In Which Heat Takes Over My Life by Nancy L. Eady

Today is the last day of July, and the weather here in Alabama reflects it, and then some. Even when the temperature sounds reasonable, the humidity makes it unbearable. Last week, because of rain and clouds, we had a high of 82 one day. The weather people cheerfully informed us that the heat index on this supposedly mild day would make it feel like 102. They were right. 

Heat is not, of course, endemic only to the southeastern United States. I have known people who traveled to Phoenix, Arizona in the summer when the mercury there climbed to 120 degrees. Here in Alabama, we say that it’s not the heat, it’s the humidity that makes things uncomfortable. The people returning from Arizona solemnly informed me that there, it’s the heat, only the heat and nothing but the heat. 

Once, my husband and I went to Boston in late June, and the weather was so beautiful, it blew us away. Highs in the low 80s, beautiful blue skies, refreshing breezes and the type of air that just begs you to drive around with your windows open. When things get too unbearable here, I close my eyes and try to bring those feelings back to mind. 

Normally, in my life here, the heat is an outdoor inconvenience only. I endure it as I travel from my air-conditioned house to the air-conditioned car to the parking garage at work, and then into the office. However, last Saturday, our air conditioner died. And yes, I mean the three-month-old air conditioner in the three-month-old house that we took possession of in April. To say that I was perturbed was an understatement. It also happened to be the hottest weekend leading to the hottest week we have had all summer. 

With the help of four portable air conditioners, we were getting by—one in each of the bedrooms where people sleep, and two in the big main room. Then, beginning Sunday night, the replacement portable air conditioner in our bedroom started malfunctioning. The display kept showing a symbol which meant that the drip tray needed to be emptied. We would empty the tray, and then at vanishingly small intervals the symbol would reappear. By the time the air conditioner quit at 12:30, my husband had moved into the den. He was trying to be chivalrous. When he left the bedroom, he was leaving the room with better air conditioning for the big room which was just squeaking by. My daughter, who had entered my bedroom to get some medicine, helped me empty the thing one more time for the 12:30 a.m. round. When the drip tray sensor tripped again at 2:00 a.m., I gave up and opened the window to get what little night air I could. My husband hadn’t slept well for several nights running, and I didn’t want to wake him up. When the alarm went off at 6:00, I had managed about two hours of sleep for the entire night, which my Fitbit cheerfully documented by telling me it looked like I had had a rough night. It doesn’t do any good to swear at a computer, but it made me feel better. 

The air conditioner repair people arrived by 8:45 Monday morning, and fortunately the new home warranty covers the whole repair. Living through the weekend without our normal air conditioning did make me wonder how our pioneer ancestors managed it, especially considering the amount of clothes the women had to wear. The fortitude they had to persevere and settle in an area of the country where it stays this warm for months at a time is something those of us in the modern world cannot appreciate. And the restraint they showed in not murdering each other while under the influence of hot, humid weather is admirable as well. My regular even-keeled temper stayed on the razor’s edge of raging bull mad as long as the air conditioning was AWOL. 

I have one last piece of advice for anyone stuck in a heatwave sans air conditioning—find someone with a Ford vehicle and get them to take you for a long drive. We have had several Fords, including one now, and Ford air conditioners can freeze you out within 60 seconds of entering the vehicle. I’m not sure what their magic ingredient is, but it works. 

So, here’s to the end of July, and hopes for a cooler August, or at least an August during which everyone’s air conditioner works.

What We're Reading

It’s been a while since we caught our readers up on what we are reading. I always get so many great ideas from these lists.

 In no particular order:

Heather Weidner. My recent reading list includes: Pour Choices by Adrian Andover, Between Roquefort and a Hard Place by Linda Reilly, Murder by Design by Lee Goldberg, Full House by Janet Evanovich, Peg and Rose Solve a Murder by Laurien Berenson, Book of Lies by Brad Meltze, and Finlay Donovan Digs Her Own Grave by Elle Cosimano. And I’m currently enjoying The Emperor’s Palace by LynDee Walker and Bruce Robert Coffin.

Connie Berry. This summer I’m reading and rereading some of the Golden Age classics of mystery fiction. The last two, The Double Turn and Impact of Evidence, were penned by Carol Carnac, a pseudonym of Edith Caroline Rivett, a British crime writer who also wrote under the names E. C. R. Lorac and Mary Le Bourne. Rivett wrote an astonishing 78 crime novels in her lifetime, which is even more amazing since she died in 1958 at the young age of 64. I think her novels hold up very well in the twenty-first century.

Debra H. Goldstein. In the last few weeks, I’ve read A Flower Traveled in My Blood by Haley Cohen Gilliland, Whistler by Ann Patchett, The Bush Tea Murder by Ashley-Ruth M. Bernier, Famesick by Lena Dunham, Whiskey Business by Adrian Andover, and Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann. Right now, I’m toggling between Kin by Tayari Jones and an arc of Numb Were Beadsman’s Fingers by Alan Bradley).

Martha Reed. - My summer reading list is all over the board. 1) The Correspondent by Virginia Evans - epistolary tale with the plot revealed through the use of backstory; 2) What We See When We Read by Peter Mendelsund - an intriguing meditation on the physical processing act of reading; 3) New Orleans Stories - Great Writers on the City by John Miller - insider glimpses into the Big Easy from writers like Anne Rice, Lafcadio Hearn, Tennessee Williams, et al.; and 4) The Year's Best Science Fiction - 10th Collection, Gardner Dozois, Editor which has turned out to be drier fiction than I anticipated meaning more hard science and less use of imagination.

