Beat the Odds by Following Your Heart's Desire

 By Lisa Malice, Ph.D.

The odds are stacked against any one person becoming a traditionally published author. A 2017 Writer’s Digest survey found that a staggering 81% of Americans believe they have a story inside them just waiting to be written, but a mere 3% will finish their manuscripts. Of those aspiring authors who get that far, only 1-2% will be traditionally published. With so many wannabe writers out there, we “against-all-odds” authors shouldn’t be surprised that readers (the above-mentioned 81%?) ask how we got started. Here’s my story.

Like many of you, I suspect (because that's what we crime writers do—we suspect everyone), I grew up reading mysteries I pulled off my mother's vast shelves of books. She read the masters of British Mystery--Agatha Christie, P.D. James, Ngaio Marsh, and others. I got hooked on radio (CBS Radio Mystery Theater) and TV mysteries (The NBC Sunday Mystery Movie, Murder She Wrote).

As a teen reader. I fell under Sherlock Holmes's spell, fascinated by his keen abilities of observation and deduction to identify a murderer, his or her motive, and weapon of choice. After college, I devoured every book written by a female American mystery writer, such as Sara Paretsky, Sue Grafton, Lisa Scottoline, Diane Mott Davidson, and more.

It wasn’t until my kids were teenagers that I got the bug to write myself, after reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows to my family during a road trip (no one else could read without getting carsick). I’d spent the last ten years working in K-12 education developing enrichment programs, so I set about to write the next great Young Adult (YA) series, one that would educate, as well as entertain. But as my kids’ interest in YA books waned, so did mine, along with my desire to tell those stories. I still wanted to write. I just needed to follow my passion—crime.

Knowing little about fiction-writing, I took online community college classes to learn the ins and out, the dos and don'ts needed to write like a pro. I joined Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America. I attended my first writers' conference, Killer Nashville, in August of 2013 and sat in on three days of author panels and break-out sessions on write-craft. I met people who would soon become my friends and mentors. I was energized and hooked. Ready to write my first crime novel. But what kind? What story should I tell?

​At first, I thought I'd write a traditional mystery—I loved following clues, figuring out whodunit along with my favorite sleuth. But one day, while I was huffing and puffing on the elliptical machine at my gym, the TV show I was watching broke to a commercial for an identify-theft protection service—and my mind ran away with "what if." What if a woman woke up from a coma only to find her husband with another wife, someone who claimed to be you, using your name . . . I thought through a string of other “what-ifs” to figure out why and how and where a story like this could happen, then started putting words down on paper (actually, a computer file). What surprised me as I wrote—I wasn’t writing wasn't a traditional mystery, but more of a mix of mystery, thriller, and psychological suspense. (Being a psychologist, I guess the latter shouldn’t have been such a surprise, but it was.)

The rest of my story is not much different from any other success story. It took loads of time, money, and perseverance to hone my craft, polish my story, and meet the right people who could help me take my story, Lest She Forget, all the way to the bookstore. But the thing that really made it all possible was the passion I felt in my heart in putting my story on paper and the joy I experienced finally sharing it with the world.

As I strive to finish my next thriller, with all the ups and downs, stops and starts that come with any creative process, are the odds still with me? I believe so. Because it's my heart's desire to do so!

Odds are, you have your own success story to share. Authors, what made you start down this challenging path towards writing and publishing crime fiction? For everyone else, share your own the-odds-are-against-me story.

 

There’s an Acronym for Everything

By Heather Weidner

 

My day gig is in IT, and we love our acronyms. It’s almost like a game to see how many acronyms we can put in one sentence. We use them as every part of speech (all the time). I often have to translate for our business partners.

When I was a young technical writer, our development team kept talking about processes in a system that were abended and were causing problems. Things were happening (or not happening in this case) because of the abends, and we needed to communicate this to the users. I thought I knew what it meant from context clues, but I needed to be sure so I could explain it to the folks using the system. I couldn’t find the word anywhere, and no one knew the true definition. Weeks later, I finally found it. It’s a coding term for an abnormal ending of a process. Ab-end is a portmanteau word, one that combines parts of several words for a new expression. That’s when I started a glossary to ensure everyone had the same understanding because some of our acronyms have multiple meanings.

The more research I did, I learned that there are different kinds of acronyms and abbreviations. According to Merriam-Webster, there are acronyms, which are pronounced as a word like SCUBA and NATO and initialisms, which are abbreviations created from the first letter of each word. These are pronounced as a series of letters like POV and CPR.

My job has always been to translate for the non-geeky side of our business and to ensure that our communications are clear and understandable. My glossary morphed into a webpage that is now a resource in our knowledge base.

