his shirt on fire and dressed up as a highwayman to terrify the guests he’d invited to dine with him. As George Santayana, the philosopher, poet, and novelist, wrote, “England is the paradise of individuality, eccentricity, heresy, anomalies, hobbies and humors.” No wonder they show up on our small screens.

Where do I find them?

Here are a few other contemporary British series with eccentric or atypical protagonists:

· Ludwig features a reclusive puzzle designer who impersonates his twin brother, a high-ranking police detective, after he mysteriously disappears.

· Dept. Q follows an emotionally damaged detective who runs cold-case investigations from a basement.

· McDonald & Dodd pairs a quiet, eccentric, detail-oriented detective sergeant with a super-charged Detective Chief Inspector.

· Death Valley stars an eccentric actor who played a detective on TV and gets pulled into real-life murder investigations.

· Patience presents an autistic police archivist who helps solve murder cases in York, England.

With these quirky protagonists in mind, I’ve been thinking about how to create believable, interesting, and atypical characters that capture the reader’s imagination. This is a topic I’ve been considering for some time. My webinar, Fears, Flaw, Failings, and Foibles: Creating Characters Your Readers Will Love (Or Love to Hate) explores ways to use complexity and universal human frailty as we construct the characters who populate our novels. Lately, my thinking has taken a step further.

But is anyone actually typical?

Come to think of it, no. Each person is unique. We all have gifts. We all have eccentricities—some evident to others, some private. Mine include buying way too many red lipsticks while searching for the equivalent of the holy grail that will be the perfect shade and will last all day while remaining comfortably hydrating. Does such a wonder exist? Probably not, but I keep searching. I also iron sheets; search eBay for a particular soap pad that was discontinued ten years ago (hope springs eternal); insist on using a bar of soap to its final sliver and then etching it on top of the new bar. And I line up silverware precisely.

Five questions to ask

Here are five questions you might ask your own quirky and memorable fictional characters:

1. What do you buy too much of—and why?

2. How long would you search online for a certain discontinued item?

3. What is the one object from the past you always wish you’d kept?

4. Do you have any secret rituals?

5. What is one thing you can do easily that others find difficult or impossible?

How would your current protagonist answer these questions? How would you?

How might you think outside the box to create charmingly eccentric characters that stand out in a crowd?

Why High-Touch Wins in the Age of AI

2026-09-23T01:00:00.000-04:00

By James M. Jackson

Is there any hope for human authors? AI can now generate decent blog posts (as good as most of my first drafts), craft marketing materials (better than I can), and take a brand concept and create images for all occasions (much faster than I can). Some people—I refuse to call them authors—use AI to create entire novels and series. Their philosophy resembles that of spammers: throw enough stuff out there, and even if the hit ratio is very low, it becomes profitable. It’s unsettling to watch machines do in seconds what takes us hours.

Worse for human authors, other humans can’t much tell the difference, despite their belief they know how to tell if something is AI-written. As far back as 2024, a Penn State[i] study found humans could only correctly identify AI-generated text 53% of the time. Random guessing gets you to 50%. AI creation has continued to improve. More recently, the International AI Safety Report 2026 reported that “In one study, participants misidentified AI-generated text as human-written 77% of the time. In another study of audio deepfakes, listeners mistook AI-generated voices for real speakers 80% of the time.”[ii]

That’s depressing, but it’s also clarifying.

Because when the world is drowning in frictionless, instantly generated content, being unmistakably, inefficiently human becomes our competitive advantage.

There is a growing backlash against the high-tech world. It’s not just in opposing mega data centers mushrooming everywhere; it’s preferring in-person experiences. In 2026 (per CNN reporting), the craft store Michaels reported that searches for “analog hobbies” on its site rose 136% in six months. Yarn kits—a classic grandma hobby—jumped 1,200% in 2025. Travel advisors report a similar desire to “connect with real people.”

I first encountered a version of this concept in John Naisbitt’s 1982 Megatrends, which I read in 1983. He called it high tech, high touch. In short, he proposed that the more technology surrounds us, the more we need genuine human connection to retain our humanity. His pitch was to save humanity; mine is to save our individual sanity and sell a few books.

What I refer to as high-touch strategy is the opposite of scaling (taking something that works at a small scale and ramping it up to a larger scale). It’s choosing a handwritten note over an email blast. The rambling video reel of real life as-it-happens over the polished press release or book trailer. The personal reply that takes minutes over the autoresponder that takes only the time necessary to set it up once.

Let me be clear—I’m not anti-technology. And I’m not against newsletter email blasts and other forms of one-to-many communication. Those skills are the blocking and tackling of a modern writer’s strategy. Fail, and your quarterback’s sacked, or his pass intercepted for a touchdown. Okay, so maybe the football analogy isn’t perfect—what do you want from a guy who played soccer back when dinosaurs roamed the world? Fail, and no one knows you exist.

What does high-touch look like?

It starts with the content you share. Rather than presenting the perfection of the final product, show the chaos behind the scenes. It’s the photo of your desk covered with sticky notes of “fixes needed,” the shot of hand-written edits on a manuscript page, a copy of the voice memo you left discovering a killing plot hole—and then talking about how you solved it in the shower (no photos there!) It’s the messiness of going live on Instagram even though you hate how you look on camera, because your readers can see you fumble for words and laugh at yourself.

By inviting readers into your process, you share the struggle—something AI cannot do, because even if AI’s zeros and ones do struggle, it’s over so fast there’s nothing to see.

This suggestion does not change the dynamic of one talking/sharing to many. It changes what you are sharing.

The vulnerability factor

The next level is to be open with your audience about your vulnerability. AI can mimic vulnerability—I could have asked Claude or ChatGPT to write a “vulnerable” post about writer’s block, and it would be decent. But there’s a difference between performed vulnerability and the real thing. Readers can feel it.

When you share your actual doubt about whether anyone will care about your next book, when you admit you’re terrified of bad reviews, (or in my case—no reviews), when you talk about the rejection that still stings from five years ago, that’s data no algorithm has access to. That’s your lived experience, and it’s the one thing that can’t be replicated or scaled.

The feedback loop

You don’t post on social media, send newsletters, or write blogs for no reason. Implicitly—or better yet, explicitly—you ask for feedback. You want readers to click like/love/care/be angry, to provide comments, to agree or disagree. Better, you invite them to do exactly that.

And the high-touch approach after they do respond is how you create your personal response, the one that invites a conversation. Reply to reader emails with an individual response that clearly shows you read their comments and appreciate their time in contacting you. Remember that Jessica from Ohio told you her husband was about to have the same operation as you just had and later ask how his recovery is going. You are forming relationships with those readers who want them—not all do, and that’s okay.

The time investment paradox

The counterintuitive part? High-touch takes more time in an era that’s obsessed with saving time. While AI promises to help us do more with less, high-touch asks us to do less, but more intentionally.

You can’t automate remembering someone’s story. Or efficiently handwrite notes to readers. You can’t scale genuine curiosity about the person.

But that’s precisely why it works. In choosing to spend your limited time on individual readers, you’re sending an unmistakable signal: you matter to me. Not as a sale, not as an engagement metric, but as a human being I’m genuinely glad to connect with.

And right now, that might be what readers are hungry for.

