INSPIRATION IS EVERYWHERE

Inspiration is Everywhere by TG Wolff

Inspiration can come from the most unexpected places. Take, for instance, a serious training session about anti-trust law topics like bid rigging, price fixing, and insider information. Say it’s presented by a very serious lawyer who thinks he’s presenting ripped-from-the-headlines examples to keep you (meaning me) on the straight and narrow but he actually has my head nodding because … yes, I can see how that would be a motive for murder!!

I’m not usually the dullest crayon in the box, but financial tomfoolery sails far over my head. I get why someone would rig a bid, I just can’t imagine how. Well, a big thank you to the unscrupulous contractors out there. Your forays into fuzzy math and sleight-of-hand were very educational … especially when thoroughly documented in the publicly available documents of a legal trial. 

In writing Murder On Site, the first Rizk Brothers Legal Mystery, I would have worried that I was

making clues too obvious or evidence too easy to capture if not for the proof that some of these guys are really bad at keeping secrets. My very serious lawyer instructor shared screen captures of text chains used as actual evidence that sounded like my teen son texting or snapping with his friends.

Dude: You want this bid?

Other Dude: Nah. You take this one. I’ll get the next.

Dude: Works. Don’t go under 25mil. Still working on deets.

Other Dude: NP. Any thoughts on a wedding gift for Dude Tres?

Dude: IDK. I hear candlesticks make good gifts.

 (The above are not actual texts used in a case. Many liberties were taken. Thank you Bull Durham.)

Like they say, truth is stranger than fiction and I’m convinced fiction has higher standards.

The training enabled me to devise a bid rigging scenario that wasn’t exactly ripped from the headlines but certainly was inspired by them. Once I had the mystery generally figured out, I built the world around it. Leveraging experience as a consulting project engineer and manager and working for a construction company let me really get physical with the scenes. I know what the trailers look and feel like, how the barricades would be set up, how the contractor’s professional staff would be separated from the engineer’s and state’s staff. Some of the side characters may resemble my real-life co-workers but it’s only because I had their voices in my head fixing the scene and telling me how they would react. I appreciated the chatter as the physical positioning became important to who saw what and when.

The victim had to be someone who would notice if things were just a little off center – an OCD construction inspector fit the bill. The killer had to have high stakes – the self-assured man who saw his very comfortable lifestyle being threatened. Because this is a mystery, other suspects were needed. Not one to take risks alone, Inside Man pulled his co-conspirators into the murder to ensure their cooperation—and then there were three. Just like in real life, each decision snowballed into a bigger problem. Add in a lover’s fight and a hot-headed competitor and I had motive and opportunity abound.

The root of this evil was greed. It resulted in the killing (fictionally, of course) a construction inspector, the implication of an innocent man (have to have a fall guy), the destruction of a marriage, ripped a family apart, and jailed four conspirators. 

I have no knowledge if similar ripples were felt in the real cases, but there was undoubtedly fallout. News articles seldom cover the trickle-down consequences of crime. I like to think that’s the purview of us fiction writers. It is our gift and our charge to go beyond the headlines. 

All that, from a mandatory training on anti-trust laws.

My advice, no matter where you are, look around … inspiration is everywhere.

How I’m Writing Cozy Mysteries While the World Is Burning by Sarah E. Burr

(Spoiler: I’m not. Or at least, not very well.)

Lately, I’ve been staring at blinking cursors more than I’ve been writing chapters.

It feels strange, almost dissonant, to sit down and draft a scene about best friends arguing over scones or debating suspects in a charming small town when the news is filled with violence, injustice, and heartbreak. Every time I open my laptop, I’m aware of it. Violence against people is wrong. Murdering people is wrong. Genocide is wrong. Oppressing people is wrong. Lying to people is wrong. There are so many wrong things happening in the world right now.

And I write books about… fictional murder.

On the surface, it can feel trivial. Even tone-deaf. How am I supposed to tune out headlines and write about candle shops, bookstores, seaside cafés, and clever twists? How do I build light-hearted mysteries while the world feels so unbearably heavy?

The honest answer? Sometimes I can’t. Some days, the words come slowly. Some days, they don’t come at all. My mind wanders. My heart aches. I question whether what I’m doing matters.

But here’s what I keep coming back to. Cozy mysteries are not about glorifying violence. They are not about celebrating harm. They are about restoring order in a world that has been disrupted. They are about community. Friendship. Justice. Truth. They are about good people choosing to stand up, even when something terrible has happened. In a cozy mystery, murder is never “right.” It is the problem. It is the wrong that must be made right. And maybe that’s why these stories matter right now more than ever.

We live in a world where harm often feels unresolved. Where injustice stretches on. Where truth feels slippery. In a cozy mystery, justice is possible. The guilty are held accountable. The innocent are protected. The community survives. The light returns.

That isn’t escapism in the shallow sense. It’s hope. But hope can feel fragile when reality is loud.

There are moments when I wonder if writing about close friends solving mysteries in charming towns is enough. Should I be writing something darker? Something louder? Something that directly confronts the chaos?

And then I remember the emails. The messages from readers who say my books helped them through chemo. Through grief. Through caring for aging parents. Through anxiety spirals. The readers who tell me they needed a safe place to land for a few hours. Stories are not a distraction from the world. They are a way to survive it.