Marilyn Levinson a/k/a Allison Brook. I just finished Thirteen Guests by J. Jefferson Farjeon, a Golden Age of Mystery author; Elizabeth Strout’s The Things We Never Say; Unbound: Kate Reid Series, Books 1-3 by Robin Mahle; The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai; Astonish Me by Maggie Shipstead; House Rules by Jodi Picoult and I’m now reading Insidious Intent by Val McDermid and listening to Don’t Let Him In by Lisa Jewell.

K.M. Rockwood. Into nostalgia right now--I just finished Dashiell Hammett's manuscripts for the later Thin Man movies (they were not written as novels, and they aren't what we'd consider screenplays, so I don't know what to call them) and some of M.C. Beaton's Hamish Macbeth. I'm reading Death of a Gossip, the first of 37 or so books, and intend to pick up with a few of the later ones.

Annette Dashofy. I'm currently reading S.A. Cosby's King of Ashes, which deserves every accolade and award that he's getting for it. An immensely dark setting, a powerful story, and such beautifully immersive writing; it haunts me every time I have to put it down. I want to write like him when I grow up. 

Grace Topping. I'm a fan of audiobooks. So here is what I am listening to right now: A Ghastly Catastrophe by Deanna Raybourn. It is the tenth book in the Veronic Speedwell series. And since they are so entertaining, I've listened to every one of them. They are historical mysteries filled with humor, outrageous plots, unbelievable characters, and a dash of romance. Pure escapism for these crazy times. The narrator does such a terrific job bringing these books alive that she should be considered a character in her own right. 

Susan Van Kirk. I'm reading Nightwork by Nora Roberts. It's the story of a young man who robs the rich, going into their homes at night. There isn't a door or a safe he can't open. It's very suspenseful but also full of food, locales, and culture since he moves around the country and also travels to Europe. 

Judy L. Murray. I’m reading Lee Goldberg’s latest, Murder by Design. An ingenious mystery introducing a brain-injured yet confident, wealthy and handsome former detective now insurance investigator who teams up with a likeable struggling actor. 

Margaret S. Hamilton. I'm catching up on my book club reading: Navessa Allen, Lights Out, which is as spicy as promised; Caro Claire Burke, Yesteryear, trad wife gets real; and eagerly anticipating: Daniel Silva, Ransom, the latest Gabriel Allon thriller, and Martin Walker, A Murder in Springtime, the latest Bruno, Chief of Police cozy crime.

Lori Roberts Herbst. My summer reading: Murder at an Irish Session, by Carlene O'Connor. The latest in the Irish Village Mystery series, it takes a now-pregnant Siobhan to a murder at a matchmaking convention. I'm loving it! Murder at the Beacon Bakeshop, by Darci Hannah. Lovely locale and fun characters. Revenge Prey, by John Sandford. Lucas Davenport is one of my favorite series characters ever. I'm a little bit in love with him. The Secret of Secrets, by Dan Brown. Just starting this one, so the review will have to wait!

James M. Jackson. When I have a few moments from the last-minute push to publish Niki Unbound (Niki Undercover Thriller #3), I'm reading The Bone People by Keri Hulme, which won both the Booker Prize and the Pegasus Prize for Literature.

Shari Randall a/k/a Meri Allen. My summer reads: Book club favorites Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, Theo of Golden by Allen Levi, and The Correspondent by Virginia Evans. For me, Theo especially lived up to the hype. My guilty pleasure: Barbara Taylor Bradford’s A Woman of Substance. They don’t write juicy family sagas like this anymore. 

Molly MacRae. I’m reading The Beast Must Die. Published in 1938, it was written by Cecil Day Lewis writing as Nicholas Blake. It’s a thriller with elements of Golden Age Mystery. The protagonist, Frank Cairnes, is angry and bent on revenge when his young son is run down and killed by a motorcar outside their small English village. The book has been adapted for film several times (including in Argentina and France) and for a 2021 British television series.  

  

An Interview With Author and Retired Police Officer Mark Bergin

by Grace Topping

 

Saint Michael's Day

Patrolman John Kelly saves people every day for a living, but he can't accept that maybe, just maybe, God saved him during a vicious machine gun attack. His friends think so, and the crucifix-shaped pattern of bullet holes in his cruiser is hard to ignore. But Kelly has work to do, finding the gunmen, training a young recruit, and working to protect a foreign-born mother and her sickly child caught in the uncaring criminal justice system. Kelly's wife Rachel Cohen is a public defender, drafted to defend a murder suspect whose hatred violently and, ultimately, fatally erupts against her.

Apprehension

Kelly was a pro until his niece was murdered right before his eyes. His family says he failed her, but Kelly can't share his one shocking, secret, criminal act of vengeance. Now, fellow detectives digging into another case can end Kelly's career and send him to jail.

 

It’s annoying to read a book and think, “A police officer wouldn’t do that!” It shouts that an author didn’t do enough research about police procedures. Author Mark Bergin brings a level of authenticity to his books about the police. As a retired police officer, he knows firsthand how things are usually done and aren’t done. 

 

Mark works not only to ensure police involvement is portrayed accurately in his writing, but he also advises other authors, answering their questions. His first book, Apprehension, won an award in 2022 from the Public Safety Writers Association and was a finalist for the Silver Falchion Award at the Killer Nashville Conference in 2021. His second book, Saint Michael’s Day, comes out in September.

 

I asked Mark about some police procedures and crime solving that authors should be aware of. Here are just a few. 

 

 

Welcome back to Writers Who Kill, Mark.