That’s all you can control, but if you do it consistently, over time, you might see something special occur. Your readers create a networked community in which you, the author, are no longer the hub.

The community, not the audience

All along, this high-touch approach has created a gradual shift from broadcasting to conversing. From building an audience to fostering a community. AI excels at the former—it can generate content for audiences all day long. But community? That requires showing up, remembering, caring, and investing in relationships over time. And encouraging our readers to relate to each other.

It’s messy. It’s inefficient. It doesn’t scale—until it does. One day you notice on your Facebook or Instagram feed that two of your readers, who know each other only through you, have connected.

Will this strategy work? Stay tuned, and we’ll find out together. It’s possible technology in general and AI in particular may drown my voice. But if it happens, it won’t be without me fighting back, choosing to be seen: as high-touch in a high-tech world.

I’d love to hear what you think of my ideas and suggestions. Authors, how are you handling this issue? Readers, what are you enjoying with your favorite authors? [And God willing and the crick don’t rise, I’ll read and reply to every comment.]

* * *

James M. Jackson writes justice-driven thrillers with brains and bite, including the Niki Undercover Thriller trilogy and the Seamus McCree series. To learn more information about Jim and his books, check out his website, https://jamesmjackson.com. You can sign up for his newsletter (and get a novella and two free short stories featuring his protagonists).

[i] Penn State research: https://www.psu.edu/news/information-sciences-and-technology/story/qa-increasing-difficulty-detecting-ai-versus-human

[ii] International AI Safety Report 2026, p.45 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2602.21012

[1] Penn State research: https://www.psu.edu/news/information-sciences-and-technology/story/qa-increasing-difficulty-detecting-ai-versus-human

[1] International AI Safety Report 2026, p.45 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2602.21012

Serendipity, Surprising Twists, and Writer’s Prompts by Martha Reed

2026-09-22T05:30:00.000-04:00

It’s part of my mystery writer’s psyche that I love discovering surprising personal plot twists. Luckily for me I’m also blessed with friends who are equally up for spontaneously exploring any new adventure that I can suggest.

With the splendid fall of 2026 coming to a close, I floated an idea that we track down and road trip to see any of the eighties bands that we had missed seeing back in the day – usually due to our grueling overtime work schedules and/or our chronic lack of funds. One of my dearest friends accepted the challenge.

One concert was local, The Fixx at Hartwood Acres, an outdoor Pittsburgh venue. Then we bought tickets to two concerts in Cleveland, Ohio, only a two-hours' drive away. The first concert was Squeeze, Adam Ant, and Haircut 100. Two weeks later we returned to Cleveland to catch Elvis Costello and Charlie Sexton.

This is where the story gets weird. On our way to see Adam Ant, we took the Ohio Turnpike, and I saw an exit sign for State Road 44 to Chagrin Falls. I casually mentioned that I had gone to middle school in Chagrin Falls during part of my vagabond life, and my friend Ginger asked: “When was the last time you visited it?”

Holy moly. 1972. I had to do math. It’s been fifty-five years. My how time does fly!

We took the exit.

In 1972 I was pre-teen, and I needed to dig deep for those memories. There’s been a lot of water under that bridge. I remembered exploring the ‘falls’ part of Chagrin Falls, which was forbidden to do and that we did anyway. I remembered the Blossom Time Festival in the town’s main park where I won a doomed goldfish in a baggie, and my sister won a big stuffed snake. Then up popped two names from my past: Bell Road, and Lake Louise, the development we had lived in.

Ginger pulled up MapQuest on her phone. “Take a right at the light.”

I steadied myself because I knew that since we had moved away when I was little everything had probably changed, and it had. My preschool had been in an open field next to a large Amish barn. It was now hidden in a stand of mature trees. The homes of the childhood friends I had known - the Sheffield’s, the Rudolph’s, and the Streeter’s - were smaller than I remembered. Then we drove down a gentle sloping curve, and I saw my old house.

Pulling over, I parked on the shoulder. A man was working in the driveway. “I want to get a picture,” I explained to Ginger, unfastening my seatbelt. Putting on my friendliest “I’m not a physical threat or a serial killer” smile, I walked up the driveway. He looked surprised, and I offered: “Do you mind if I take a picture of your house? I used to live here fifty years ago.”

“You did? Really?” Setting aside his broom, he started to get excited. “Great! Let me get my wife. Maybe you can explain something to us. Don’t go anywhere. Don’t leave.” And he ran inside the garage.

At this point Ginger, who as a long-time friend of mine is used to experiencing this kind of weird universal mystery on our many road trips, left the car to join me. “What’s going on?”

“I’m not sure. He went to get his wife. They want to ask me something.”

He came back out with his wife, a beautiful woman apologetically smoothing her hair and straightening her T-shirt. “I’m sorry. We weren’t expecting anyone. I was in my office publishing my new book.”

The light dawned. "Now I get it. This is a writer thing." Pointing her finger at me, Ginger gave me the look. “She’s a writer too.”

What can I say? Serendipity is magical. Maybe there was something in the Ohio aquifer. Maybe there was something in that house that made writers of us all.

So, what did they want to know? Inviting us inside, they gave us a house tour because to their minds there had been so many crazy additions that the floor plan didn’t make sense. My mother’s kitchen had been moved to the rear of the house. My old bedroom was still at the top of the stairs with the alcove where my dad had put my bookcase and my desk. The master bedroom had moved downstairs with another new addition. The craziest reveal came last when he mentioned that Lake Louise had been known “back in the day” as a haven for key club members who had hung welcoming pineapple signs on their front doors as an invitation to come join their swinger parties.

My parents, Sam and Irene, swingers? Ginger and I are still giggling over the suggestion. I swear I can’t remember ever seeing anyone hanging a pineapple on their front door while we lived at Lake Louise, but what a reveal – what a writer’s prompt!

How about your last walk down memory lane? Did you get any surprising writer’s prompts you can use?

Listening to Character Voices May Be More Challenging Than One Thinks

2026-09-21T00:00:00.000-04:00

Listening to Character Voices May Be More Challenging Than One Thinks by Debra H. Goldstein

Lately, I’ve been begging my characters to talk to me so I can figure out the ending of the book I’m writing. Unfortunately, they have conflicting viewpoints. As a result, I end up with fewer words than I began with during each writing session. At one point, I thought the final two thousand words were in sight. Not now.

I’ve reached a point that the characters’ voices recently invaded one of my dreams. In the past, when this has happened, it was because my subconscious successfully continued working out the issue while I slept. Not this time.

Instead, I woke up understanding that the characters hadn’t been able to reach a resolution either. One pointed out a perfect paragraph that could easily tie things up, but the next one added words that successfully blended with the style of the paragraph, but took me in a completely different direction.

It reminded me of the time that members of this blog decided to write a story where we each wrote a chapter. The story had great characters, tension, and the plot moved. I couldn’t wait to add my chapter as I had conceived of a wonderful twist. The only problem was that the person who wrote the chapter ahead of me added his own twist by killing both characters I was going to spotlight and the plot line. In my mind, the piece never recovered.

I tried, as did the person who wrote the final chapter behind me, but neither of us ever felt we fully salvaged the story. What I did learn from that experience and my recent dream is that ideas can be blended, but sometimes instead of a smooth flow, one gets a mishmash.