That doesn’t mean I ignore what’s happening. I don’t. I read. I listen. I vote. I donate. I have hard conversations. I sit with discomfort. I let myself feel anger and sadness because it’s warranted. But I also write about communities where people show up for each other. Where kindness is normal. Where truth wins. Where a group of friends refuses to let fear have the final word. Maybe writing cozy mysteries while the world is burning isn’t about pretending the fire doesn’t exist. Maybe it’s about tending small, steady flames of hope that guide readers during dark times.

I won’t pretend it’s easy. Some days, the writing feels almost impossible. I have closed documents and walked away more times than I can count. I have questioned myself more than usual. But when I do manage to write, when I find my way back into a scene where friends are gathered around a table, piecing together clues and laughing despite the danger, something shifts in me. It reminds me of what kind of world I want. A world where harm is acknowledged, not excused. Where wrongdoing is confronted, not normalized. Where communities protect their neighbors, regardless of what they believe or look like. Where the truth matters.

If that’s the world I want, then maybe writing it is not naive. Maybe it’s aspirational.

I don’t know if I have a neat conclusion here. I don’t have a productivity hack to offer. I’m not going to tell you I’ve figured out how to perfectly balance awareness and art. I haven’t. Some days I write well. Some days I don’t write at all. But I’m still here. Still trying. Still believing that light, even small light, is worth making.

If you’re struggling to create right now, too, please know you’re not alone. It’s okay if your output looks different. It’s okay if your heart needs time. It’s okay if the words come slowly.

The world may feel like it’s burning. But even in the middle of it, there is value in building places where justice is possible, kindness is powerful, and hope survives the final chapter.

And maybe, just maybe, that’s reason enough to keep writing.

A Writer’s Creativity Tags Along on Vacation

 

By Lisa Malice, Ph.D.

Vacations are for putting work aside, kicking back and relaxing, right? For writers, like me and many of you, it’s a time to flip off the switch in our brains so its creative centers can recharge, correct?

Well, no. Not by far. My recent sailing trip with Lou and another couple cruising the beautiful blue Caribbean waters and islands off the coast of Belize is a testament to how wrong it is to think that our brains can take a holiday from creative thoughts.   

Our trip started out idyllic. Lou and I flew down to Palencia, a small town on the southern coast of Belize, and met up with Stefan and Katherine, close friends with whom we sailed the Greek islands 26 years ago. Together, we spent a short two days enjoying Belizean cuisine, refreshing drinks by the pool, swimming, and kayaking, before provisioning our sailboat with local foods and beverages (rum, of course!) and boarding our boat.

Our first night in Palencia, we dined at the Muna Restaurant & Bar atop our hotel (The Ellysian). A fabulous meal, starting with conch fritters and a coconut lime mojito, followed by Seafood Sere, a delectable dish of shrimp, fish and lobster in a creamy coconut chowder.

Our first full day on the water we sailed to Hide-Away Island, one of three mangrove isles in the Pelican Cay ridge of Belize’s 190-mile coral reef system (part of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef that stretches 625 miles along the central American Caribbean coast). Once we reached our destination, we opted to tie up to a mooring ball for $20 per night, rather than drop anchor. A prudent move with an overnight weather forecast calling for intermittent rain and strong gusty winds and stretching through the next evening. An anchor not properly set on the seafloor will not hold a boat’s position in such weather.

Our 42-foot catamaran was spacious, comfortable, and had every modern kitchen and bathroom convenience. The computerized helm and motorized sheets (sea jargon for “ropes”) made sailing so easy for Lou and Stefan.  Altogether, a sailboat made for taking it easy.

The warm, sunny afternoon we spent snorkeling in crystal clear water, communing with the inhabitants of a breath-taking soft coral reef, was sheer mindless fun.

Later that evening, the four of us hopped into our six-person rubber dinghy and motored over to Hide-Away Caye for a sumptuous lobster feast at the local restaurant.

Hide-Away Caye restaurant requires meal pre-order (lobster, conch, fish) with each reservation.  

Why? So, its owners can dive the local waters for your chosen entrée, of course.

Back on our boat, we battened down the hatches for the stormy night ahead of us.

We stayed put the next day. The rear deck offered a perfect protection from the wind and rain, so I parked myself there to read a friend’s ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) for his latest mystery/thriller.

Late morning, another catamaran approached the mooring ball just southeast of our position. On the bow (front) of the boat stood a man and a woman, both waving their arms erratically. It was clear they had no idea how to properly direct the captain, who was steering the boat from the bridge towards the mooring ball. As a result, the boat cut to starboard (right), causing the boat to pass the ball on its port (left) side.

By some miracle, the odd couple on the front deck managed to grab the mooring line with the long-shafted hook and tie it up to a port side cleat. To be clear, the mooring ball should be directly in front of the boat with its line (rope) connected to both of the catamaran’s hulls through other lines. No one seemed to know how to correct the situation, so they just walked away.

A few minutes later, I spotted four of our new neighbors in their rubber dinghy drifting away from their catamaran as the lone man sat at the stern (rear of the boat) furiously tried to start the motor. With each pull of the starter cord, he grew more and more frustrated, until finally, he gave up. The foursome drifted away from their two shipmates still on board the catamaran.