 

Thank you so much, Grace, for the chance to talk with you and your readers. Getting published, especially with a second book in a series, has given me greater visibility and access to writers whom I can advise on cop stuff. I love this. Getting police details right satisfies most readers and, better, doesn’t turn off persnickety readers like me. 

One thing that writers frequently get wrong is the type of gun used as a weapon, often referring to a gun, pistol, automatic, revolver, Luger, Derringer, etc. Is there a default weapon a writer can safely use not to get it wrong?

 

Gun. Leave it at that. Gun details matter to fetishists and to police evidence technicians but, in most of our writing, gun or pistol is enough. Your average event planner or dog groomer doesn’t know manufacturers or calibers, so if they see one, all they need to think is GUN!

 

Does a silencer completely muffle the sound of a gun being fired?

 

No. Big myth. It can, if you are an assassin or government agent and have one specially built. Three main issues with silencing a gun. Bullets are often supersonic, so they make a little sonic boom as they exit the barrel. Some ammunition is subsonic, like an Army 45-caliber pistol. But a semi-automatic pistol makes a racket because the steel slide, barrel, and breach are pushed back by the firing of the cartridge with a clatter, then clack forward to pick up a bullet coming from the magazine. Revolvers don’t have moving slides that way, but almost all have a gap between the cylinder and the barrel, from which the detonating powder explodes with a great deal of noise. An assassin might fire a subsonic round from a gun fixed not to cycle through the unloading- reloading movement. 

 

That’s a long way to go to show my favorite point of discussion here. What do you, the writer, want to happen? We can craft a perfectly silent gun, or one nearly so, or have an inept killer use the wrong equipment. As long as we the writers hint what we’re up to. Give us some explanation, and you can get away with, um, murder. 

 

A writer once asked, would a police chief handle a murder suspect interview? My question back to them was, what do you want to happen? Because in the real world, no, chiefs write budgets and meet with mayors and review staff reports. They don’t do nuts-and-bolts police work. But if you want her to, make her the only senior officer on duty during a blizzard, on a small department, with the victim a close friend or relative. Or block the chief because the victim is a relative and it’s a conflict of interest. What makes the story most interesting? 

 

When a crime is reported, does a police detective automatically arrive on the scene?

 

Actually, they show up in very few cases. Detectives might be called out for serious crimes like murder, sexual assault, or bank robbery, but usually they just read and respond to reports the next day of events that were handled by patrol officers or deputies the night before. 

 

In a cozy mystery, the police frequently warn the amateur sleuth to stay out of a case. Are there ever occasions when police would solicit help from someone to help solve a murder?

 

In my 28 years on the job, it never happened. We don’t want to admit we need help; we don’t trust anyone without a badge. They complicate chains of custody for evidence. But, in the Rabbi Small series, written by Harry Kemelman, Chief Lonigan spent time talking with Rabbi David Small about people and psychology and philosophy, and then the Rabbi fell into solving the crime(s). Kemelman was one of my favorite writers, and maybe the first cozy writer I ever encountered, long before the term was coined. (The rabbi in my new book Saint Michael’s Day is named Klein, which means small. I’m interested in how many folks pick up on it. Oops, now all of you will.)

 

Saint Michael’s Day, the second in my John Kelly Cases series, keys on issues of faith and predestination or preordination. My cop survives a shooting that should have killed him, and his survival is attributed to the hand of God. He and his wife spend some of the book ruminating on that issue with a priest, a rabbi, an imam, and their opinions are interesting. I wrote them to examine my own thoughts on the issue, and it’s up to readers to decide if I came to useful conclusions. 

 

We talked about guns earlier. My new publisher, Level Best Books, has picked up on the coincidence that each of my four books in this series keys on a different gun. Apprehension features a police shotgun, so one appears on the cover. Saint Michael’s Day involves an Army Thompson submachine gun, so that will show on that cover. The Desert Eagle 50-caliber and the Nazi Schmeisser will show up down the road. Not an intention but, maybe, a sad function of my style

 

Cases are frequently solved by the use of DNA. Do the results of DNA testing come back that quickly to help solve a murder?

 

Oy. Ninety minutes in the magic lab on tv, 48 hours in a monster real-world rush, or weeks, or months. We would like to have results in a rush, but so would the other fifteen agencies submitting DNA samples to the state lab, or to their own large-department lab. Again, what does the writer want? But realistically, a week is common in reality.

 

What is the difference in using the term police and sheriff?  

Police work for a chief hired by a jurisdiction’s government structure, the mayor, or the town council. Deputies work for a sheriff elected by a jurisdiction. Sheriffs are state officers, and deputies thus have statewide powers. Police are limited to their own jurisdiction and a short distance outside, so we can chase people. 

Do police procedures differ much from one jurisdiction to another so that a writer can never get the procedures totally accurate?

 

No. The basics are mostly the same. We all have to respect the Constitution and citizen rights, we can’t just shoot people (though it seems some can), people are interviewed gently, or interrogated with more anger and the advisement of rights under Miranda. I tried extremely hard to portray police procedures accurately in my first novel, maybe to the detriment of smooth and entertaining storytelling, because I saw the book as a teaching experience for the public. My new book is looser, but no less accurate, and with fewer boring details. 

 

Many cases have been lost in court because the chain of custody of evidence became compromised. What would you recommend to a sleuth when they find incriminating evidence?

 

Leave it there and call the actual cops. Hahaha. That never happens in books. And yes, it complicates things in court. But we can write past that. Improperly seized evidence can still be used in court if the circumstances of its seizure can be explained. This is key to my third book, now being written and tentatively titled Jig. 