Has this ever happened to you? Did you find a way to save your work in progress, or did it end up buried in a drawer?

I’m praying that my characters show me the way to end the book soon. The one thing I’m holding onto is that I wrote a short story several years ago for an open call. It was rejected. I kept rewriting, revising, and submitting the story because I thought it had merit, but it failed to find a home at least three more times. After the last rejection, I went to bed wrestling with this story and one of the characters, who had a wonderful final line of the story, came to me and basically said, “You idiot! My last line is great, but no one is going to believe, considering the career you gave me, that the action leading up to the line could happen.”

Instead of trying to be cute, as I had been, I listened to the character. I changed his career and his behavior, but I kept the last line. The story sold this week.

Back-to-School Brain by Sarah E. Burr

2026-09-20T00:30:00.000-04:00

Every September, without fail, I feel the urge to go “back to school.” This is somewhat inconvenient considering I graduated from college many, many years ago and have absolutely no plans to return, but there is something about this time of year that flips a switch in my brain. Maybe it’s the first hint of cooler air after a long summer, or seeing school buses back on the roads, or walking through stores overflowing with notebooks, planners, pens, and all those pristine supplies waiting to be put to good use. Whatever the reason, September has always felt much more like a fresh start to me than January. January comes with all the pressure of resolutions and dramatic declarations about changing your life, while September feels quieter and more practical. It’s a time to take a deep breath, look at where I am, figure out where I’d like to go next, and start deciding how to get there.

Of course, because I apparently still have the heart of a student, this also means I want new school supplies. Granted, my “school supplies” look a little different these days. Instead of folders, binders, and freshly sharpened pencils, I find myself eyeing new gadgets, software, notebooks, keyboards, apps, and anything else that might make my writing life easier. I love experimenting with tools that promise to help me stay organized, focused, or productive. Sometimes they become permanent parts of my routine, and sometimes they quietly disappear into the digital equivalent of the junk drawer, never to be opened again. Still, I enjoy trying them, and there is something about September that makes me especially willing to reconsider the way I work and give myself permission to approach things differently.

This year, my shiny new writing tool is dictation. I’ve thought about experimenting with dictation for quite some time, but I always found reasons to put it off because I am so accustomed to composing at a keyboard. Writing has always been a quiet activity for me, with my thoughts traveling from my brain through my fingers and onto the screen, and the idea of speaking those thoughts aloud felt strange. Then August happened, and I found myself struggling to write in a way I haven’t experienced in quite some time. The ideas weren’t necessarily gone, but getting them from my brain onto the page felt harder than it should have. I would sit down to work and stare at my document, trying to summon the energy needed to make my characters funny, charming, clever, and entertaining. As someone who writes cozy mysteries, that’s kind of an important part of the job.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve found it increasingly difficult lately to separate creativity from everything happening in the world around us. There is so much noise, uncertainty, anger, and sadness competing for our attention, and some days, sitting down to invent a whimsical small town, a quirky suspect, or a playful exchange between characters can feel almost surreal. Writing something lighthearted requires a certain amount of emotional energy, and lately, that energy hasn’t always been readily available to me. I think part of my problem was that I had also begun overthinking every sentence before it ever reached the page. I would type a few words, stop, reconsider them, delete something, rewrite it, second-guess myself, and slowly grind to a halt. The more I struggled, the more self-conscious I became about the struggle itself, which, as any writer knows, is not exactly a recipe for productivity.

That is where dictation has surprised me. When I start talking, I have to keep moving. There is less opportunity to stare down a sentence before it has even had a chance to exist, and suddenly writing feels less like wrestling with a blank Word document and more like having a conversation with it. I can hear my characters speaking more clearly. I can talk through a scene, explain to myself what needs to happen next, and occasionally stumble into the answer while I’m still rambling through the problem. There is something wonderfully organic about that process, especially when I’ve spent so much time lately feeling as though I needed to force creativity into existence. Speaking the story aloud seems to bypass some of that pressure and allows me to play with the scene before I start worrying about whether every word is exactly right.

Is the resulting prose perfect? Absolutely not. Sometimes my dictation software misunderstands me. Sometimes I wander off on a tangent. Sometimes I say a sentence aloud and immediately realize that no human being should ever be subjected to reading it. But I can fix those things later, and that may be the greatest gift this experiment has given me. The words do not have to be perfect when they first arrive. They simply have to arrive. After a month when getting any meaningful number of words onto the page felt like a monumental task, having something there to revise feels like a victory. I am still very much in the experimental phase, and I have no idea whether dictation will completely transform the way I write, become something I use only for certain scenes, or eventually join the collection of abandoned productivity tools I was once convinced would change my life. For now, though, I am enjoying it, and more importantly, I am writing again.

That may be the real reason I love my imaginary back-to-school season so much. September gives me permission to begin again without pretending everything before it was a failure. A new semester does not erase the previous one. You simply take what you learned, gather your supplies, adjust your approach, and move forward. That is what I am trying to do with my writing this fall. I am looking at the habits that stopped serving me, experimenting with new tools, setting fresh goals without punishing myself for the ones I didn’t accomplish over the summer, and, most importantly, trying to rediscover some of the joy that brought me to storytelling in the first place. My September-school-supply list may look a little different these days. There are no textbooks or class schedules waiting for me, but there is a microphone, a blinking cursor, and me talking rather enthusiastically to my computer about fictional murder. If that gets me excited about writing again, I think it deserves an A.

Writing Life Advice from Writers Who Kill by Judy L. Murray

2026-09-19T00:00:00.000-04:00

If you’re a writer or a reader fascinated with the writing process https://writerswhokill.blogspot.com is a wealth of information and inspiration. We invite you to discover the world of the accomplished Writers Who Kill.

Each blog post can improve your own writing skills or introduce you to the writing world from a different perspective with years of ideas, writing struggles, and new resources. All the articles are listed within months of the year. Scroll along and discover a new view of the writing and reading world!

On Writing Inspiration:
Tips to Help Writers Stay Motivated by Heather Weidner September 11, 2026
Thoughts on Writing by Nancy L. Eady August 31, 2026
Where Do We Get Our Ideas? It’s Complicated by Maureen Milliken August 29, 2026
My Writing Journey: From Cerebral Reader to Thriller Writer by Lisa Malice Nov 9, 2024
Travel with Benefits by Paula Gail Benson August 20, 2024
An Interview with a Writer Rosalie Spielman by Grace Topping November 13, 2024

On Writing Skills and Career Building:
Five Sure-Fire Ways to Kill Your Writing Career by Connie Berry August 27, 2026
There’s More to Writing Than Just Writing by Annette Dashofy August 23, 2026
Surviving the Editing Process by Judy L. Murray September 21, 2024
500 Words a Day by Martha Reed June 25, 2024
Website Rehab by Sarah E. Burr September 15, 2024
Insert Title Here by Mary Dutta November 2, 2024
How Do I Kill Thee? Let me count the ways by Teresa Inge June 3, 2024
Character Lessons by Lori Roberts Herbst October 4, 2024
Three Recommendations to Improve Your Stories by James M. Jackson October 1, 2024
Writing More Than One Series at a Time by Marilyn Levinson June 20, 2024
Getting Out of Your Safe Space by Susan Van Kirk February 5, 2026
Slowing Down Has Its Benefits by Debra H. Goldstein July 20, 2026
Don’t Create Your Own Roadblocks by Shari Randall June 10, 2024
Let’s Talk by K.M. Rockwood August 11, 2026

On Reading Enjoyment:
Prime Reading Cozy Months Ahead by Korina Moss September 13, 2026
A Bit of Fun About Reading and Writing Books by Molly MacRae August 2, 2026
What We’re Reading by Kait Carson July 30, 2026
Julia Spencer-Fleming’s At Midnight Comes the Cry (Review) by Margaret S. Hamilton October 9, 2025

As you enjoy these articles feel free to add your comments. We writers love to hear from you.