What a comedy of errors! Their first mistake was casting off from the sailboat before the dinghy’s outboard motor was revved and ready to go. Their second? Putting a guy in charge of the dinghy who didn’t know how to start the motor. The third and final strike was not having even one oar in the dinghy to use in an emergency. Luckily for the feckless foursome, a small fishing boat came to their rescue and towed them back to their sailboat. The hero, a local fisherman, proceeded to the bow and corrected the mooring line.

At sunset, our six neighbors piled into their small dinghy, the boat—with motor running—then cast off and steered toward Hide-Away Caye Restaurant. The rubber craft rode low in the water as it plowed through the sea—clearly overloaded. Waves crashed over the bow to the screams of the dinghy’s female passengers. Water rushed into the boat at its stern next to the boat’s heavyset skipper. Their path forward is unlit—they have failed to bring along a light to see their way in the deepening darkness. Will all six passengers make it safely to the island restaurant and back?

I woke up early greeted by a beautiful, warm sunny morning with a soft breeze. Our neighbors’ dinghy was tied up to the stern of their catamaran, suggesting they all made it back to their sailboat safely sometime during the dark night. 

That’s when two words popped into my head—What If? What if three couples took off on a sailing trip without one person who had sufficient knowledge and skills to pull off the trip safely? The cruise starts out wonderful enough until bad weather rolls in. With the anchor poorly set, an overnight storm dislodges the sailboat, setting it adrift until it slams into a reef leaving behind a huge gash in the hull. Water pours in. Five make it into the dinghy, but in the end, only one person, a woman, survives the night adrift.

The creative center of my mind kept running with ideas, visualizing a tense, suspenseful opening chapter (it opens well into the story), scenes fleshing out characters backstories and personalities, a general plot with possible twists, reversals, and moments of heightened danger. I have pages of notes that, now that I’m back home, I’m eager to incorporate into my story.

Why did my brain jump furiously into a creative frenzy, when it was supposedly on break? One reason might be my friend’s thriller primed me for seeing a dark story where I saw one and my mind ran with it.

But more likely, I think it’s the influence of a different book, Jane Cleland’s latest, Beat the Bots: A Writer’s Guide to Surviving and Thriving in the Age of AI, wherein Jane discusses a variety of creativity tactics that make for original storytelling no computer could write.

My “What If” moment was one of those tactics, wherein I let my mind explore possible storylines for the initial idea I had yet to flesh out. But the big factor in unleashing my mind-wandering was the vacation itself. According to Jane, four factors led to this burst of creativity. First, I  had time on my hands and nothing pressing on my schedule to do other than have fun thinking about my blossoming tale. Second and third, being surrounded by water and nature had me feeling calm, interconnected--and  happy. Fourth, I had a fun goal in mind—fleshing out a story, its characters, dangers, plot points, its ending.

How about you? Have you ever been struck by a new story idea on vacation when you weren’t really looking for one? How did it come about?

 

Quick Motivators When You Don’t Feel Like Writing

By Heather Weidner

 It’s March, and the weather is finally getting warmer here in Central Virginia. I can’t wait to get outside. I love the spring weather, but sometimes, it’s harder to keep my writing routine on track when there are so many distractions.

 Here are few ideas that might help you get motivated or moving when you don’t feel like writing:

• Get up earlier than normal to start your writing session. Sometimes, it helps if you finish earlier in the day when there’s still time to do something else.
• Editing/revising is the hardest part for me. I really have to focus (and stay focused) to make sure all the changes are made. I usually reward myself with a social media break, a walk outside, or a quick research break (scrolling through the internet) after I hit a milestone.
• Get a good, noise-cancelling headphone set. It’ll block out the world, and you can listen to your choice of music. (I have playlists for every mood (and type of writing task. This is my playlist of songs about writing.)
• Keep small pieces of chocolate or other favorite treat on your desk for writing sessions. It’s a great pick-me-up, and it’s a nice little reward.
• Keep some tactile toys on your desk (e.g. stress balls, Slinkies, or fidget toys) for a quick break. Sometimes, these help while you’re working through a plot hole.
• Take an exercise break when you need to get up and stretch. There are plenty of chair yoga and chair stretch videos online to get your endorphins going.
• If you have a pet, take a puppy or a kitty break. Sometimes, a burst of activity can get you moving again.
• Get your phone or your camera and go out and take some pictures. You can always use them for your blog or socials.
• Work on another creative project. This will engage your brain and your hands.
• Write some notes or emails to family and friends. It’s a great way to keep in touch, and it kickstarts your writing.
• Start a celebration journal and keep a log of your milestones and successes.
• Find an accountability partner who will help you stay on track.
• Take a 10-minute tidy-your-desk moment. You clear your thoughts and get a clean desk.
• Create a reward jar. When you reach a milestone, you get to pick a treat.
• And don’t forget to celebrate when you hit your milestones or make your goals.

 What do you do get yourself motivated?

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. 

Her short stories appear in a variety of anthologies, and she has non-fiction pieces in Promophobia and The Secret Ingredient: A Mystery Writers’ Cookbook.

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. 