 

We’ve heard of writers doing a “ride-along” with police to learn more about police procedures. Is this method worth doing, or are there better ways to learn what police do to make their books more authentic?

 

Absolutely nothing better than that. A ride-along lets writers see the moment-by-moment day of a cop or detective, maybe answering specific questions but more likely prompting spontaneous police details. The stuff you never thought to ask. 

Tell me, is there such a thing as a someone making a citizen’s arrest?

 

It’s a myth. There is really no such thing, though the internet search I felt compelled to undertake says they exist in some jurisdictions. But what’s an arrest? A seizure of a person accused of a crime, leading to a criminal charge and trial. Nothing stops Neighborhood Jane from grabbing a person stealing bicycles, but then what? How does Jane hold him? (Calls the cops.) How does she bring charges? (Goes before a magistrate to swear out a warrant or tells the cops enough that they do it for her.)  But, what if it’s not Jane’s bike? Or she hurts the suspect, or gets hurt herself? 

 

Process servers, bail bondsmen, bounty hunters make what could be called citizen’s arrests but are generally based on the suspect being wanted by a jurisdiction and arrest warrants being issued. It is still much more rare than popular fiction would have it, but fun. 

 

Are the police willing to share information with writers? If so, who on the police force should a writer contact for information? 

 

Start with the public information officer or spokesman, or if there isn’t one, with the chief’s office. Explain you would like an interview or a ride-along. Most departments allow or encourage this. And all of you good folks reading this, please don’t hesitate to make contact with me. I am at mbergin01@aol.com. I would love to talk with you and talk is the right context. Write to me with the basics of what you are working on, and I will set up an opportunity to talk on the phone or do a video call. Issues get complicated, and it’s easier to see you and share than send a dozen emails back and forth. No charge (though I have learned some do.)

 

Or meet me for coffee. Coffee is always good. I’m in Alexandria, Virginia. 

 

Thank you, Mark. I look forward to the publication of Saint Michael’s Day.

 

 

 

 

The Summer of My Content by Martha Reed

Because the neighborhood kids are out of school for the summer, my usually serene mornings are now punctuated by their horseplay, laughter, and shouts as they enjoy my apartment complex’s nearby swimming pool. With our recent series of oppressive Western Pennsylvania heat waves, I can’t blame them for enjoying the water. I grab my noise-cancelling headphones and settle in to reach my daily writing word count.

But one morning I woke up in a pensive mood. I enjoyed a stroll down memory lane recalling the summers of my youth while I finished my lemon-ginger tea. I was a lucky kid although I didn’t appreciate it at the time. I lived on a lake while growing up in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, and spent at least a month each year, usually August visiting my grandfather’s place on Lake Muskoka, Ontario, Canada.

I don’t remember ever learning to swim. Surrounded by that much water, I’m sure we must have learned to swim as toddlers. I do faintly recall an added incentive that once we ‘passed the test’ by dog-paddling solo from the dock ladder to the shore we were released from the perpetually enforced requirement of being strapped into a ghastly, mold-covered orange canvas life vest that blocked my ears and put a crushing chokehold on my throat.

I also recall a homemade lodge-pole pine log raft my boy cousins built one summer. That raft was so tippy that swimming up to it and climbing aboard was like playing an insane 3D game of Twister. Each one of us desperately tried to stay balanced before the unstable contraption bucked us off. We needed to dive deeply into the lake to survive because that raft threatened to brain us as it flipped.

At my present age, and with my passionate interest in crime motivation, I do wonder where the adults were, and why no one ever tried to stop us. We won’t even talk about the frayed rope swing.

Enough rabbit-hole reminiscence. My topic today is that after hearing the kids' joyful laughter outside, I spontaneously decided to take July 2026 off. Without guilt.

Yes, I kept my 2026 responsibilities outlined on my calendar. I put my daily manuscript word count on hold. This action almost sounds treasonous, but it has liberated my days. I finished polishing and submitted three short stories that had been patiently waiting in the wings for their turn at some of my previously non-existent free time. I’ve spontaneously visited two local Pittsburgh sites that I’ve wanted to see for decades, invited a godchild out to lunch, and enjoyed a new French Modern Art exhibit. I’ve discovered a lovely shady spot down on the Allegheny Riverbank for my afternoon reading. The benefit is that I can feel a returning life balance. My creative well-spring is filling back up.

In our modern day social media world, taking a break without guilt may be a mentally healthy thing to do. It’s all too easy to get discouraged when we see our worthy peers announcing their latest multi-book contracts and their new book launches, or when the year-end awards come out without listing our titles. To feel like whatever we’re doing as writers isn’t good enough.

“I’m not happy. I’m cheerful. There is a difference. A happy woman has no cares at all. A cheerful woman has cares but has learned how to deal with them.” – Beverly Sills

Do you ever take a break? What’s your trick for refilling your creative well?

Procrastination and Fear by Nancy L. Eady

I have mentioned this before, but on my list of necessary evils, housework falls somewhere between doing my tax returns and getting a tetanus shot. There is only one time that changes. If I am up against a writing deadline, or need to study for a test of some kind, or prepare for a hearing, housework shoots right up to the top of my list of priorities. Housecleaning is the perfect procrastination tool. Physical work, little thought, and the righteous satisfaction of seeing the dust and grime yield before me will squash any lingering concerns about the looming deadline. Until I stop cleaning house and the worry floods right back into me. The only drawback to housekeeping-as-procrastination is that no matter how hard I clean, the deadline remains, looming closer. 