All the best, Judy L. Murray
Author, The Chesapeake Bay Mystery Series
https//:JUDYLMURRAYMYSTERIES.com
PenCraft First Place Awards
IPPY Gold and Silver Medalist
Silver Falchion Int'l Award
Agatha Award Nominee

It Is What It Is by Nancy L. Eady

2026-09-18T01:00:00.000-04:00

As I mentioned once in another post, some phrases and words have crept into English that irritate me. In addition to the ubiquitous “actually,” “reach out” is high on that list. When people send me emails or call me on the telephone asking for things, they love to start the conversation with “I am reaching out to....” It reminds of a starving Dickensian orphan holding out an empty bowl and asking, “Please sir, can I have some more?” The other image I get is of the person extending their arm out and downwards to yank me away from a peril I am too foolish to avoid on my own. At least the phrase has not entered my vocabulary, even if linguistic dexterity is required to avoid using it on occasion.

“It is what it is” bothers me even more than “reach out” because I catch myself using the phrase. Sadly, there are some situations the phrase describes quite accurately. Sometimes I use it to express defeat where I’ve tried everything I can think of to fix a situation, and it still remains broken. But then there are other times when it expresses a more Zen-like feeling, an acceptance that there are things in this world I cannot change, leaving me free to focus on the things I can change.

I was curious as to how and when the phrase slid into our language, so I did my usual extensive research, care of Google. According to an article written by Mary Gormandy White, M.A. for www.yourdictionary.com on June 9, 2021, the first known written use of the phrase was in The Nebraska State Journal in 1949. A writer named J. E. Lawrence wrote the following:

New land is harsh, and vigorous, and sturdy. It scorns evidence of weakness. There is nothing of sham or hypocrisy in it. It is what it is, without apology.

Eloquent, isn’t it?

The Wikipedia entry for the phrase is short, but it does hold the interesting fact that the phrase is a “tautophrase.” A tautophrase is a phrase or sentence that defines a term by repeating that term. Other tautophrases include “call a spade a spade” and “boys will be boys.” The word “tautophrase” is related to, but not to be confused with, “tautology.” According to Merriam Webster’s website, a “tautology” can be a “needless repetition of an idea, statement or word” or an “instance of such repetition.” An example of this type of tautology would be “a new beginner” or “free gift.” In addition, if you are a student of logic, a tautology can be “a statement that is true by virtue of its logical form alone.” “A win is a win” is an example of a logical tautology.

And that’s my post for today. It is what it is.

What phrases/words aggravate you? Are there any tautologies you remember?

There's Life After Cancellation by Marilyn Levinson

2026-09-17T01:30:00.000-04:00

I was very excited about my new Books on the Beach series. A good deal of time and effort went into creating Dickens Island situated in the Long Island Sound between Long Island and Connecticut, and its many residents. The series featured history, mystery, a bit of romance and murders.

Death on Dickens Island came out in October of 2025 in e-book, hardcover, paperback, audio, and large print. It received many wonderful reviews. However, the sales numbers weren't as good as those of my last series. When I finally got an answer to my question: Will I be getting a contract for the next book in the series, which I'd been writing, it wasn't what I had hoped to hear.

I was very disappointed that my publisher didn't choose to continue my new series. I knew there were distribution problems industry-wide the year my book came out. I also knew that other authors had received the same unwanted news

When I shared the news about the end of my series on Facebook, I was pleasantly surprised by the number of readers who told me they'd read and liked Death on Dickens Island and were looking forward to reading the next book in the series. Many readers and authors suggested that I self-publish the rest of the series. In fact, one writer friend whose series had been canceled, sent me detailed advice on how to self-publish, the route that she'd chosen.

I considered my choices as I continued to write the second Dickens Island book--slower than usual since I didn't have a contract to spur me on. I thought I might start an entirely new series as a friend had chosen to do, but quickly scotched that idea. I loved my Books on the Beach series. I loved my characters and had plenty of adventures in store for them. Why give up on something so dear to my heart?

For a short while I planned to self-publish future books in the series. I would have complete control of distribution and sales. I would also have to hire people to edit, create covers, and format the various editions--not something I wanted to do at this stage of my life.

And so, I accepted the offer extended to me by Rowan Prose Publishing to not only publish Devil on Dickens Island, the next Book on the Beach, but the third book, Deceit on Dickens Island, as well! I want to write the books I enjoy writing. And as long as there are readers who want to read them, I'm happy to sit at my computer and get out the pages.

Fellow writers: do you choose to continue a series that's been canceled, or do you choose to start another series?

Killer Questions - Favorite Person in History

2026-09-16T00:00:00.000-04:00

Killer Questions – Favorite Person in History

Everyone has a favorite person in history. Here are ours:

Korina Moss: There are so many people I admire, but my favorite? That’s a tough one. One person that comes to mind is Norman Rockwell. I’ve visited the Norman Rockwell Museum a couple of times, and his body of work is incredible. His paintings and illustrations tell decades worth of stories of the American middle class. It’s the epitome of Americana.

Grace Topping: Eleanor Roosevelt. She was a remarkable woman who traveled around the country and to parts of the world during WWII representing her husband, wheelchair-bound President Franklin D. Roosevelt. She was his eyes and ears of what was going on in the country during the war. She was also instrumental in getting the United Nations established following the war.

Lori Roberts Herbst: This was a tough one, but I finally settled on the 14th Dalai Lama. I find his perspectives soothing and inspiring.

Shari Randall: I’ll just go with the one that came to mind first. Abraham Lincoln. He was an excellent writer, an underappreciated facet of his many accomplishments.

Mary Dutta: I’m going to shout out Kathrine Switzer, the first woman to officially run the Boston Marathon in 1967. She registered using only her initials, and there’s a famous photo of a race official trying to drag her off the course. She finished the race and five years later women were finally allowed to participate equally. I grew up watching the marathon pass through my hometown, and then took my kids to watch it run through our neighborhood in Boston. Switzer’s accomplishment helped to make it an event everyone could celebrate.

Molly MacRae: In all of history? Really? Okay, the unknown Mesolithic person who organized and oversaw the building of Skara Brae in Orkney. The houses, tunnels between houses, built-in stone benches—all of it is a work of genius.

Heather Weidner: There are so many. Jane Goodall, Helen Keller, and Florence Nightingale. I read their biographies in elementary school, and all were inspiring women who made a difference.

James M. Jackson: Ben Franklin: he did it all: scientist, inventor, author, philosopher, revolutionary, diplomat, framer of our nation, and flawed.