ROPE, a play

 

 

 

By Margaret S. Hamilton

 

“Because, dear Brandon, that sort of murder would not be a motiveless murder at all. It would have a quite clear motive. Vanity. It would be a murder of vanity.” Rope, Act II, p. 63

 

 

On Valentine’s Day, the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music staged a remake of a 1929 play, “Rope,” by Patrick Hamilton, which was originally performed in London. In 1948, Alfred Hitchcock transformed the play into a psychological thriller, “Rope.” I’ve not seen the Hitchcock movie, but I did find the original 1929 play in the Cincinnati Hamilton County library system.

 

Hamilton’s play is based on the horrific 1924 murder of fourteen-year-old Bobby Franks in suburban Chicago. The killers were two university students, Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, who were seeking the thrill of a perfect crime. Clarence Darrow defended the two murderers, securing life sentences instead of the death penalty.

 

In the original “Rope,” two arrogant young men, Brandon and Granillo, strangle Oxford University classmate, Ronald Kentley, with a rope, and hide his body in a trunk in their London drawing room. They invite friends and Kentley’s father for dinner, encouraging their guests to put their plates and glasses on the trunk. Rupert Cadell, their former teacher, suspects the truth, opens the trunk to reveal Ronnie’s body, and then summons law enforcement with a policeman’s whistle. Brandon and Granillo’s perfect murder, exhibiting their intellectual superiority, will be the cause of their execution by hanging.

 

CCM graduate Amy Berryman teamed up with faculty member Brant Russell to “adapt” the original play into a more modern time and place: college winter break, 2000, in a suburban Columbus, Ohio McMansion. Two college students, Brandon and Granillo, strangle Ronnie, a former high school film club member, and hide her body in a large trunk in the family room. Other members of the film club arrive for a reunion, which will include viewing a remastered DVD of Hitchcock’s “Psycho.” The college students party and dance, with lots of drunken banter about the film industry and the roles they plan to play in their future careers.

 

Two women, a university teaching assistant and a local college student hired to serve the meal, note the inconsistencies in the narrative about the missing student. As the curtain falls, they lift the trunk lid.

 

The CCM production was fast paced and the acting excellent. The reasoning behind Ronnie’s murder was never explained, nor was the relationship between the two murderers. The set—a well-researched millennium family room and adjoining kitchen, encompassed the stage.

 

I enjoyed the CCM production, as did the college students who filled the audience. “Rope” was an ambitious student production, successfully updated from a horror-filled twenties drawing room drama to a 2000s family room drama, during the years of DVDs, dial-up modems, and wall phones.

 

Readers and writers, have you seen a modern adaptation of an early twentieth century play?

 

Home - The Official Website of Margaret S. Hamilton

 

Margaret S. Hamilton is the author of forty short stories and the first two books in the Jericho Mysteries series.

 

 

 

                                            The set for "Rope", a 2000 family room, was built on the stage

 

 

 

Mother of the Bride and Mystery Writer by E. B. Davis

  

I’m helping my daughter enact her wedding plans because she is getting married on the beach on Hatteras Island, where I live, in June, followed by a reception at a wine bar/deli located a few miles away. It’s a casual wedding and the guest list is under forty people. The bride and groom are in their mid-thirties, so we pretty much let them dictate their wishes except that we insisted on paying (since we’d like them to save their money for a house down payment) and that guests be given a choice of entrée since not everyone loves fish, which, of course, is the best on Hatteras Island. As a mom, I think I’ve fulfilled my duties. But as a mystery writer, I haven’t yet begun. The groom’s sister-in-law has shown herself to be a diva and her daughter, a diva in the making. Should one be the victim?

 

But then I realized that there might be better victims, and I wanted to play the villain when I realized that

Rocky trying on his tux!

the NC Methodist Church took a week in June to have its conference and ordination ceremonies, and yes, it was the very weekend of my daughter’s wedding, and our young pastor was to be ordained that day, the last day of the conference in Raleigh, five hours away from Hatteras. I try not to ask hard questions, like what were they thinking? June being the most popular month for weddings—none of the pastors in the church are available due to internal business—statewide? Why not a miserable week in January? Luckily, I found our last minister, who retired nearby, to conduct the ceremony, but I’d still like to take my rolling pin to a few heads.    

 

My next victim was the National Park Service that requires a permit for beach weddings as all of the beach here is owned by the Federal government. I finally got one for the special event, as they term it, but hoops were jumped through in obtaining one. (And yes, money, too.) Dare County also requires couples to obtain a wedding license within a month of the ceremony. The only way to get one is to apply in person, Monday-Friday 8:30 am to 4:30 pm, regardless that many couples from out of state get married here (a big revenue source) who work during those same days/hours. I’m not sure what they will do. I guess they have to take off work (cutting into their honeymoon time) drive four hours to get to our county seat and drive four hours home. Yes, the bureaucracies can’t have hours or extended time making it a bit more user friendly. I’ll let them be the perps on that one.

 

I ask myself when should the body appear? During the ceremony washing up on the beach or discovered by a guest behind the dunes? Maybe Rocky, my daughter’s dog, will find the body or his cousin, Biscuit, the white Standard Poodle. Will the body appear on the deli’s wide front porch sitting on the wicker couch? Or will someone be poisoned during the reception? The MC, me, will have to investigate to clear the caterer of wrong doing. Or maybe I’ll make my daughter the MC with her new spouse and their trusty dog to help investigate.