During my stay in IT-land, I have found some interesting acronyms and initialisms over the years. Here are a few that may give you a giggle. 

Terms to Describe User Errors

BFO – Blinding Flashing of the Obvious

CBE – Carbon-based Error

EBK – Error Behind Keyboard

ID10T – Geek-speak for Idiot

NSFW – Neglected to Save File in Word

PEBCAK – Problem Exists Between Chair and Keyboard

PICNIC – Problem in Chair, Not Computer

RTFM – Read the Freakin’ Manual

TLDR – Too Lazy, Didn’t Reboot

Terms for Motivation

BICFOK – Butt in Chair, Fingers on Keyboard

Terms to Describe Often Unexplainable System Errors

BBS – Bizarre Beeping Sounds

IRL – Infinite Reboot Loop

Terms Used to Explain Things

BTD – Bored to Death

IIRC – If I Remember Correctly

NSFW – Not Safe for Work

PFM – Pure Freakin’ Magic

SWAG – Stuff We All Get

TLDR – Too Long, Didn’t Read

WYSIWYG – What You See Is What You Get

What are some acronyms or initialisms you would add to the list? And have you ever run into one that you couldn’t find the meaning?

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

Through the years, Heather 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, her husband, and a crazy Mini Aussie Shepherd divide their time between Central Virginia and the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

THE SHADOW FRIENDS by Tess Gerritsen

 

By Margaret S. Hamilton

 

“Jo used to think that espionage was a glamorous job, all tuxedoes and martinis and foreign travel, but after spending time with these people, she now understood what it really entailed: never being entirely honest, even with those you loved…Being a cop wasn’t easy, but at least she could be honest with those she cared about, those who mattered in her life.” (p.85)

 

 

The Shadow Friends is the third book in Tess Gerritsen’s Martini Club senior thriller series. Intrepid retired CIA agent Maggie Bird ran the investigation in the first two books. In Gerritsen’s third, Ingrid Slocum, Maggie’s CIA colleague and neighbor in the rural town of Purity, Maine, takes the lead.

 

“Shadow friends” are former CIA colleagues. Ingrid notes similarities between the deaths of a Russian disease expert and conference hotel waitress and her failed mission thirty years earlier. Ingrid is lured into investigating present-day events by her former lover, Rodrigo Estrada, who now runs his own investigative firm. During Ingrid’s investigation in Amsterdam and later, Madrid, her retired analyst husband, Lloyd, transforms from a passive observer to her active protector. Maggie Bird serves as Lloyd’s wing woman and two other members of the Martini Club, Ben Diamond and Declan Rose, join in. The group may be too old for active field work, but their experience and loyalty to each other guide the ex-spies in solving the current case.

 

Jo Thibodeau, the local Purity police chief, represents the law and reminds the former spies of the legal consequences of their actions. The “friends,” share their specialized knowledge with Jo as they intrude on Jo’s investigation.

 

The members of the Martini Club foil a Russian sleeper agent and end the agent’s violent rampage. Peace and order are restored to Purity, Maine, but Jo Thibodeau knows it’s only a temporary fix.

 

Gerritsen’s characters are vividly drawn, appealing in their unique ways. Maggie raises chickens on her egg farm, Ingrid is an active volunteer in the community, and Lloyd is a superb cook. Ben and Declan are loyal friends, ready to assist as needed. Jo is exasperated by the club members’ disregard for the law, but they value her input and trust her.

 

I’m looking forward to the fourth book in the Martini Club series.

 

Readers and writers, does a cozy thriller about retired spies appeal to you?

 

Margaret S. Hamilton is the author of the Jericho Mysteries series.

 

Home - The Official Website of Margaret S. Hamilton

 

 

Adding Urgency When There’s No Emergency

by Melissa Westemeier 

When my editor at Tule Publishing recommended adding a Christmas-themed book to the Nun the Wiser Mysteries, I readily agreed, but immediately got stuck plotting it. Balancing lightness and humor with crime is required in the cozy genre, but setting a murder mystery during the hap-happiest season of all is especially challenging.

Any plotline involving children or animals seemed too dark. I dismissed centering the mystery around theft, (a common crime in Christmas cozies). I already poisoned four victims between Dropped Like a Bad Habit and A Fatal Habit, so I wanted to try something fresh. A chance conversation with an acquaintance sparked an idea: a COLD CASE. A cold case investigation sparked by an unexpected house fire. 

With an inciting incident established, I set Mavis Oldenberg’s house on Spruce Street ablaze. Detective AJ Lewis gets called to the scene first to manage crowd control during the fire, and the following morning the fire inspector discovers a corpse in a second-story bedroom. AJ’s on the case to identify the dead man, figuring out why he’s there is less important, but ultimately significant. 