Martha Reed: Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator of Egypt. She stayed in the game until her dying day and died on her own terms. It fascinates me how historians (and Hollywood) insist on portraying her as a beguiling feminine beauty instead of an astute politician and master-class world leader and getting her so wrong.

Margaret Hamilton: Antonio Vivaldi.

Sarah Burr: The British Royal family. With all their scandals and drama, they’ve entertained me for decades, but I also appreciate the charity work they do. Prince William and Princess Catherine are examples of how privileged individuals can give back to the world. The work Prince William is doing, in particular, to save the planet and end homelessness, is truly inspiring, and the wealthy could learn a valuable lesson from him.

Kait Carson: Beryl Markham – she refused to be defined – the first African bush pilot and, the female thoroughbred trainer. Amazing woman.

Susan Van Kirk: Thomas Paine, because his words had the power to move peoples’ souls.

Elaine Douts: Ben Franklin—because he got us the money, and I think he had a great, jolly time doing so! (He was also from PA, my home state.

K.M. Rockwood: Abraham Lincoln. My image of him is as a sincere, humble statesman who had the best interests of the country at heart.

Debra H. Goldstein: I’m torn between Golda Meier and Frances Perkins. Both held positions that had always been held by men – Prime Minister of Israel and Secretary of Labor (a cabinet position), respectively. Both were responsible for forward thinking ideas, decisions, and programs that impacted their countries.

Too Nice to Kill?

2026-09-14T00:00:00.000-04:00

by Shari Randall

I’m a pretty laid-back person. Some would even say nice. Heck, I was a children’s librarian for many years. People are surprised that I write murder mysteries. Murder! You?

I’ve come to realize that the murderers in my stories are not nice people, and their motives are dark. That’s the way I think it should be.

My conniving murderers have little in common with a character type that turns up too often in many TV shows: the nice person who kills because rage makes them lose control. There was one season of Father Brown that made me insane because that was the storyline of every episode: a good person, pushed beyond their limit, lost control and killed. Unfortunately for that person, they were living in the 1950s when murder was a hanging offense. They were nice people pushed too far by a terrible person who, frankly, got what they deserved.

I had a hard time understanding how rage could overthrow a lifetime of nice—until yesterday.

While I wouldn’t call myself a tree hugger, I love trees, especially old ones. (Maybe I am a tree hugger? Discuss.) Anyway, there’s a park nearby that has a spectacular Japanese Thread Leaf Maple tree. I visit it often and spend a few minutes marveling under the tree's branches. One of the gardeners told me it’s over 100 years old and, like many hundred-year-old things, it is delicate. There is a sign that warns people not to climb.

As I approached yesterday, I got a bad feeling. I could hear the voices of two women and see one backing up under the tree's lacy branches to take photos. I figured they’d move on soon, so I meandered around the rest of the garden until I smelled smoke. Yes, there are other signs, warning people not to smoke. I decided to see what was happening.

To my shock, a woman had climbed onto one of the branches of the more than one-hundred-year-old tree and draped herself there, smoking a cigarette, while her friend took photos.

I was shocked. It was like seeing a fragile senior citizen crushed beneath a tank. Frankly, the woman was way too big for the branch. Also, she was wearing this dreadful slip dress thing that was not flattering. Aesthetically, morally, horticulturally, the scene was so wrong I was offended in quite a few ways. Good thing I was wearing a hat. I tipped my head to shut out the ghastly image and stomped away in the grip of some unfamiliar emotion…was it?... Yes, is was.

Rage.

My husband talked me down. Really, what could I’ve done? Screamed at them? They knew what they were doing was wrong – they left soon after I did. I don’t think saying anything would’ve changed the situation. The way they avoided eye contact told me that they were aware they were breaking the rules. I don’t swear much, but inside I was @&$?!@!!!

“I’ve never seen you so mad,” my husband said.

I took a deep breath and thought about how I could’ve responded. I wanted to hurt the woman, wound her, cut her to the quick, but not literally. Tell her off? I could’ve said many things, but the only thing that came to mind was, “You’re too heavy for that branch.”

So, ghastly woman, if you’re reading this, you were too heavy for that branch. You might not have broken it (I went back to check) but you probably caused injury. You sullied that beautiful creature by climbing it for your socials.

I could forgive a child. Who wouldn’t want to climb on those inviting branches? But as an adult, anyone could see that old tree can’t handle much climbing. And there was A SIGN.

So if I’m ever brought up on a murder charge, you’ll know I’m guilty. I just hope the jury will understand that I was pushed beyond my limit.

What sets you off? Has rage pushed your characters over the edge?

Shari Randall is the author of the Agatha Award-winning Lobster Shack Mystery series and, as Meri Allen, the Ice Cream Shop Mysteries. Both series are set in quaint New England villages - where dark emotions and schemes lurk beneath the charming surface.

PRIME COZY READING MONTHS AHEAD

2026-09-13T00:05:00.000-04:00

by Korina Moss

Photo by Cheese Shop Mystery reader Cheryl Pelicano

Hurrah! We have begun the ‘ber months: September, October, November, and December. As a New Englander, these are my favorite months of the year. The air is cooler, the colored leaves are majestic, and it’s the start of the cozy season. Sure, you have your summer beach reads, but this stretch of the year is what reading was made for.

Taken by me after a very early snow

It starts in mid-September, lazing on the lush grass, the warm sun countering every chilly breeze. You bring a picnic blanket, some artisan cheese, and an apple picked fresh from a nearby orchard. You definitely bring a book.

A September day in the park with my son

Once October arrives, autumn has taken hold and you know it will vanish just as quickly. You spend mornings on your front porch rocker, a crocheted blanket up to your chin, and your dog resting at your feet in a sunbeam. One hand holds a mug of something warm, and the other holds your book. The rustling leaves provide soothing background music, with the occasional thumping of your dog’s happy tail acting as percussion. You make a habit of this for as many days as Mother Nature allows, until it’s too cold to sit outside.

Morning fog on one of my October walks

You bring your book indoors to lounge on the window seat, where the squishy pillows have a memory for perfectly resting your head and shoulders. The warm glow of the lamplight illuminates the book’s pages, as November rain darkens the skies, lashes the windows, and pulls the last of the dying leaves from their branches. Your cat jumps up to join you and pushes herself under your book, before kneading the throw blanket covering you. She eventually lies down, her soft purrs indicating her comfort.

Clearing after a wet November day

By December, the windows have become frosty and radiate the cold, so you choose a deep-cushioned chair by the fireplace. The windows are now draped with tiny twinkling lights, and the only thing to match your mood is a holiday-themed book. As you read, you breathe in the aroma of freshly baked gingerbread. The spiced scent might be from your kitchen or merely from the cozy comforts written on the pages. Hot cocoa will do. You light the kindling atop the fireplace grate before returning to your book. As the flames crackle and dance on the logs, so does your imagination, lost in the story. At the final chapter’s end, you look up from your book and catch the first snowfall of the season.

The snowy view from my back deck

Readers: What does cozy reading look like to you?