 

It’s no wonder so many cozies are set during weddings. What is your favorite wedding mystery?

Say What? by KM Rockwood

When people mishear sayings but decide to use them anyhow, wedding version:

If you’re in the wedding party, for all in tents and

porpoises you’ve agreed to join the pre-wedding activities (intents and purposes)

They want to take pitchers at the little bridge over the pond. (pictures)

Is there something they can put in the fishpond to keep the algebra out of the water? (algae)

That’s really not much of a problem in the grand Stephen things. (grand scheme of things)

On their budget, how can they shop for such expensive dresses and not even bat and I? (bat an eye)

That’s like tossing money into the bliss. (abyss)

If she decides to wear her mother’s headpiece, that would be a nice jester. (gesture)

But first informal she should wear what she likes. (first and foremost)

Ever since they met, the bride and groom have been insufferable. (inseparable)

She says he makes her the best virgin of herself. (version)

They still have to flush out the plans. (flesh out)

The food at the reception is going to be expensive little

own an open bar. (let alone)

The groom’s mother is worried that the caterer won’t cook the chicken well and everyone will get sell my nana. (salmonella)

Since she’s not a good cook herself, that’s just a case of the popcorn in the kettle back. (the pot calling the kettle black)

But worrying about that keeps her from interfering with other details, so it’s a blessing in the skies. (blessing in disguise)

We all know she’s not exactly playing with a full desk. (full deck)

When all is sad and down, they will just squeeze the day and it’ll all work out! (said and done; seize the day)

Women Who Kill Nicely by Shannon Symonds

I've given over today's spot to a fellow cozy mystery author, Shannon Symonds. She describes her Balefire Bay series as "more than a destination; it's a state of mind, a small town that captures your heart." Enjoy her post! -- Korina

Writing a book is a solo endeavor. It’s perfect for an introvert like me whose favorite color is invisible. Talking books with serious readers and writers is a blast. I love hearing what my favorite author’s writing space is like or what readers like to read. I simply don’t know how to navigate the rest of life. I often find myself on the periphery, observing, back to the wall like a flower at gatherings, seeing new characters live the way I wish I could and tucking them away for a future book. 

Explaining what I write about to non-bookish people can be a challenge. Let me give you a little sample of a typical conversation I’ve had more than once. For example, at church, when someone finds out I write books. 

Church lady: You’re an author. How exciting. So, what do you write about?

Me: I write cozy mysteries and some women’s fiction. 

Church Lady: You mean like murder mysteries? Are they, you know, violent? I can’t read anything that is full of death. 

Me: I write about tidy murders. You know, like Miss Marple murders or British television murders. One good conk on the head or a fall down the stairs and someone dies without any blood. The carpet doesn’t even have to be cleaned.

Church Lady: So, you write about cute villages in the English countryside, priests, and all that? 

Me: No. No… I write about what I know. I worked as an advocate alongside law-enforcement responding to crime scenes to support victims of interpersonal and sexual violence. Only the advocate in my books is slimmer and single; her kids are well-behaved, her house is clean, and the police officer she falls in love with is handsome. 

Church Lady (Jerks her head back, her brows top her readers, and her mouth falls open for a microsecond): Oh! That all sounds so violent. How can you write about all that without getting violent? 

Me: My books don’t include on-stage violence. People are already dead or die where you’re not looking. No one even swears in my books. All my books have happy endings for everyone, except for the person who dies. Your ‘tween could read them. 

Church Lady: I think not. A book like that should come with a warning label. 

Me: What do you read? 

Church Lady: The Bible. 

Me: I read the Bible every day. Wait, in 2nd Kings, didn’t Jezebel get thrown from the palace window, trampled by horses, and wasn’t her body eaten by dogs, leaving only her skull and hands?

Life. I can’t make up anything stranger. 

In a plot twist, I relished a conversation I had while getting my immunizations at the Costco Pharmacy. As she injected me with my first shot, the pharmacist asked what I did. I told her I was an author. She got very excited and called all the other pharmacists over while giving me my next shot and told them I was an author. She explained that the pharmacy had a book club. 

The pharmacists asked what kind of books I wrote. I said they were cozy mysteries that took place in a small town on the coast, like the one I lived in. I said I wrote about things I knew and loved, like the strength of survivors, especially when they are building a new life. You know, like that old television show, Murder, She Wrote, starring Angela Lansbury? 

I didn’t tell them that partway through the book I would toss the survivors into their darkest night, give them a Yoda-like friend, and create a disaster of such epic proportions that I hoped it would keep readers up all night turning pages. 

Instead, I offered to bring them free books. 

I’ve decided that bookish people have a language all their own. When I tell someone, my mysteries have a little romance in them, they ask me how steamy or spicy they are. I reassure them they aren’t spicy at all; they’re cozy. Then they are either at peace with reading my books, upset that I’ve infused romance into the mystery genre, or decide quietly that they aren’t spicy enough and look for something with a bare chest on the cover.