Sister Bernadette Ohlson overhears Mavis’s grandchildren discussing how to dismantle the ruined building so they can sell the lot. To their surprise, the eighty-year-old nun offers to do it for a price. You see, Bernie’s in charge of a charity to help needy families in the community. She’s struggling to gin up enough donations to grant Christmas wishes to those kiddos. Once the crime scene tape comes down, she’s prying away paneling with a crowbar. One loose board reveals a hiding place inside a bedroom closet where Bernie discovers an old box containing items connected to a decades-old family tragedy. 

By page eighty, I faced an unexpected challenge in writing a cold case mystery: inadequate suspense.

The cold case mystery froze up the action in my story worse than a Wisconsin winter!

The trouble with a plotting a cold case mystery is that nobody cares how long it takes to solve it. No urgency, no emergency. Most of the evidence is long gone, as are most of the witnesses. My killer got away with murder decades ago, they pose no immediate threat, nor do they suspect the jig is up after so much time has passed. There’s zero chance of a chase scene or confrontation with a killer anxious to cover their tracks. Sure, Bernie and AJ had a mystery to investigate, but they had all the time in the world to solve it. My story lagged and sagged until I remembered one crucial fact. It’s set during Christmas. Sure, the central mystery lacked razzle and dazzle, but Christmas is FULL of pressure situations that add excitement. I could balance the dull, tedious work of solving a cold case with the hustle and bustle of the holiday season.

I began making my characters do Christmassy things, which advantageously boosted the holiday aspect of A Holiday Habit. They got busy rehearsing Christmas carols, baking cookies, and swapping Secret Santa gifts at work. Their activities had deadlines. The house on Spruce Street had to be torn down in time to collect funds so Bernie could keep the Christmas charity afloat. The children’s gifts needed to be purchased, wrapped, and delivered by Christmas Eve. 

With December 24 looming on the calendar, I had an abundance of time-sensitive subplots. On AJ’s end, I torqued up the heat by adding teenaged thugs terrorizing shoppers and store owners at the local mall. Now the drama could include a chase scene through throngs of holiday shoppers. Exciting! Thrilling!

I’m not the first author to crack the mystery of making a cold case investigation exciting. Writing A Holiday Habit taught me how including external events with deadlines can create urgency, add suspense, and accelerate the pacing when the sleuthing work goes slow. A little holiday hubbub spiced up with subplots involving big crowds, dangerous activities (like swinging a sledgehammer when you’re in your eighties or tackling a teenaged shoplifter in the middle of a food court), and important deadlines (like Christmas Eve) can do the trick.

Uncovering age-old secrets can make a satisfying cozy mystery, but in my book, the stakes weren’t exciting enough without extra drama. Thank goodness for the chaos and craziness that Christmas brings! 

 

BIO:

Melissa Westemeier is a Sister in Crime and teacher from Wisconsin. She uses humor to explore serious subjects, and her published books include the Nun the Wiser Mysteries, rom-coms, and a trilogy loosely based on her years tending bar on the Wolf River. She likes her coffee and protagonists strong and prefers to work barefoot with natural lighting. Her upcoming Ranger Jessup Mysteries will bring readers to Yellowstone National Park. Learn more at www.melwestemeier.com

The Development of Today’s Cozy Mysteries by KM Rockwood

The modern cozy mystery novel has its roots in the nineteenth-century detective story, but its distinctive character emerged during the Golden Age of detective fiction in Britain, particularly between the two world wars. Characterized by amateur detectives, intimate communities, ingenious puzzles, and an absence of graphic violence, the cozy mystery developed as a form of crime fiction in which the restoration of social order is often as important as the identification of the murderer.

The genre's earliest foundations can be traced to Edgar Allan Poe's The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841), which introduced C. Auguste Dupin, an analytical detective who solves crimes through observation and logical deduction. Arthur Conan Doyle subsequently popularized this approach through Sherlock Holmes, first introduced in A Study in Scarlet (1887). Although neither writer produced cozy mysteries in the modern sense, both established the intellectual puzzle as a central attraction of detective fiction.

The cozy mystery took more recognizable shape in the work of Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Margery Allingham, and Ngaio Marsh, whose novels helped define the Golden Age. Christie was particularly influential. Her The Murder at the Vicarage (1930) introduced Miss Jane Marple, an elderly amateur detective whose knowledge of village life and human nature enables her to uncover crimes that baffle professional investigators. The fictional village of St. Mary Mead became a model for the apparently tranquil community concealing jealousy, greed, resentment, and occasionally murder.

