Texas mystery author Terry Shames’ latest book, Murder at the Jubilee Rally, has been reviewed on ABC News. To use a folksy phrase—Folks,...

By N.M. Cedeño People like to ask writers, do you ever use details from your life in your writing? Answer: Sometimes. It depends on what...

by Helen Currie Foster August 8, 2022 Our family’s favorite mystery quote (bolded below) appears in Strong Poison, by Dorothy Sayers,...

by N. M. Cedeño Many writers find motivation in challenging themselves in various ways. Some attempt to write a novel length manuscript...

by Helen Currie Foster – May 16, 2022 Cast your mind on the perfect croissant. A perfect croissant may have hundreds of layers of dough +...

By N. M. Cedeño Many of the stories I write aren’t accepted the first time I submit them for publication. The majority have to be...

by Kathy Waller I said to my critique partner this morning, The whole project is stinky it stinks it’s fatally flawed just nothing no...

By K.P. Gresham First off, the best job I ever had (short of writing mysteries) was teaching. And yes, I taught Middle Schoolers, which...

by Kathy Waller The summer  I was six, my cousin of the same age was visiting our spinster great-aunt and bachelor uncle who lived up the...

“From the start . . . I felt that the best fiction was both propulsive and assaultive.  It gets in your face.  Sometimes it shouts in...

by Helen Currie Foster Driving into New Mexico with my husband (favorite long-time travel companion) I peer anxiously out the car...

by N.M. Cedeño Setting a story in the past requires the author to do research to make sure the details of the story are correct. For me,...

by Kathy Waller Today is Memorial Day, the last Monday in May, when we remember the men and women of the military to whom we cannot say,...

by Helen Currie Foster We read to learn, we read to be entertained. We begged at age three, “Tell me a story.” The stories began, “Once...

By N. M. Cedeño Do you write in more than one genre? Do you blend genres or sub-genres? I do. Some sub-genres seem to lend themselves...

by K.P. Gresham My Go-To Seasonal Escape! When the holidays come around, I can’t help it. Sometimes I get so stressed I just wanna kill...

Try to imagine a mystery without its setting. What? You’re having trouble? Open a mystery and be denied the setting. What? You’re getting...

by K.P. Gresham I recently appeared on a “Writing Humor in Mysteries” panel at the Pflugerville, Texas, Library along with fellow authors...

Mystery readers are tetchy. We want an interesting plot with a fair shot at noting each clue—but don’t want to guess whodunnit too soon....

by K.P. Gresham This pandemic thing is getting really old. (A quote from Captain Obvious, obviously) But we writers have one thing in our...