I frequently remind myself that for every book, there is a reader out there somewhere waiting for me to sign their copy. And if not, soon I’ll escape this chaotic world and go home to write about the world I wish I lived in. A place between the covers with the same drama, ocean tides, storms, tsunamis, killers, advocates, and shadows of survivors I spent years with and find comfort in somehow being able to control the violence and give my survivor the happy ending I think I’ve finally found for myself. 

Shannon Symonds writes in an old house by the sea and in the Utah desert. She is the proud mother of six children and Nana to 18. She loves time with her family, church, writing, laughter, a good mystery, walking the beach, clamming, and bonfires.

Shannon is an Indie author and published by Cedar Fort Publishing & Media. Shannon’s professional training began at age eight, when she found an Agatha Christie novel and read it on a rainy day at the family beach house. That was it. She was addicted to mysteries. 

Shannon worked for over 15 years as an advocate serving survivors of violence alongside law enforcement, and on other causes that she is ridiculously passionate about. In 2018 Shannon was nominated for the Storymakers Whitney Award, she was awarded the Author to Watch Award for her By the Sea Cozy Mystery YA series, and in 2023 her book, Booked for Murder, was a finalist for the Indie Cozy Mystery of the Year award. 

Visit my Website! http://shannonsymonds.com/ 

Instagram Shannon Symonds: https://www.instagram.com/shannonsymondsauthor/  & @cozymysteriesbythesea

FB Author page: https://www.facebook.com/shannonsymondsauthor 

Follow me on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/~/e/B06Y5X6BYN 

Bethink Yourself of Any Crime by Mary Dutta

A recent outing to the Alabama Shakespeare Festival got me thinking about William Shakespeare. The Bard is having a bit of a cultural moment given the multiple Oscar nominations for Hamnet, the film about Shakespeare and his wife coping with the death of their son. It was adapted from a bestselling novel of the same name.

Of course, Shakespeare never goes out of fashion. The ASF is just one of many Shakespeare theaters and festivals spanning the United States, from Shakespeare & Company in Massachusetts to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. When I lived in Virginia we had season tickets to the American Shakespeare Center, which performs under the original staging conditions in a recreation of the Blackfriars Playhouse.

Given his undisputed status as a giant of English literature, it might sound presumptuous to say “I’m a writer like Shakespeare.” But crime writers genuinely are. Think of the many different motives that underlie the stories we tell. Envy. Ambition. Grief. Love. Shakespeare explores them all.

I realized how many of those same themes appear in my own work. My latest story involves three siblings and a contested legacy from their father. Shades of King Lear. My first published story was about a woman who envies another writer’s success. Echoes of Julius Caesar’s Cassius. I published a story about a woman whose grief over her husband’s death leads to drama at the senior center. Hamlet would relate. One of my characters would do anything to join a local country club. Macbeth could give him some pointers. And Romeo and Juliet could chime in on the lengths people will go to for love in more than one of my stories.

Shakespeare’s work retains its power more than 400 years after his death because it explores universal human experiences. Granted, while the actions in crime fiction might be slightly less universal, what with all the murder, blackmail, theft, etc., the human emotions and motivations behind those actions are as authentic today as they were in Elizabethan times.

Ben Jonson said Shakespeare “was not of an age but for all time.” I’m not claiming the same for myself, but I do hope that the stories I tell can stand the test of time in the ways they engage readers and reflect the complicated human world around them.

Oh the Places We'll Go, by Lori Roberts Herbst

Last week, I was soaked by a rain shower in India. The week before, I watched the twinkling lights of the Eiffel Tower as I witnessed a horse walking through a Parisian park. The past year has found me traveling to England, Los Angeles, Mt. Olympus, the Mediterranean, Ireland, and the Tau Ceti star system in outer space. And that’s just to name a few places.

These journeys were made possible because I read—and thanks to so many authors who create meaningful settings. 

As I’m searching for a new book or series (because let’s be real, I only have a couple hundred on my current TBR list), one of the first elements I’m drawn to is setting. Characters and plot may keep me engrossed, but the place where the action occurs is often the stimulus that encourages me to buy and begin a book.

If I’m planning a vacation, I seek out books unique to my destination. A trip to eastern Canada began my love affair with Louise Penny’s Armand Gamache series, set largely in the fictional town of Three Pines. My fondness for national parks drew me to Nevada Barr’s Anna Pigeon series. Though I’ve never been to Venice, my travels to other parts of Italy hooked me into Donna Leon’s Commissario Guido Brunetti books.

As writers, building a setting is a thrilling creative endeavor. Even if the story is set in a real-life locale, like my recent short story “The Naughty List,” poetic license allows us the freedom to tweak and fine tune—at least a bit. (Readers will definitely let you know if you stray too far…) And if you’re coming up with a fictional location, it’s like moving into a new house, one you’ve designed and built with your own two hands, imaginatively speaking. It’s labor-intensive, but you’re only limited by what your mind can conjure.

When I started writing my Callie Cassidy series, I was living in Texas and longing for the mountains. So, I created Rock Creek Village, a fictional town (loosely based on Estes Park), nestled in the Rocky Mountains. Inventing the village gave me a way to be there daily through my storytelling. Ironically, now that I live in Colorado, I’ve set my new series in Seahorse Bay, a Texas port city where cruise ships dock (also fictional, though loosely based on Galveston). So now I’m back in Texas every day, without having to endure the heat and humidity. 