These classic novels generally emphasized clues, motives, misleading appearances, and the reader's opportunity to solve the mystery alongside the detective. Violence was seldom described in graphic detail, and the narrative typically concluded with the exposure of the culprit and the restoration of a recognizable moral order. The principles of fair-play detection were articulated by Ronald A. Knox in his 1929 essay on detective-fiction rules, which argued that readers should have a reasonable opportunity to discover the solution.

The modern cozy mystery, however, is more than a continuation of Golden Age detective fiction. During the later twentieth century, particularly from the 1980s onward, American writers adapted the traditional puzzle mystery to contemporary domestic and community settings. Their amateur sleuths were frequently ordinary people whose occupations gave them access to local gossip and complicated personal relationships.

The detectives in such stories are almost always amateurs and often women, though there are exceptions. These characters are typically well educated and intuitive. Like other amateur detectives, they often have a contact in the police force who can give them access to important information about the case at hand, but the contact is typically a spouse, lover, friend, or family member rather than a former colleague.

Often dismissed by the authorities in general as nosy busybodies, particularly if they are middle-aged or elderly women, the detectives in cozy mysteries are left free to eavesdrop, gather clues, and use their native intelligence and intuitive "feel" for the social dynamics of the community to solve the crime.

Cozy mysteries typically take place in a town, village, or other
small, insular communities where the main characters have long-standing social relationships. The amateur detective is usually well-liked and gets the community members to talk freely about one another. Usually, at least one knowledgeable, nosy, yet reliable character knows everyone's personal history and interrelationships and can fill in the blanks to help the amateur detective solve the case.

A variation is the newcomer experiencing a major upheaval in life, often preceded by the ending of a significant relationship or a geographically related opportunity, such as inheriting a property or business.

The murder (or other serious crime) is usually revealed off‑page, and the focus shifts to puzzle‑solving rather than graphic crime scenes.

The protagonist may or may not be exposed to threats. These can take the form of physical danger, psychological manipulation, or possible legal entanglements, including the protagonist becoming a viable suspect.

Cozies avoid blatant gore, detailed forensic methods, psychopathic killers, or explicit sex. They may include light humor, quirky supporting characters, and charming descriptions of food, pets, or local customs.

The murderers in cozy mysteries are typically neither psychopaths nor serial killers and are usually taken into custody without violence. They are generally members of the community where the murder occurs, able to hide in plain sight, and their motives (greed, jealousy, revenge) are often rooted in events years or even generations old. The murderers are typically rational and often highly articulate, enabling them to explain or elaborate on their motives after their unmasking.

Unlike hardboiled or noir crime novels, cozies eschew gritty realism, graphic violence, and cynical worldviews. They are more lighthearted, character‑driven, and escapist, often reminiscent of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction.

The history of the cozy mystery represents both continuity and reinvention. Its intellectual structure derives from Poe, Doyle, and the Golden Age novelists. The reassuring atmosphere and community-centered storytelling owe an especially important debt to Christie and Miss Marple. Contemporary writers have preserved these traditions while making them accessible to readers interested in everyday relationships, animal companions, humor, hobbies, and the comforting familiarity of a fictional world in which even murder can ultimately be explained and order restored.

While de-emphasis on sex and violence, emphasis on puzzle-solving over suspense, the setting of a small town, and a focus on a hobby or occupation are characteristic elements of cozy mysteries, the boundaries of the subgenre remain vague.

A cozy mystery is a whodunnit with charm, community, and an amateur sleuth, where the puzzle is the main attraction and the reading experience is comforting rather than disturbing.

“Cozy Mystery.” Wikipedia, Wikipedia Foundation, 4 November 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cozy mystery/ Accessed 6 November 2026“

"The Cozy Mystery Explained.” Masterpiece, PBS,  https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/specialfeatures/the-cozy-mystery-explained/. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

Knox, Ronald A. "Detective Story Decalogue." The Best Detective Stories of 1928, edited by Ronald A. Knox and H. Harrington, Faber and Faber, 1929.

 

"You Can See Everything," But You Shouldn't Write Everything

 by Korina Moss

This past week I watched the Elizabeth Holmes documentary You Can See Everything. For those of you who are not familiar with her, Elizabeth Holmes was the founder and CEO of Theranos, a multi-billion-dollar company that claimed to have a proprietary device that could test for a slew of medical conditions with a single drop of blood. In 2022, she was convicted of defrauding investors when it was discovered the technology could not do what she’d claimed. 

The movie opened in theaters rather than going to a streaming service and has been a huge success, ranking number one at the box office for the three weeks since its release. Having seen it, I think part of its success can be attributed to the fact that, at times, it feels like a movie rather than a documentary. Its purpose isn’t to tell us what happened. There’s no typical slide show with narration interspersed with interviews. The purpose of You Can See Everything is to reveal a more personal side of Elizabeth Holmes. Whether this confirms what you’ve already believed about her or changes your mind or simply leaves you questioning who she is, is up to the viewer.