KORINA MOSS is the author of the 6-book Cheese Shop Mystery series, which includes the winner of the Agatha Award for Best First Novel, Cheddar Off Dead, as well as two novels short-listed for Best Contemporary Novel. Listed as one of USA Today’s “Best Cozy Mystery Series,” her books have also been featured in PARADE Magazine, Woman’s World, and Writer’s Digest. This summer, Cheddar Off Dead was recommended by PBS & PBS Kids for their all-ages summer reading challenge. Learn more and subscribe to Korina’s seasonal newsletter via her website korinamossauthor.com

KORINA MOSS is also a freelance developmental editor specializing in cozy mysteries. To learn more and read client success stories and testimonials, go to her website korinamossauthor.com. You may contact her by email at korinamossauthor@gmail.com.

Killer Conferences: A Guest Blog by Cindy Martin

2026-09-12T05:00:00.000-04:00

Anxious anticipation filled my veins as I stepped out of the Uber and into the conference hotel of my first Killer Nashville. It had been three years since I attended my very first writer’s conference, SleuthFest in Florida. (Since that time, I’ve had five short stories published in several anthologies, and I’ve written two drafts of my novel. I’m told the first dozen awful half-drafts don’t count.)

My eyes landed on a very recognizable woman dressed in black with long, silver hair. Heather Graham, an award-winning novelist of over two hundred books was sitting in the lobby. She’s also a fellow Floridian, and an author I have mingled with at Mystery Writer of America meetings in south Florida. I was relieved when she hugged me and introduced me to her paranormal friends. Let me clarify—her author pals who write ghost stories. Clay Stafford, the sponsor and host of Killer Nashville, whom I only knew through promotional emails and the Killer Nashville website, joined us.

It was a thrill to meet up with Clay Stafford and Heather Graham
my first afternoon at Killer Nashville.

That was a fabulous beginning. It only got better as the weekend flew by, filled with panels, keynote speeches, and happy hour. Every morning kicked off with the breakfast club, headed by my Sisters in Crime mentor, Martha Reed, and joined by my writer friends from Florida. Each day, our long table became increasingly crowded with new friends including former CNN editor and author, John DeDakis.

MWA Breakfast Club

Being an aspiring author without an edited and fine-tuned manuscript, there’s a level of uncertainty that goes through your head when you join a room full of accomplished writers who write one, two, three books a year. You ask yourself questions: Should I be here? Will authors accept me? Do I have what it takes to become a published author?

Now that I have survived Killer Nashville, I know the answer to all those questions is yes.

The takeaways from the conference are priceless. In a masterclass with J.J. Cagney and Carol Potenza, I learned to start my novel in the middle. From Noelle Ihli, one guest of honor, said, “Throw clay at the wall. Something will stick.” Reed Farell Coleman, another guest of honor, said to be courageous and heighten the stakes in writing. John DeDakis encouraged organization with a book journal of each draft, and covered structure, senses, and dialogue.

Noelle Ihli's words really stuck with me. "Throw clay at the wall. Something will stick!"

One of my favorite workshops was the last one, and not because I was exhausted, but because it was about writing psychological characters. Panelist Jennifer Sadera, my new favorite author and friend, went into detail about psychopaths and sociopaths. How fun is that when you’re writing a psychological thriller? I left there with new ways to develop tension and create paranoid and flawed characters. No doubt, I know a few in real life. Disclaimer: Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, will be purely coincidental.

My last workshop of the conference with J.T. Ellison (left) and Jennifer Sadera (right).

I’m not completely new to writing. For twenty years, I was a producer for the TV show America’s Most Wanted. I have written hundreds of scripts on true crime cases with a beginning, middle, and end—which often included a call-to-action for tips on fugitives, unknown suspects, and missing persons. I’m proud of my work. Our team of crime fighters caught more than a thousand fugitives, brought over fifty missing children home, and aided law enforcement in their mission to solve cases. Most importantly, we gave families hope.

After retiring, I took my passion for crime writing to the next level and began my thriller novel. It’s more challenging than I imagined it would be. Nonfiction script writing and fiction novel writing are two different animals. There were days when I told my husband, a retired cop, that I quit. He reminded me of one of our favorite wine mottos: Corks are for quitters. So, I uncorked and got my butt back into the chair—with coffee. Armed with this newfound knowledge and inspiration from Killer Nashville, I’m tackling Draft Three.

Another challenge I took on is being the co-chair of SleuthFest, a writer’s conference to be held in Orlando, Florida in March 2027. Our chair, Daniel G. Miller, a bestselling mystery-thriller author and president of the Florida Chapter of Mystery Writers of America, and I are working together to make this conference memorable, helpful, and fun. I’m thrilled to have Guests of Honor Lisa Scottoline and Riley Sager, along with several notable guest faculty, agents, editors, and forensic experts participate in SleuthFest.

I hope you'll join me at Florida MWA's Sleuthfest March 18-21, 2027 to learn from our Guests of Honor Lisa Scottoline and Riley Sager and so many others . For more information, visit www.Sleuthfest.com.

Attending Killer Nashville provided me with renewed energy and ideas, not only in my writing but in planning the upcoming conference. For years, I’ve heard authors say it’s important to be part of a writing community. Now I know why. It reminds me I’m not creating my novel in a silo. There are authors everywhere who are generous with their time, their expertise, and want to help fellow writers to succeed. I’m grateful to the friends I have met along the way.

With anxious anticipation, I look forward to continuing my conference journey and transforming my writing.

My question to you: What conference is the most memorable for you and why?

Tips to Help Writers Stay Motivated

2026-09-11T00:00:00.000-04:00

Tips to Help Writers Stay Motivated

by Heather Weidner

Today marks the 25^th anniversary of 9-11. It is one of those moments that I will always remember where I was and how the news affected me. Horrific news stories, the political climate, the economy, not to mention personal tragedies, can all hinder your writing and demotivate you.

Writing is primarily a solitary business, and a bad day, the grumpies, a negative review, someone’s snarky comment, or events in your life and the world can easily cause a writer to question everything.

Here are a few ideas that I have picked up during my writing journey that may help.

Look at the feedback/criticism. Learn from it, but don’t dwell on it.
Keep control of that voice in your head. Be aware of your self-talk. You don’t need to make things worse by letting them consume you.
Take a break and do something else for a while. Physical activity will clear your mind and get your endorphins going.
Do something else that’s creative (e.g. paint, cook, draw, knit, sew…). It will boost your energy and your mood.
Take a minute to be grateful. Make a list of things that are going well. You’ll be surprised at all the positive things in your life that you are thankful for.
Volunteer or help someone else. You’ll often find that your troubles aren’t as challenging as what others are facing. You are also able to make a difference in someone’s life.
Writing is work, and it’s a long process. There is a lot of waiting. Stay busy during the quiet times. The best advice I ever received was to write the next book.
When something happens that you don’t like, take a minute to cry, scream, yell, or eat chocolate. Get it out of your system and move on. You’ve got things to do. Don’t waste precious time.

The writing journey is a roller coaster ride, and there are days that I don’t feel like writing. When that happens, I try to do some other book-related or marketing tasks. What do you do to keep yourself motivated to write?

If you or someone you know is struggling or in emotional distress, call or text 988, or chat at 988lifeline.org 24/7, to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.

Heather Weidner writes cozy crime fiction for readers who want justice with a sprinkle of fun and a southern accent.