Are there good ways to deal with procrastination? I haven’t found many that work for me beyond the drop-dead deadline. (Not the fake deadline you set up to try to get something done early, but the drop-dead/your-case-will-be-thrown-out-of-court deadline.) The best thing about a deadline is that you reach a point, whether you want to be there or not, where you just have to start writing or working on whatever it is you have been avoiding. When the deadline involves a writing project, I may be thinking the entire time, “This is the worst paragraph/story/essay/brief/scene I’ve ever written,” but at least I am putting words on paper. (I am, of course, speaking metaphorically since most of my writing now is done on a laptop or desktop computer with a keyboard, but the principle is the same.) 

I have been to a couple of seminars on the issue, and they have dangled the tantalizing possibility that procrastination has psychological roots. That has two advantages. First, if it is a psychological problem, then I can believe that it’s not really my fault that I like to procrastinate. Second, it gives me even more rabbit holes to go down while I’m trying to procrastinate by looking up stuff on the internet. (Once, during an extended three-week writer’s block session, I googled such interesting topics as who was Elizabeth II of England’s sister’s husband, whether “redeemability” is a word and if so, the definition thereof, the list of daily specials at the local cafe, and the cost of the law office for sale one block from my house. I also confirmed that neither I nor my husband had uveal melanoma, congenital heart disease, eosinophilic asthma, defective automatic levelers in our camper, or unexplained hair loss.) 

I do find that procrastination can be based in part on fear—fear that my work won’t be any good, fear that I am not capable of doing the task I have been set, and the fear of failing are just a few I can come up with. In my life, I have discovered only two ways to deal with fear. The first is to go through it. I could look it squarely in the face, take a deep breath, and walk through it with my head held high. That sounds quite noble, doesn’t it? I’d be impressed with myself if I had ever managed to do that more than a smattering of times when it really mattered. Most of the time, if I am in the “go through it to the other side” mode, I do it with my eyes closed, shuffling my feet slowly forward inch by inch, grabbing every handhold I can find. It’s not nearly as noble, but it still gets me where I need to go. 

The other technique is to avoid the thing that causes the fear. Avoidance works really well with things like spiders and cockroaches. I was 40 before I ever killed a spider, and that was only because Mark was at work, it was just me and a five-year-old Kayla in the house, and she was more terrified than I was. And before you laugh and try to point out to me that said insects are much smaller than me, so it shouldn’t be a problem, you obviously don’t know your natural history very well. It is a proven fact that any insect you try to kill has the ability, should it wish, to morph into a creature six feet tall with slathering fangs and the ability to smash you into smithereens and then boil you for lunch. Avoidance doesn’t work nearly as well when the thing that causes fear is a task that has to be accomplished, like doing your taxes. Trust me, the IRS doesn’t care how scared you are; it wants your return filed correctly and by the appointed date and time. 

So I’m curious, fellow writers and gentle readers, what techniques have you found to help you deal with procrastination, especially the fear-based variety? Does procrastination or fear affect your writing? Any advice would be welcome. 

Hell Hath No Fury by Annette Dashofy

My nineteenth novel is coming out in just a few short weeks. Nineteenth. I never dreamed I’d ever reach that number. 

Hell Hath No Fury is the fifth in my Detective Honeywell series. Back when I had to come up with a proposal for the third, fourth, and fifth, I looked into my writerly crystal ball to give my publisher a paragraph summarizing the plots of each book. The third (The Devil Comes Calling) was no problem. The fourth (No Stone Left Unturned) drifted a little farther away as I put words on the page, but the basic premise clung to the proposed story.

 But this one? Not even close. The change was partly because of research I did on what I’d intended to write. Or more specifically, where it was to be set. I had proposed transporting Matthias and Emma out of downtown Erie, to a nearby wooded gorge for a romantic get-away, only to have murder interrupt their plans. 

A research trip revealed the location where the mystery was to take place was not the sprawling, secluded park I’d pictured. It was too small for anyone to realistically get hopelessly lost in. Nope, this wouldn’t work. I considered exploring the area further to find a better spot. 

Before that happened, I finished writing No Stone Left Unturned, which ended with a bit of a cliffhanger, providing the perfect location for the next book, although the romantic getaway was off the table.

 

Hell Hath No Fury picks up where Stone leaves off. Matthias and Emma are summoned back to Emma’s former home in Washington County. 

Washington County is where I live. The individual locations in the book are vague and mostly fictional, but the county is real. In fact, for those of you who have read my Zoe Chambers series, the fictional Monongahela County of Zoe’s world is based on Washington County. Not that I expect this tidbit to come up in any game of Trivial Pursuit, but there you have it. 

No sooner do Matthias and Emma arrive, than they manage to stumble across a dead body—someone with whom Emma has just had a very public argument. Being off his home turf, Matthias is limited as to how much investigating he can “legally” do. Keyword: “legally.” Plus, he comes face to face with an old nemesis, who is now the lead detective on the case. 

There’s a lot of history in this story. Not “history” as in historical fiction. History as in Matthias’s history with this investigator. Emma’s history with the victim, her sister, and a couple of her childhood friends. Their pasts are all coming back to bite them. 

I’m so eager for this one to be out in the world. I just received an email notice that my author copies have been shipped! Release Day is coming!

 

 

A Life on Vacation

By Kait Carson

I was casting around for a last-minute blog topic this morning so I could finalize my Newsletter this afternoon and coming up empty. What a surprise, I thought. My brain is on vacation. That’s when the light bulb lit and pulsed. Vacations. Past. Present. Future. How perfect.