The first half takes place in the thirty days before she was to enter prison, having been sentenced to eleven years. One of the filmmakers, Nathan Fielder, stayed at the beach home Elizabeth and her husband had rented for themselves, to have access to her daily life 24/7 in her final month of freedom. (Or as she told Fielder, so “you can see everything.”) As you can imagine, with that much access, there was an immense amount of footage they must’ve had to sift through to make this movie.

I watched closely. I thought about every choice the filmmakers made, because I knew they would only choose the conversations and the scenes that built the story they wanted to tell. Thus, every scene mattered, even if I wasn’t certain of why at the time. 

It reminded me of the choices that we as writers have to make. We do our research. We assemble a “bible” of information to create a three-dimensional protagonist. We know everything about him or her before we start writing. So, it’s understandable that we’d feel the reader needs to know all of it too. But our protagonist’s history is not where the story starts. 

Before watching You Can See Everything, I only knew the headlines about Elizabeth Holmes—the book blurb, if you will. Some viewers may have known even less. To understand the movie, it was imperative that we know the genesis of the documentary—why Fielder was in her home and why Elizabeth was going to jail. Even though it was important to know these things, it wasn’t the focus of the documentary. So, spending a lot of time explaining or showing what led up to this moment didn’t make sense for them. Ultimately, they printed a short paragraph onscreen at the beginning of the movie that simply stated the circumstances. 

These same choices that make a good movie-like documentary are worth considering when writing a book. To begin where the story starts, not before it. Give us just enough information so that we understand where we are and why. Then add bits of backstory in places where it adds to the reader’s understanding of the current scene or develops the character. Choose wisely which scenes to include and when.

For example, in You Can See Everything, we did eventually get some more information about her (now defunct) company’s device and what she’d told investors about it. This information wasn’t revealed in the beginning nor was it through footage of the trial or her deposition, which in a book, would be told as flashbacks. It came later, right after a scene where Elizabeth and her husband were calling investors to try to start a new company with improved technology. (The audacity!) It felt natural to have a scene following, where she showed Fielder Theranos’s device and Elizabeth’s account of how she’d sold investors on the technology. Waiting for that information had not hindered our understanding of the story and, just as importantly, putting it a little later in the documentary didn’t pause the trajectory of the movie, it pulled it forward. 

Much like a documentary filmmaker, writers have a lot of “footage” about their protagonist and their characters at their disposal. It’s important that you’re clear (with yourself) about the story you want to tell, so that you choose only the most relevant parts. Trust that your characters’ actions and reactions will fill in the blanks better than backstory. 

The next time you’re writing or revising your manuscript, consider looking at it as a documentary filmmaker might. You’ve done tons of research (backstory). You’ve got tons of footage (drafted scenes). Thus, you’ve got all the extra insider information you need to craft your story. Choose scenes that shape and pull your story along, chapter by chapter. Dole out backstory where it makes sense. Trust that your portrayal of your characters will show the reader most of what they need to know about them. By having a clear vision of the story that you want to tell, sifting through everything you know, and making the difficult choices of what to include, every scene will matter and your book will have the most impact. 

Readers: Have you watched You Can See Everything? Do you like documentaries? 

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

Get Out the Vote by Mary Dutta

This year’s wave election is quite a story, but isn’t every election about stories?

Candidates tell us stories of how things are and how they could be if they win (or remain in) office.

They tell stories of who they are, or at least who they want voters to believe they are.

Their mailers and ads feature the stories of real people affected by the policies for which they advocate or the ones they oppose.

Incumbents highlight the stories of their performance in office while their challengers use the same stories to argue that change is needed.

Polls tell one story, pundits another, and predictions a third. Sometimes all are right, sometimes all are wrong, and sometimes it’s a bit of both.

Stories can get ahead of election results, as with the famous “Dewey Defeats Truman” headline.

The news cycle doesn’t abandon election coverage once all the votes are tallied. Stories from podcasters, TV talking heads, and newspaper columnists continue long after the results are certified.

At the end of any election, only one candidate gets the happy ending they were hoping for. The losing candidate then has to decide on the story that explains their defeat, a story that can be based on reality or denial.

I came up with a few election story ideas of my own when I went to vote on Tuesday. For instance, who was the man standing behind a tripod camera outside my polling place? Was he a journalist? Or maybe an investigator letting someone know they were being watched?