Through the years, Heather Weidner has been a cop’s kid, technical writer, editor, college professor, software tester, and IT manager. She writes the Pearly Girls Mysteries, the Delanie Fitzgerald Mysteries, The Jules Keene Glamping Mysteries, and The Mermaid Bay Christmas Shoppe Mysteries.

Originally from Virginia Beach, Heather has been a mystery fan since Scooby-Doo and Nancy Drew. She lives in Central Virginia with her husband and a crazy Mini Aussie Shepherd.

Gabriel Urza's THE SILVER STATE

2026-09-10T02:00:00.000-04:00

By Margaret S. Hamilton

“I consult my little score cards, but the words on them are suddenly just words, the future seemingly unknown, unpredictable. Who are you? I wonder. I try to peer into your mind, but you’ve become illegible. Are you really willing to listen to my version of events, to give my client the benefit of the doubt?” (p.4)

Gabriel Urza’s public defender crime novel is set in Reno, Nevada, the “silver state.” A young mother, Anna Weston, is found brutally murdered near a silver mine. Public defenders Santi Elcano and Santi’s supervisory mentor C.J. are tasked with Michael Atwood’s defense.

Atwood’s conviction is based on scanty evidence. Eight years later, Atwood contacts Elcano from death row. Elcano’s defense of Weston’s murderer is the main plot thread through the novel.

The book is organized like a trial, Jury Selection to Verdict, with the timeline continuously shifting back and forth from past to present. Santi Elcano is the point of view character, recounting his years as a raw attorney just out of law school to a public defender with eight years in the courtroom. His court calendar is jammed, his client list too large to handle, and his supervisor, C.J., exhibits increasingly questionable behavior. After eight years, Elcano’s innocence is gone, but his moral sense of right and wrong remains.

Gabriel Urza was a public defender in Reno before he became a fulltime fiction writer and college professor. His depiction of the Reno public defender’s office rings true, as does his descriptions of Reno as a tired gambling town. His prose is excellent, succinct, and not overly literary. His occasional metaphors sparkle.

Urza’s descriptions of trout fishing in nearby Pyramid Lake are memorable:

“It was a windswept morning, and we had the beach nearly to ourselves. We waded out chest high and set our ladders, then began to cast from the top step out into the choppy water. Within an hour I had landed five Lahontan cutthroat, each over ten pounds and longer than my forearm, their bodies powerful against the line, the bright red of their gills flashing in the slate-grey water. As I reeled in the sixth, I felt the line tighten, then suddenly go slack; the fish had snapped my line, taking C.J.’s lure with it.” (p.229)

Though the plot is framed by a murder trial and a client on death row, Urza focuses on the moral ambiguity of a public defender’s role in a murder trial. He concludes by implying a major question: can justice in America be served under the current judicial system?

Readers and writers, do you enjoy reading and/or writing about courtrooms and legal cases?

Margaret S. Hamilton is writing the third in her Jericho Mystery series.

Home - The Official Website of Margaret S. Hamilton

Collision Course

2026-09-09T03:00:00.000-04:00

By Venita Bonds

Suppose you’re perched in a tree watching trains hurtle toward each other on the same track. You know they’re headed for a collision, but you can’t look away.

That collision is what conflict does in fiction. While writers avoid conflict in our own lives, we hurl our characters into disaster. Why? Because conflict forces them to either change or crash.

Conflict can be external or internal. External conflict puts pressure on a character while internal conflict determines how she reacts. Let’s look at three forms of internal conflict and how each can shape a character’s actions and responses to external conflict.

1. Flaws and inner demons

Stephen Hawking said that if everything were perfect, there would be no need for humans. I would amend that to “no need for writers.” Readers dislike characters without flaws or inner demons because they have little reason to struggle or change. Your characters need to grapple with their imperfections while confronting external obstacles.

Here, external conflict forces the character to respond, while an inner demon complicates her choice: “She’s asking me to help dump Leroy’s body. I should call the cops, yeah, but my steel magnolia complex makes me stick by a friend even if it kills me.”

2. Self-defense mechanisms

These mechanisms protect characters from anxiety, threats to their self-esteem, and issues they’d rather ignore.Common defenses include denial, rationalization, repression, projection, and displacement.

For example, a character whose boss belittles him comes home and yells at his son for burning up the biscuits. Unable to express his anger toward his boss, he displaces it onto a safer target. Lashing out at the boy gives him a temporary outlet for the humiliation he felt at work.

3. False beliefs

A flat-Earther might see satellite images yet insist the planet is flat. Characters rarely abandon beliefs that protect their sense of self; instead, they find ways to defend them. Here are four ways they do it:

False memories and distortions. A character reconstructs forgotten details, thereby distorting facts or creating false memories that support what she already believes. For example, she remembers her date walking out on her at the county fair, when in reality he was rushed to the hospital with food poisoning. Years later, she vividly remembers his supposed abandonment as proof that she was never worth caring about.

Motivated reasoning. Clinging to a false belief protects a character from facing uncomfortable facts about herself. My neighbor dropped out of school in eighth grade yet believes she can become a surgeon by watching medical dramas on TV. Admitting she lacks the necessary education and training would mean confronting the possibility that her dream may never come true.

Confirmation bias. A character supports a false belief by seeking information that confirms it while ignoring evidence that contradicts it. When my neighbor decided public education was a government conspiracy, she turned to social media for confirmation. Finding “proof,” she began home-schooling her kids using only a 1962 Collier’s Encyclopedia.

Cognitive dissonance. A character may double down on a false belief rather than face painful self-examination or change. For example, a businessman insists he’s generous yet refuses to help his ailing sister pay a medical bill. He claims he’s teaching her independence rather than admitting that his selfishness contradicts his view of himself as generous.

The positive side of the negative

A character’s internal conflict should shape the choices he makes. As he struggles with external conflict, those decisions should challenge his beliefs, forcing him to grow, adapt, and gain insight into others and his own motivations.

Here, the character recognizes his personal struggle, challenging his belief that he needs to hide his own vulnerability: “I know how hard it is to smile and pretend the world ain’t fixin’ to squish you like a dadgum bug. Is Mattie Jo secretly as scared as I’ve been all my life? Can I help her if I shuck off my own mask?”

The takeaway

Put your characters on a collision course with disaster. Let their inner wounds and defenses hurtle them down the track. Your readers won’t be able to look away.

Venita Lynn Bonds is a retired RN with a background in psychology and counterintelligence training for corporations and a government agency. Her works have appeared in The Saturday Evening Post, NoSleep Podcast, and Killer Nashville Magazine. The author of four historical romance novels, she also won the 2026 Killer Nashville Claymore Award for Best Short Story Collection and the Claymore First Runner-up Overall. In 2025, she won the Claymore Award for Best Southern Gothic. She lives in Alabama with her husband and a little cat with no tail.

A Convict Constable's Journey by Liz Filleul

2026-09-08T00:09:12.031-04:00

When I migrated from England to Australia in 1995, a friend recommended I read The Fatal Shore by Robert Hughes. It was a history book about the lives of convicts transported from Britain to Australia between 1787 and 1868. While reading this giant tome, I came across a reference to convict constables – convict men who’d behaved well on the voyage and were recruited as constables to help bolster the police force in the Australian colonies.