My Dad worked for the Otis Elevator Company. Like most 1950s kids, I’m clueless about how much annual vacation my father received, but I knew that somewhere in the two-week period that surrounded my July birthday, we’d be packing the car for a road trip.

Road trips were the quintessential defining events of the era. We drove from our New Jersey home to Miami, Cuba (the auto ferry assisted with the watery parts), Washington D.C., Northern Virginia, Upstate New York, Montreal, the 10,000 Islands, Boston, Philadelphia, and of course, the Jersey Shore (pronounced goin’ dinna shore). Many of these trips were pre-interstate highway systems. Traveling back roads was a joy for a kid, and Dad turned off at any place the AAA TripTik suggested a historical or scientific location. Sometimes he even found them! I didn’t appreciate the magic of those trips until I became an adult and air travel replaced the open road.

By the time my generation was self-supporting, recessions, sky-rocketing oil prices, and economic downturns plagued the world. So, let me begin by saying unless you consider retirement a vacation, I may hold the record for taking a grand total of one during my working life. Quite the accomplishment when you consider my work life began in 1974. But don’t hang out the hankies for me. My lack of vacations didn’t equal a lack of travel. Between 1980 and 1989, I had a part-time job running a friend’s company in Europe and the Caribbean. Every weekend and most holidays found me in St. Thomas, Sint Maarten, Saba, Stasia, Milan, Florence, Paris, and London. Cue the hankies. It was exhausting.

During the 1990s, I became a rabid scuba diver and spent most weekends in the Florida Keys. This hobby led to my only real vacation. A live-aboard dive trip to Belize in 2004. Maine beckoned soon after, followed by a return to Florida. The pandemic brought me full-circle with a return to Maine. In many ways, life turned into a vacation. Talk about good fortune.

These days, I’m retired, living in Maine and grateful for the journals I kept of my travels. When you’re a writer, no experience goes unrewarded, or unplundered. I’m in the vicarious vacation stage of my life. Giving the odd nuggets of past events to my characters and watching them grow into scenes and plots.

Writers: Do you plunder your past in the service of your art? Readers: Do you enjoy ripped from real-life events in fiction?

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.

Ritual, Routine and Dialogue by Nancy L. Eady

When I first started writing legal briefs a couple of decades ago, almost every brief started with the phrase “Comes now the plaintiff/defendant….” As legal writing evolved, legalese (rightfully) lost ground to readability. But to this day, when I start the first draft of a brief, whether I write the words or just think them, that first draft starts with that phrase. I have no intention of keeping the phrase, but those first four words give me a formula that settles any nerves I have about what I’m writing and helps me get over the mental block of deciding how to start. It is a routine that comforts me.

With every brief I have finished – and by finish, I mean it is written, proofread, edited, and edited again – the very last thing I do before filing it with the Court, even if I’ve done it throughout the writing process, is go through the brief one last time and check that every single one of my cites is still valid. I think it’s good luck to do so. So, checking the cites that one last time is a ritual. 

In my creative writing, dialogue is something I am still struggling with. It doesn’t come naturally to me. I have to remind myself that dialogue in fiction should be thought of as a “greatest hits” version of the dialogue we hear around us every day. If you don’t believe me, count the number of “ums”, pauses, “likes” and various other filler words you hear in the normal conversations around you and then imagine seeing those same conversations in print verbatim. Worse, imagine having to read those conversations. (If you are in the legal field, you already know lawyers do that every time we have to read a deposition – testimony taken by a court reporter outside of court. Trust me; it can make reading and listening difficult.) 

Dialogue not only needs to be a “greatest hits" version of real-life conversation, but it also needs to be broken up periodically. Dialogue tags (“Sally said,” “Eric shouted,” “William asked”) help keep the reader straight on who is speaking. But an individual’s routines and personal rituals also can break a large block of dialogue into digestible chunks. For example, if two of your characters are discussing the latest murder in the kitchen at breakfast, one of them might be fixing coffee during the conversation while the other person is toasting a bagel. Both activities call for short actions that can be interspersed with the dialogue to set the pace and flow you want your characters’ dialogue to maintain. 

What suggestions do you have to help break up chunks of dialogue and make your work more readable? 

 

Have You Tried a Dialogue Sprint? by Connie Berry

"Writing Tips & Tricks" is a Popular Search Phrase

    And there’s plenty of advice to be had:

               23 Lessons on Storytelling

               Writing Tips from Famous Authors

               Your Very Best Writing Tips!

               10 Best Writing Tips I’ve Ever Heard

I tried it this morning and got 52,400,000 hits. Even AI had something to say on the subject—quite a bit, actually. But have you ever tried a dialogue sprint?

I’ve Been Using Dialogue Sprints for a While Now

I didn’t intend to do it or think it through in advance. It just happened, mainly because I’m impatient. Stopping to add dialogue tags or action beats slows me down. Thinking about grounding the reader in setting breaks my train of thought.

What is a Dialogue Sprint?

Simply put, a dialogue sprint means quickly typing out a conversation between, say, two or three people, using only the actual words spoken.

Here’s a brief example from my WIP, just a snippet.

Three women are having a conversation in an English village tearoom. Kate Hamilton (my sleuth) is sitting at a table with Jilly Steele and Daisy Hogg, two elderly villagers who knew a curmudgeonly old woman (Lovie) who died under mysterious circumstances:

THE SPRINT:

“Mr. Tweedy and I will be back on Monday to begin our inventory. Today I’m here to find out what I can about Lovie.”