And what about that friendly poll worker handing out “I Voted” stickers? Was she simply an upstanding citizen? Or was she using her position to get access to the church building where the vote was being held?

Ultimately, every election story is written by the voters. And if we don’t like how the story ends, we get the opportunity to revise it in the next cycle. The chance of that happy ending is always on the ballot.

 

Do you have a favorite election story?

 

It's a Love-Hate Thing, by Lori Roberts Herbst

I’ll admit it—I’ve been crotchety as a writer lately. Filled with doom and gloom. Ebeneezer Lori, you could say.

Book sales are declining. AI production can outpace anything I could accomplish (in terms of quantity, anyway). Facebook ad algorithms have transformed (again) and are not achieving what they used to (as if I even comprehend algorithms anyway). I never particularly enjoyed the marketing end of publishing, and these days, what little I even understood about it has changed. 

And now I’m not even supposed to use em dashes? (Well, too bad. I love me a well-placed em dash and used them before AI was a glint in Sam Altman’s eye.)

The grim part of me has even considered throwing in the towel on this crazy pursuit of writing books.

But before I do…just let me take a moment to revisit what made me fall in love with it in the first place. What do I love about being a writer?

1. Creativity. I get to dream up worlds and people and plots that didn’t exist before my brain made them up. 
2. Justice is served. In my cozy mysteries, I am the master of fairness, the maker of happy endings. 
3. Control. In a world that often feels discordant, I can impose order on my imaginary worlds.
4. The joy of language. Occasionally, a witty turn of phrase or beautiful description originates in my mind. What a pleasure that is!
5. Cheap therapy. I right perceived wrongs through my fictional characters and plots.
6. Connection with real people. Interacting with readers and other authors has been one huge highlight of this pursuit.
7. Sense of accomplishment. It’s rewarding to guide a book or story from the smallest spark of an idea to a completed manuscript to the physical page to the readers themselves. 

And for today, anyway, that feels like enough. I’ll work on muzzling the Ebeneezer side of my personality and keep plugging away.

What keeps you moving forward in whatever you do? 

The Callie Cassidy Mystery series is available on Amazon Kindle, Kindle Unlimited (now Kindle+), and in 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 

A Fatal Affair & The Social Media Experiment Guest Post by Judy Penz Sheluk

 

I started writing A Fatal Affair: The Murder of Helen Grier with my
co-author, Amanda Capper, in October 2025. I’d been fascinated with this very cold case from the moment that I’d read about it in a 2022 “Remember This?” column in my local online newspaper, and the case had fascinated Amanda for far longer. When the current owner of the hunt camp where the murder had occurred in 1937 invited us for a visit, our interest was piqued even more. Being the shameless self-promoter that I am, I wanted to get potential readers equally fascinated. Or at least interested.

 

As an author and publisher, I was no stranger to social media. I had a decent following on Facebook and Instagram, and an average following on BlueSky. What if we started a page dedicated to the book?

 

It turned out to be simple enough to open pages attached to my personal social media profiles. On October 31, I posted a collage of our first visit to the scene of the crime. I followed that up with weekly posts, sharing them on my personal Facebook and Instagram pages. Pix of the camp, of the lake, of the current owner, that sort of thing.

 

On January 1, encouraged by the modest success my posts had garnered, I decided to create a new post every day. Amanda, who was just getting to know me, didn’t believe I’d be able to keep it up (she now refers to me as a “stubborn little cyclone.”).

 

I worked on scheduling a batch of posts a week in advance. I’ll admit it took some effort (and some creativity). I tried to alternate teasers about the book with posts about the area, circa 1930s. The Sault Ste. Marie Public Library, Sault Ste. Marie Museum, and the Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre all came through with information and photos from the past. I created a mini-series about the inquest jurors, the Sault jail and courthouse, the investigation, and the bushplanes that had transported police, prosecution, and defence to the otherwise inaccessible cabin in the winter of 1938.

 

Here’s the thing. The posts I thought would do well occasionally garnered fewer than 200 views. Others, sometimes used as “filler” because I was in a hurry to “just get it done,” have reached several thousand. I wish I could tell you I found a pattern. A secret sauce. I didn’t, though historic photographs of the area tended to be popular.

 

On that…while our number of followers has never been massive (as I write this, we’ve got around 500, give or take), the number of views by non-followers ranges from 75 to 85%.

 And our total number of views? A cool 500,000 and counting. Shameless self-promotion? Or clever marketing? To quote our tag line: You be the judge.

 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61583331231076

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/afatalaffair

 

 

About the Book: On October 28, 1937, at a remote cabin in the Algoma District of Northern Ontario, the body of 28-year-old Helen Grier was discovered by her lover, Vernon Spencer. The cause of death was a bullet to the brain.