An avid reader and aspiring writer of crime fiction, I zoned in on this reference, thinking a convict constable would make a great character in a novel.

But more than 20 years went by before I created convict constable Will Grafton. And 30 years passed before he appeared in a book.

Looking back, I think the reason for this is twofold. First, I needed time to settle down in Australia before setting a book there. (The irony of this being that Will is completely new to Australia!) Second, my favourite crime novels in the late 1990s were feminist PI books – VI Warshawski, Kinsey Millhone, Kate Brannigan etc – and I was keen to create my own feisty female gumshoe. In around 2018, while researching for a different project, I came across a colonial-era news snippet that I thought could make the basis of a short historical crime story. I recalled that long-ago reference to convict constables, and after doing more research into the police in 1830s Hobart Town, Van Diemen’s Land (now Hobart, Tasmania), I had my investigator.

But what to do with the story once I’d written it? I was a ‘serial offender’ in Sisters in Crime Australia’s Scarlet Stiletto Awards (winner in 2004, runner-up in 2007, 2011 and 2016) for short crime stories, but the rules stipulated that the main character be female. So my usual hunting ground for short crime fiction was out. While browsing in the newsagent’s, I came across a copy of The People’s Friend Special, a magazine I remembered from growing up in England. Inside it was a pull-out eight-page mini-mag featuring what the magazine called a ‘cosy crime long read’. I bought the magazine, looked up the People’s Friend’s submission guidelines online, and decided that this was a good paid market for my convict constable story. I read a few more issues to get more of an idea of their very distinct style and tone before sitting down and writing ‘The Convict Constable’. I submitted it to The People’s Friend in 2019, it was accepted around three months later, and it was published in March 2020. I wrote two more convict constable stories for them, which were published in 2021 and 2022, called ‘Death Knock’ and ‘Dead Men Tell No Tales’. I was delighted when ‘Dead Men Tell No Tales’ was shortlisted for a Derringer Award in 2023.

Right from when I’d started writing ‘The Convict Constable’, I’d hoped that I’d have enough ideas to one day put together a book of short stories about Will Grafton. By mid-2024, I was getting closer to that goal. In addition to the three published stories, I had one that People’s Friend had rejected as being a tad too dark for them. I was halfway through writing another Will Grafton mystery and had ideas for a couple more.

Self-publishing was an option, but I decided to try the traditional route first. I contacted Lindy Cameron, owner of Australian small-press genre publisher Clan Destine Press, asking whether she’d be interested in publishing a book of seven convict constable short stories.

Lindy responded straightaway. Unknown to me, she had just established a new imprint, Crime Waves, for publishing short crime story collections. She said if I could put together the seven stories, she’d consider publishing them as a book.

I wrote the remaining stories over the Australian summer of 2024-25, submitted the book in April 2025, and Lindy accepted it in January this year.

Then came the challenge of tackling the continuity issues that showed up during the editing process.

The stories People’s Friend had published contained some necessary repetition – readers buying the magazine in 2022 might not have read the stories published in 2020 and 2021. Hence, each story introduced Will and recurring characters to the reader. But in a collection, all the reader had to do was turn the page, so that repetition needed to go.

Additionally, the original three stories took place in March, June and September 1838, creating natural space for Will’s relationships to develop. With the events of two new stories taking place in April and July, Will’s relationships, including his romance with a convict maid, needed to develop on the page.

Sentenced Beyond the Seas will be published this month and is available in both print and ebook format. I’m so looking forward to seeing Will’s adventures in book form!

I still write regularly for The People’s Friend, and have written over 50 stories, plus several serials for them since my first acceptance in 2019. They haven’t all been crime stories, but the majority have been. Other gumshoes I’ve created for The People’s Friend include 1950s London private detectives Jon Carew and Pat Ellicott, and a 1913 ‘lady detective’, English suffragette Drusilla Wade. In Drusilla, I finally have my (first-wave) feminist PI!

Sentenced Beyond the Seas can be preordered from Clan Destine Press at a 20% discount until September 13. https://www.clandestinepress.net/collections/our-books/products/sentenced-beyond-the-seas.

Liz Filleul is a British-Australian short story writer. She writes regularly for the UK women's magazine The People's Friend, and has also had stories published in Woman's World in the USA and Woman's Weekly in the UK. She won Sisters in Crime Australia's Scarlet Stiletto Award for short crime fiction in 2004, was runner-up in 2007, 2011 and 2016, won the Cross-Genre Award in 2011, and the Mystery With History Award in 2016 and 2025. She was also a finalist for the 2023 Derringer Award. She migrated to Australia from the UK in 1995, after meeting her Australian husband while backpacking in Tasmania.

Dolly Parton by Teresa Inge

2026-09-07T04:00:00.000-04:00

I first discovered Dolly Parton watching The Porter Wagoner Show with my mother, who never missed an episode. Dolly arrived as the “new girl singer” after Jeannie Seely left for her solo career, and from that moment, my mother and I were hooked. Dolly sang like an angel and delivered jokes with a sharp, playful wit that made us laugh out loud.

I thought she was hilarious—bold, raw, and unafraid to poke fun at herself. In many ways, she reminded me of my mother, who grew up poor in the country with a house full of siblings, one faded dress, worn‑out school shoes, and barely enough food. Yet my mother was a natural storyteller and gifted joke‑teller. Watching Dolly felt like watching a piece of her—tiny, funny, beautiful, and determined to make people smile.

An American Story
Dolly’s life has always been an American story—raw talent, relentless drive, and a joy that came from her heart. Raised in a two‑room cabin with no running water or electricity in Tennessee’s Great Smoky Mountains, she grew up in a large family where money was scarce, but music was abundant. With a preacher for a grandfather, faith shaped her world as much as song. On that humble porch, singing to anyone who’d listen, she began honing the voice that would one day captivate millions.

Early Singing Career
By ten, she was performing on local radio and TV. The day after high school graduation, she headed to Nashville to chase her dream. Her big break came in the late 1960s on The Porter Wagoner Show, as mentioned earlier. Though Porter later sued her for leaving, Dolly never denied her gratitude for the opportunity. Still, she had bigger ambitions and wanted a solo career on her own terms.

Songs from the heart
Her storytelling reshaped country music. Songs like “Jolene,” “Coat of Many Colors,” and “I Will Always Love You” came from personal truth. She wrote about

working women in “9 to 5,” suicide in “The Bridge,” and the grief of a stillborn child in “Down from Dover,” subjects many artists avoided.

Film Star and Philanthropist
Her success stretched far beyond music. She became a film star in 9 to 5 and Steel Magnolias, a businesswoman who built Dollywood, and a philanthropist whose Imagination Library has gifted over 200 million books to children worldwide. Her generosity in literacy and disaster relief earned her global admiration.

Despite her fame, she stayed grounded, crediting her upbringing for her resilience and creativity. Her signature style—big hair, bright clothes, and sparkling humor—reflected her belief that life should be lived boldly and joyfully.

The Passing of an Icon
After her passing last week, the world continues to mourn a cultural icon. Her life remains a testament to authenticity and kindness, showing how a girl from the Smoky Mountains could inspire and uplift hearts around the world.