               “Whatever for? I can tell you what you need to know. She was mad. But so are lots of us, come to think of it.”

               “What do you want to know?”

“I told you, dear, remember? She wants to know if Lovie ever had a child.”

“You mean a baby? The last time that happened, a star appeared in the east, and three wise men showed up.”

“Lovie wasn’t interested in men?”

“She wasn’t interested in people. If you didn’t have whiskers and claws, Lovie had no time for you.”

THE FINISHED PRODUCT:

“Mr. Tweedy and I will be back on Monday to begin our inventory,” I said. “Today I’m here to find out what I can about Lovie.”

               “Whatever for?” Jilly asked. “I can tell you what you need to know. She was mad.” She cackled. “But so are lots of us, come to think of it.”

               The apron-clad waitress arrived. “What’ll it be, ladies?” She hadn’t offered menus. I looked around unsuccessfully for a chalkboard. The tea shop obviously catered to locals.

“We’ll have the Calico Kitten as usual,” Daisy said. “China tea. Plenty of honey.”

“Same thing for me,” I said, seeing no benefit in creating a fuss.

“All right.” Jilly spread a snowy white napkin on her lap. “What do you want to know?”

“I told you, dear, remember?” Daisy said. “She wants to know if Lovie ever had a child.”

“You mean a baby?” Jilly snorted. “The last time that happened, a star appeared in the east, and three wise men showed up.”

“Lovie wasn’t interested in men?”

“She wasn’t interested in people,” Daisy said. “If you didn’t have whiskers and claws, Lovie had no time for you.”

Six Ways a Dialogue Sprint Can Help

1. Speeds up my writing (I’m a perfectionist)

2. Gives me something to improve (which I love)

3. Helps me see inconsistencies in logic

4. Reveals character in a subliminal way

5. Helps me control pacing

6. Suggests plot points I hadn’t thought of before

Will a Dialogue Sprint Work for You? 

No idea. Every brain works in a unique way. But after you’ve tried the other 52 million tips and tricks, maybe you’ll give dialogue sprints a go.

If you do, let me know how it works out.

An Interview With Rose Stack Bock

by Grace Topping

Dunbar Road

When real estate broker Alex Boston’s friend since childhood, Pebble Connelly, is murdered on the seawall in front of Alex’s home on St. Simons Island, Alex vows to find the killer, no matter how long it takes. Alex’s planned reunion of her four remaining life-long friends will still take place at Alex’s home as Alex enlists the help of her friends and her trusted housekeeper, Truly Lewis, to find the murderer. 

As Alex Boston does her own investigation of suspects she imagines to be killers, even the Island’s new police chief faces her scrutiny. Did Pebble’s work as a reporter put a target on her back? Is the murderer close to Alex or at least living on the Island? Alex and her four remaining friends seek answers to even more questions as the weekend continues.                  www.amazon.com

 

 

Everyone has a story, and we often hear people say they would like to tell that story in a book. Not always an easy task. Studies show that of the people who start writing, only three percent will complete a manuscript. And of those, only six percent will go on to have it published. Astounding statistics.

 

So when you learn of a writer who toiled for years to write a book and then have it published, it’s impressive—it showed they never gave up. One of those writers is Rose Stack Bock. She worked for years on her book and joins us to talk about her first mystery, Dunbar Road, which was released on Memorial Day. 

 

 

Welcome, Rose, to Writers Who Kill.

 

You’ve said, “I’ve arrived late to the world of publishing although I've hung around the door to it for decades.” Did hanging around a high school teaching English influence you to write?

I have been a writer since I learned how to put a sentence together. My mother took me to see the movie, Gone with the Wind, and my friend Gloria and I immediately started writing a sequel. I was swept away by the beauty of Tara and the events that took place there. We did our best to create a setting much like Tara. 

I remember always encouraging my high school students who showed an interest in writing or who were already writers to keep up their good work. I was impressed with the work of several of them over the years. While I haven’t heard that any of my former students are now writers, I’ve had the pleasure of receiving thanks from some of my students who did not show an interest in writing but have thanked me for setting fire to their interest in reading fiction. That is so rewarding.

What prompted you to write crime fiction?

One of my first attempts to draft a novel was based on a murder that happened in a close friend’s family. I was totally drawn into that event, and I took the seed of the story and created my first full-length novel. I was fascinated with the way the Philadelphia detectives found the killer in that murder, and I used information in newspapers to build the story. 

My husband and I are drawn to mysteries in movies, television shows, and in novels. After my first attempt to write a murder mystery, I was hooked on the genre. I’m the type of reader who sits back and waits for the identity of a killer in a movie, television show, or novel. I enjoy the red herrings the author inserts, but I try not to be fooled by them. I enjoy the final reveal of the killer. 

I understand that you worked on Dunbar Road for a number of years. Writing and publishing can be challenging. What kept you motivated to persevere?

I did work on Dunbar Road for years. When I had the first inkling of the story, I shared my idea with my sister-in-law while we were on a family visit to an aquarium with our two-year-old niece. That was 14 years ago.

I'm an avid reader of mysteries, and I was actually encouraged over and over by mysteries that were published while I was working on my book.  I was confident that Alex Boston's tale would be a well-received story. I had faith that my protagonist's story was one that readers would enjoy and even hope to see other mysteries involving Alex. A writer's product, the novel, has to be seen to be enjoyed. After years with Alex, I had to share her story with readers. Looking back, I'm so glad I persevered. Did I mention that writing a murder mystery can be fun? The writer is in a powerful position, adding and subtracting characters, sometimes killing or kidnapping others.