And through my reading, I’m all over the world.

What books have captured you because of their locations? What is your favorite setting you’ve written for your own work?

The Callie Cassidy Mystery series is available on Amazon Kindle, Kindle Unlimited, and paperback.

***

Lori Roberts Herbst writes the Callie Cassidy Mysteries, a cozy mystery series set in Rock Creek Village, Colorado, and the soon-to-be-released Seahorse Bay Mysteries, set in a Texas cruise port town. To find out more and to sign up for her newsletter, go to www.lorirobertsherbst.com 

Once Again, a Consideration of Novellas by Susan Van Kirk

 

Verena Rose recently interviewed me on her podcast, The Hystery Chronicles, and we ended up talking about eBooks and novellas. Back in 2011, I wrote a novella about the detective from my Endurance series, TJ Sweeney. It was called The Locket: From the Casebook of TJ Sweeney. It’s been fifteen years since I wrote that novella. Now, I’m planning to write two more about TJ’s cases. Then, I’ll put them together into one book. So, it’s time to refresh my memory, and maybe yours, about how writing novellas is so different than writing novels.

 In my own Endurance novella, Detective TJ Sweeney is the main character, but Grace Kimball, my Endurance series protagonist, makes a cameo appearance. I believe she’ll do that again in stories two and three. It’s fun to see her in a different light since TJ is now the main character. Because the protagonist is TJ instead of Grace, I end up with more of a police procedural than a cozy mystery when I write about my detective.

 

The most obvious difference when it comes to novellas is the length. My novels range from 71,000 words to 82,000 words. In page numbers, that’s 239 pages to 270 pages. The length of a novella is 20,000-40,000 words or 80-160 pages. The Locket weighed in at 82 pages. This change calls for several differences in how I approach writing the shorter work.

 

First, I still need a strong hook to bring the reader into the plot quickly. While a novel has a main plot and multiple subplots, a novella must have fewer, if any, subplots. There isn’t time for multiple subplots that have nothing to do with the case she’s solving. To me, the novella plot seems more straight-forward. The author doesn’t have the luxury of stringing the story through weeks, months or years. No miniseries here covering multiple generations. A novella usually covers anywhere from days to a few weeks. Often, a novella has white space rather than chapters between scenes because it must be very streamlined where one event leads quickly into another.

 

Second, you rarely see multiple points of view in a novella. One main character tells the story, and any supporting characters had better have a darn good reason to be in the plot. The main character will be well-rounded, but other characters will have less description than you’d see in a novel.

 

Third, the conflict must be easily recognizable early and continue as the main focus of the novella. The writer doesn’t have the luxury of adding pages of setting descriptions, or side conflicts to interrupt the main focus. The length of the novella usually depends on the intricacy of the complications.

 

Finally, revision. Unlike the luxurious, rambling pace of a novel, a novella must be streamlined. The verbs must be strong, and the writer must cut out any unnecessary words. I go through many more revisions with a novella because its length rules the day.

 

So far, I have a couple of clever ideas for the other two novellas that will go with The Locket to create one book. Like any writing project, it leaves me with some questions to ponder. What order will I use for the three stories? Will they show TJ at various stages of her detective career? Should I name the book of three stories From the Casebook of TJ Sweeney and then name each story with an object from the case like The Locket from the story I’ve already published? Lots to think about, and I’m relishing this new project.

 

Do you enjoy reading shorter works of fiction that you can read in one sitting or a couple days?

 

 

On A Positive Note By E. B. Davis

I talked with my sister by phone on Sunday. She isn’t particularly religious or spiritual so I was surprised when she told me the story of her friend Mark. Here on Hatteras Island, we have weathered dark, cold, and windy days for weeks. Her story about Mark was uplifting, which is the reason I’m sharing it with you. We don’t discuss politics on WWK, but on occasion we refer to religion. Take from it what you will. For Christians, Lent is a time of healing. This is Mark’s story.

 

Mark, in his early 60s, had been diagnosed with kidney failure along with liver problems. He had been hospitalized for most of the summer of 2025. In the fall, they released him to go home, but he had a team that came in to give him daily dialysis and then taught him to do it himself overnight while he “slept.” No, he didn’t get much sleep because he was in constant pain. He was on the recipient list for a new kidney, and possibly, a new liver as well.

 

Last week, my sister drove him to the University of Virginia Medical Center, where he was to undergo more tests and then meet with his medical team, which included nursing associates, social workers, and his primary specialist, a doctor of Indian origin. In the meeting, the doctor asked Mark what his physical complaints were. Mark answered by describing new cramping and other affects from the dialysis. The doctor looked at Mark and asked, “Do you believe in Jesus?” Surprised, Mark replied, “Yes, I talk to him constantly.” Then, the doctor said, “The reason for your new complaints is that you are getting dialysis for kidneys that have been healed. You no longer need dialysis and will be taken off the recipient list for kidneys. Now that your kidney is functioning normally, your liver problems seem to be minor.”

 

Mark is still in shock. We all are. We really thought he was going to die.

 

It was clear that the doctor felt a miracle had occurred or he wouldn’t have asked Mark about his beliefs. I think Mark received a miracle of divine intervention.