 

A married father of two, Spencer, 43, was held as a material witness for 71 days before being charged with Helen’s murder. A gruelling six-day trial in Sault Ste. Marie followed. Vernon Spencer was acquitted after a scant three hours of jury deliberation.

 

Was the jury wrong? Did Vernon Spencer, former professional baseball player and Michigan dairy farmer, get away with murder? Could it have been someone local who dropped in to visit and found the pretty young brunette alone and vulnerable? Or is it possible, as was suggested by Spencer’s defence team, that it was Helen Grier who fired the fatal bullet?

 

You be the judge.

 

Available in print and e-book at multiple booksellers. www.books2read.com/afatalaffair.

 About the Authors: A former journalist and magazine editor, Judy Penz Sheluk is the multiple award-winning author of seven bestselling mystery novels, two books on publishing, and several short stories. Amanda Capper is a writer of short fiction, and the author of the “Maybe” mystery series (coming 2027). Learn more at judypenzsheluk.com and amandacapper.com.

 Image Credits

 Judy Penz Sheluk

Amanda Capper

Collage of social media posts

First social media post: October 31, 2025

 

When Historical Ballet Meets Fictional Murder

by Nupur Tustin

For a writer of historical mysteries, there’s no moment more delightful than when historical reality happily dovetails with the details of one’s plot. It’s something I’ve experienced with every Joseph Haydn Mystery I’ve written, and I’m on the sixth now. 

The Queen’s Favorite, coming out tomorrow, November 5, is set in Marie Antoinette’s France. Haydn, of course, had never visited the country, although from my early research I remembered that his music was popular there. So much so, in fact, that pirated copies could be found in Paris. 

Additionally, Marie Antoinette, unlike her oldest brother, Habsburg Emperor Joseph, enjoyed Haydn’s music. 

If there were a murder of some significance in Paris, it made sense that the Queen might send for one of her favorite composers. Gluck, a contemporary of Haydn’s, was in Paris, composing for the Paris Opéra. 

The question, of course, was about the murder victim. Who might it be? 

Unable to think of a reason to take Haydn to Paris, I shelved the idea—until the winter of 2024. My daughter had started ballet lessons and was going to be performing in Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker. It was odd, we both thought, that ballet should be so closely associated with a Russian composer and yet have French names for all its steps!

(Odd, too, that there was so much acting involved. Ballet is as much pantomime as dance.)

It didn’t take a sleuth to figure out that ballet had its origins in France. My curiosity aroused, and remembering my longtime desire to set a Haydn Mystery in France, I eagerly searched for a comprehensive history of ballet and discovered Jennifer Homan’s Apollo’s Angels.

Although ballet had come to France via a queen of Italian origin—Catherine de Medici—its form developed in France, in particular under Louis XIII and his son Louis XIV, better known as the Sun King. 

Here was the musical connection I’d been searching for. Queen Marie Antoinette loved ballet. She and her siblings had been taught it and had performed in ballets in Vienna. Prevented by her husband from playing much of a role in political matters, the Queen turned to the arts—in particular to Opera, where ballet, too, flourished.

Ballet was so popular in France that even operas included them. Composers like Gluck hated that and tried to cut out ballet as much as possible. But of course audiences just loved ballet. You couldn’t simply edit them out of an opera. 

I was getting a little closer to my goal. What if the prima ballerina at the prestigious Paris Opéra were to be murdered? What if this dancer enjoyed the Queen’s patronage? Surely, the Queen would take a personal interest in solving the murder. 

But why send for Haydn—all the way from Austria? Wasn’t that a bit extreme? And, really, how well would the French—who disrespectfully referred to their Queen as L’Autrichienne—take that?

That’s when I discovered Jean-Georges Noverre, a ballet master whose influence extended well beyond France and far beyond the eighteenth-century. In fact, he was better known outside France. He’s largely remembered because of his treatise on ballet, Lettres sur la danse et sur les ballets. 

And, remember all the pantomime I’d wondered at? That was Noverre’s doing—a way of making dance relevant to a skeptical Enlightenment audience that needed art to mirror reality. “All . . . ballet which is just dancing,” Rousseau declared, “should be banished from lyric theater.” The other philosophes agreed.

More to the point, he’d worked in Vienna and had likely come into contact with Haydn. When Noverre had arrived in Vienna in 1768 to work at the Burgtheater, Haydn was at the height of his fame. (My first Haydn novel, Minor Deceptionis set in that year.)

This was also a couple of years before the 14-year-old Archduchess Maria Antonia left Vienna to become Dauphine of France. 