Your main character, Alex Boston, hosts a gathering of her childhood friends. When murder joins the mix, how does Alex remain neutral and not discount any of them being the murderer? 

 

Being an only child, Alex longed for siblings. Without those siblings, her group of friends enriched her life since she was an infant. She thinks of them as the siblings she chose to be with instead of siblings she received at birth. 

 

Alex cherishes her chosen siblings. While she might imagine how one of them could commit a murder, her love for her family won’t allow her to totally accept that one of these siblings could be Pebble’s killer. In spite of her feelings for her life-long friends, her sense of right and wrong won’t let her excuse any one of the group if that person was guilty of murder. 

 

Alex is the daughter of a prominent politician. Has that impacted or complicated her life?

 

In the years leading up to Pebble’s murder on Alex’s seawall at St. Simons, Alex has always been aware of the public’s interest in her life. Her father was governor of Georgia for a full term, and her mother was the owner and president of the largest flooring manufacturer in the United States. 

 

Each parent has been the object of scrutiny during Alex’s life. As a result, she has heard the opinions of the public on many of her parent’s occupations. Her father has managed to be a politician who sincerely listens to the opinions of his constituents. Alex tries to stay one step ahead of public opinion when she can see that her actions might impact her parents' lives. Alex doesn’t see this communication with her parents as restrictive. Instead, she sees it as showing respect for her parents, and she sees them do the same for her.

 

Alex absolutely doesn’t like surprises. Is there anything in particular that caused that dislike?

 

That is an interesting question. Sometimes an author allows one of his/her own quirks to be demonstrated in a character. However, I don’t share Alex’s feelings about surprises, especially if they are carried out with love and joy.

 

Alex has probably spent her lifetime becoming accustomed to surprise attacks from people who criticized the decisions her parents made in their careers. Her dislike for surprises can be seen every time she updated her parents about a new development in the search for Pebble Connolly’s killer.

 

Like you, Alex is a life-long resident of a southern state and involved in real estate. Other than that, how much is Alex like you?

 

Other than those two similarities, I don’t think Alex and I resemble each other. I am one of three children. My parents did not have careers that would result in public comments about their actions. 

 

Similarities beyond those two are that we both earned college degrees that were not related to a future career in real estate. I differ from Alex in that I did earn a master’s degree in secondary education. Right now, we don’t have information on what career Alex pursued after college and during her failed marriage. I’m fairly sure we’ll learn more about that in the future, but it’s not important now. 

 

Writing can be a very isolating activity, especially when you are just starting out. What did you do to counter that isolation and become connected to other writers? Do you have any recommendations for new writers?

 

I have tried to organize my writing career, even while involved in another career, which was teaching at one time and in real estate later. I set goals for myself; all tied to the story I’m writing. I try to devote the needed amount of time to writing in order to set up a scene in a chapter or to tidy up a scene that is part of the story. I find that I usually approach my writing of a work-in-progress by allowing myself time to move the plot along. When an idea or an action is in my head, I need to get it on paper before it’s gone. That can be isolating.

 

To ward off isolation, I attend writer’s conferences, and I belong to several organizations for murder mystery writers. As I join a group as a member, I begin to receive email news from those organizations. When Zoom came into our lives, we began to be able to widen our network of fellow writers because a number of functions these organizations hold are available virtually. 

 

Over the years, did your initial story change that much?

The story of Dunbar Road did change quite a bit. In the beginning, Alex’s father was a U.S. Senator and her mother was a non-working wife who became an alcoholic after the death of Alex’s twin sister who was kidnapped and murdered at the family’s summer home on St. Simons. Alex was very involved emotionally and physically in helping to find her sister’s killer. As a result, there was too much going on in the story. With the help of my reliable group of readers who critique my work, the story underwent some revisions that ultimately made it a better read.

 

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

 

My most valuable lesson since I started writing is the need for connection. A writer needs to be connected to any number of people who can help a story develop. 

 

For example, I have become friends with the officer in charge of jails in our area. I have visited the jail and spent time there, in the central control room of the jail, in order to accurately insert a jail into my writing. I’ve visited and spent time with a detective at our local police station. I learned so much about a day in the life of that individual, and it helped me write about lock-ups, laws governing jailing, etc. I had to reach out of my domain to find these people and others so that there was authenticity in my novel. I have one individual who is my go-to-car guy. If I am using an auto in a scene in a novel, he makes sure I properly describe the vehicle.

 

What’s next for Alex Boston and you?

 

There have been several requests and suggestions for a second Alex Boston mystery, and she and I are thinking this over as I write. I am no different than these fans of Alex Boston. When a series I follow in television is over, I miss that series and long for another season. So, Alex and I will stay in touch until we get the right vibe for her next adventure. There are so many aspects of Alex’s life that can possibly change or grow. She’ll be popping up again before too long.

 

Thank you, Rose. I look forward to the further adventures of Alex and Truly.

 

 

Bio

Rose Stack Bock launched her first published novel, Dunbar Road, on Memorial Day 2026. It was an appropriate date because the story takes place Memorial Day weekend. 

The author and her main character, Alex Boston, have some similarities. Both have lived in the southern United States for their entire lives, and both are real estate brokers with their own companies; but similarities end there.

Bock’s love of murder mysteries is the driving force behind the birth of Dunbar Road, a fictional road and a place that will serve as the basis of more happenings for Alex, her housekeeper Truly Lewis, and her four best friends. Watch this author as she looks forward to the next adventure with Alex Boston.

Grace Topping is the author of the Laura Bishop Mystery Series.