 

If you were to write a story about this event including it in your fiction, would you call it supernatural, spiritual, or miracle fiction? Or, would doing so be blasphemous?

 

Using AI Without Compromising the Story

By James M. Jackson

I belong to several writing groups that have online forums for their members. Recently, a highly respected member on one of the forums went on a rant about how any use of large-language-model artificial intelligence (like Claude, ChatGPT, and others that analyze text and identify patterns—LLMs, for short) is totally unacceptable for authors. The rationale pointed to LLMs' unethical use of copyrighted material to learn, and that it’s dumb to do anything to help a product that undercuts your product. I’ve paraphrased a much longer and more erudite analysis. In this view, writers should feed the backlash and shut AI down.

Standing on its grandest pedestal, this is the equivalent of saying that eating anything produced by American farmers on United States soil is unacceptable and should be banned because all the land used to produce the food was stolen or otherwise obtained illegally or immorally from the indigenous peoples. What’s more, if we only stopped using this product, farmers would stop producing it.

Of course, we need food to eat and don’t need generative AI to live—at least not yet.

Maybe a better analogy is that writers should go back to scribbling longhand because science indicates that doing so uses a larger percentage of our enfeebled brains than keyboarding does. But I choose to keyboard instead of writing longhand because it’s much faster (and I can actually read the result two hours later, instead of scratching my head about the intended meaning of those ink marks on paper).

My firm line with AI is that I will not have anyone or anything do my creative writing for me. I do accept human and AI suggestions to improve my work, and I will absolutely allow LLMs to produce a first draft synopsis for my 95,000-word novel. And I’ll certainly allow it to generate multiple suggestions for the book’s blurb. Even in those instances where LLMs did the initial draft, the final words and styling will be my choices, even if composed mostly of words chosen by the AI. If AI can help me perform a routine task faster, I’m all in.

Here are three examples of how I recently used Claude to perform structural analysis.

In my current WIP, Niki Unbound (Niki Undercover #3), I realized Cindy (Paddy’s wife and Seamus’s daughter-in-law) went missing for part of the story. In the before-days, as part of the read-through of the entire novel, I would have set up a little worksheet to keep track of where Cindy was and what she was doing. Since I knew it was a problem, I gave Claude this prompt:

Where's Cindy: One of the areas to check is Cindy's location in each scene. Please review Niki Unbound draft 2 2026-02-21.docx and provide a chart with the following columns: 1. Scene number 2. Cindy present Y/N 3. Cindy's location [Chicago area, D.C. area, Shank Lake vicinity, Other (specify), Unknown]. Please provide results in a downloadable Excel file. Questions?

On its own, Claude color-coded the lines to mark location (making it visually very easy to see where Cindy was), provided a short note for each scene, and provided commentary on a few scenes it thought I should look at because they were somewhat ambiguous. The graphic below shows the first thirteen scenes.

With this information, I can pinpoint where to fix this issue and do that before doing my read-through.

The second area I’ve experimented with is having Claude do a first pass at analyzing scenes for their impact on the story. Normally, before I hand the second draft over to Jan, I do a read-through and capture on a spreadsheet a number of characteristics for each scene. I want to know if it’s Action (A) or Reaction (R) or a combination. I also want to know which scenes have increased Twists (T), Dangers (D), and Reversals (R)—a concept I picked up from Jane Cleland. I also record Jess Lourey’s approach: A.R.I.S.E. (Action, Relationship, Information, Suspense, Emotion). After providing the basic definitions to Claude, I asked it to do a first pass at analyzing each scene.

Here’s what it did for the first few scenes.

I’m not claiming Claude got this 100% correct, but this makes it easy to spot potential issues that I can then investigate. It took me only a few minutes to formulate the query and give Claude the manuscript, and it has already saved me hours of work.

The third task was also in preparation for the read-through. Because I write the first draft mostly by the seat of my pants, following characters where they take me, I create plot holes and cul-de-sacs that I must fix in the second draft. Normally, I discover the problems as part of my read-through. This time I queried Claude:

Please review the Niki Unbound draft document for any and all continuity issues. Be thorough. Questions before proceeding?

It produced a four-page Word document with “issues.” It grouped them into Critical – Plot Holes & Logic Gaps, Significant – Technical Errors & Story Problems, Moderate – Tone, Pacing & Character, Missing / Unverified, and (unrequested) Typos & Copy Errors. Here’s the top part of the report:

Claude was good, but not great. It identified sixteen issues, of which four were misinterpretations on its part. An example is #2 above. It correctly identified eight people but missed the ninth. When I pointed out who I thought the ninth was, it checked and agreed I was correct. Back when I was in school, a 75% on a test was a C-minus. Until I do the read-through, I won’t know if it should have flagged other issues.

But even with the mistakes, it found a dozen issues I could fix before I did my read-through. That, I believe—I haven’t done it yet—will make my read-through faster and more valuable.

I’m not trying to convince writers how they should or should not use AI. But if you are AI-curious and tolerant, these three examples may spark some ideas for you. Writers and readers, where is your firm line in using AI?

* * * * *

James M. Jackson writes justice-driven thrillers with brains and bite, including the Niki Undercover Thriller series 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 to read Low Tide at Tybee, a novella featuring Seamus, his darts-throwing mother, and six-year-old granddaughter, Megan).