Six years later in an astonishing move that ruffled more than a few feathers, Queen Marie Antoinette appointed Noverre ballet master of the Paris Opéra. Tradition demanded that the post go to someone within the ballet. So the dancers didn’t take kindly to either the new ballet master or the Queen who’d promoted him.

Now we were getting somewhere. What if Noverre were to lose his star ballerina, a woman whom he’d promoted with the encouragement of the Queen? What if the incident caused the Paris press to turn upon both the Queen and her ballet master, making Noverre fear for his position?

That would give him reason to send an urgent summons to his old friend, Haydn. 

Of course, the Queen having been threatened herself has reason to seek her brother Emperor Joseph’s help. He in turn seeks Haydn’s sleuthing skills. The Emperor had actually visited France—to assure himself the Habsburg-Bourbon alliance could and would bear fruit. That the Queen remained childless after five years of marriage remained a source of concern for Vienna.  

The Emperor typically traveled incognito. With a murder to solve, it made sense for Haydn to do so as well. Et voila! Just like that, I had the makings of a richly fantastic plot. 

 

Bio: A former journalist, Nupur Tustin misuses a Ph.D. in Communication and an M.A. in English to orchestrate murder in Haydn’s Austria and paint intrigue in the Celine Skye Psychic Mysteries, based on the unsolved Gardner Museum theft. 

 

For more information about Nupur Tustin and her books, visit nupurtustin.substack.com

What’s My Brand?

By James M. Jackson

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I am interrupting this blog before it even starts. Today is election day in the U.S. The only polls that count are tabulated from ballots cast. If you are eligible to vote and have not yet, please do.

Back to our regularly scheduled program.

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I attended the Wisconsin Writers Association Fall Conference last month. One session I found particularly helpful was on branding. Alicia Boemi, who wears many hats, led the session. She’s an author, bookstore owner, and marketing consultant.

Everything you do creates your brand. Keeping that in mind, she suggested that we consider how each proposed communication relates to the three contact pillars (Educate, Entertain & Connect, or Promote (us or our books) with Purpose). For example, I am writing this blog to “educate” by providing what I hope is interesting information that can be helpful to other authors, and yet still interesting to readers.

It’s not an academic paper, so I’ll infuse it with a bit of self-deprecating humor and personal facts that I hope will entertain and build our connection.

And at the very end, I include contact links, a bit of promotion with the purpose of giving you a way to connect with me and my work.

Well, duh, Jim. That seems obvious. Where’s the beef?

My key takeaway was to decide on three characteristics that define the key strengths or interests I want to bring to the party. Not about my writing style or my books—about my areas of expertise and ways of dealing with the world. We had five minutes to cogitate and record our answers. Here’s what I decided:

• Nature observer and photographer, especially of birds.
• Facts matter to me.
• My superpower is describing complex topics in plain language, especially related to business and finance.

A problem with this exercise is that the author is only defining how they’d like people to see them. That’s great for someone just starting out, but anyone who has been around for a while has a current brand, which they may not recognize.

What I did in the workshop was like taking a Myers-Briggs personality test, in which I answered questions about what I prefer. (I’d rather stay home and read a book than attend a gala at the Met.) However, what counts with people you are marketing to is what they perceive as your behavior. If all I posted on social media were things I did at large public gatherings, you could reasonably conclude I build my life around a large dose of public events.

That difference is why one of my favorite ways to assess human behavior is the Social Styles Model with its four quadrants of Amiable, Analytic, Driver, and Expressive. The questionnaire goes to people who deal with us. They assess our behavior based on how they see us interact with them and with others. I thought I was equal Analytic and Driver. The feedback was clear. People see me as a Driver (with a strong analytical component).

Who knew? Well, everyone, really, except me.

So back to branding and the three key characteristics that support my brand. I frequently talk about and post pictures of nature. I point out inaccurate claims and add nuance to black and white thinking, regardless of the political view of the originator, because facts matter. And as with this blog, I think I do a good job summarizing complex topics.

But—and it’s the big one I’ve been leading toward—that’s my perception. I’ve been blogging and posting on social media, attending author events, and meeting readers for many years. In addition to my intentions, what I need to know is how others currently describe me.

If the responses are consistent with my vision, I can carry on. If not, I need to reflect on the differences and either reframe my perception to fit reality and carry on, or realize I have work ahead to change my brand to match my ideal. Or some combination of the two.

Just because we have a brand doesn’t mean we’re stuck with it forever. Apple was once a niche computer company, and it changed to become a major consumer brand. Old Spice used to be an old man’s aftershave and rebranded for a younger, modern market. However, we have to know where we are before we can start to change.

So where am I? Your perspective will help me out. Drop your thoughts in the comments or send me an email at jmj@jamesmjackson.com. Thanks.

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