Literary Citizenry

By Robert T. Kelley

When I was struggling to finish my first book, I didn’t think much about the publishing world except how I was going to get into it. But the goodwill and good work of my fellow authors was all around me, supporting me and cheering me on.

There’s so much negative press right now about publishing being dead, about kids not reading whole books, about AI replacing us as writers (and maybe as humans), yet I couldn’t be more excited about writing and the business of writing.

This weekend I was at Killer Nashville (my first time!), and I couldn’t help but think about how important conferences have been to me as a writer. Everyone finds inspiration in different places, but for me, writing conferences were a critical support structure for my development as a writer.

A Maine crime writing friend said to me that they didn’t go to conferences until they were published, that they didn’t feel like they belonged there yet. But for me, it was attending them that helped me feel like I belonged. I’m very, very fortunate to be one of the members of a crime writing group that blogs as Maine Crime Writers, but I knew this crew long before I wrote with them. They volunteer to run Maine Crime Wave, New England Crime Bake, various readings, showcases, and bookselling events. And they’re regular people. Regular generous people.

Someone on a panel with me this weekend at Killer Nashville made a point that I think we need to revisit with regularity. We are not competitors. Your great book just makes my book better. We all started as readers; we are all still readers. We love losing ourselves in a book. And as writers we love throwing our story out into the world. But there’s even more we can do. We can bring other authors along with us.

Almost all the conferences I attend are run by volunteers: writers who want to share the wealth, who want to feature friends and fellow authors, who want to dig in and talk about their craft. What could be better?

There are only so many hours in a day, and we have to guard our writing time like a dragon sitting on a pile of gold (admittedly, in publishing the pile is very, very small). But I’m finding the literary citizenry work to be almost as rewarding as the writing.

This past year after my novel came out, I’ve served on panels at conferences, on committees organizing conferences, set up talks with other authors, and just got my first request to blurb a colleague’s book. All of it is fun, but more importantly, all of it matters.

 I was under the impression that the first book would be really hard then they would get much easier. The path gets more familiar, true, but the hill is just as high each time. But the journey is made so much easier when you accompany, and are accompanied by, your fellow writers.

Set up talks at libraries with other writers. Volunteer to help plan conferences you love. Review good books. Do things that support other writers, that give back to readers, that make the whole enterprise better and more accessible. That’s how we make sure that the publishing world still works for readers and writers.

It’s a gift we writers give ourselves.

Robert T. Kelley writes high-stakes, high-velocity thrillers in which power, privilege, and peril collide. He is the author of short stories and novels, including the technology thriller Raven, a finalist for the Maine Literary Awards. Formerly the publisher of the literary journal, The Maine Review, Rob now regularly writes on the Maine Crime Writers blog. He received his undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Missouri-Rolla and his PhD in English from Indiana University. He lives with his wife, author Margot Anne Kelley, in Midcoast Maine and Boston. You can find him at https://www.roberttkelley.com.

Where do we get our ideas? It’s complicated

 by Maureen Milliken

The newspaper article wasn’t anything exciting. Someone in New Hampshire was running out of time to claim their $100,000 lottery win. I read the story half-hoping that I'd bought a Powerball ticket in Franklin, New Hampshire, last September and somehow forgot about it and the winner was me. Even though I haven’t bought a Powerball ticket in a while and can’t remember the last time I was in Franklin, New Hampshire. I’d moved on to wondering if the person was just playing some kind of sick game, waiting for the last minute to cash in, half-admiring their steely control. Or maybe they bought it and just forgot, a sadder story, but more likely.

Then it happened. If you write mysteries, you may be familiar with the feeling. That out-of-nowhere blast of inspiration. The excitement of seeing a story behind a few words, even if you don’t know what the story is yet.

No, it wasn’t the topic of the story itself, but this paragraph halfway through the story: “This wouldn’t be the largest unclaimed prize in New Hampshire lottery history. In 1987, a Tri-State Megabucks player never stepped forward to claim their $2 million jackpot…”

We’re often asked where we get our ideas. Depending on my energy level, my answer is “everywhere,” or it’s a more elaborate explanation of how ideas can come from anything – a newspaper article, a conversation overheard in the grocery store, a nugget excavated from a long otherwise boring story a friend is telling you.

I can never quite explain, though, the reality of it. That something that may seem mundane, or boring, sparks something deep in my brain and explodes. That feeling the second I read or hear something that it’s the start of something. There’s a story there. It’s big. It’s good. It’s exciting.

With the lottery story, I’m not sure what it is yet – I haven’t thought much about it and don’t want to get derailed from the book I’m writing now. That’s okay. That gives it time to form and grow and get tattoos and baggage.

I took a screen shot (I read my newspapers on my iPad) and marked it up with “mystery plot!!!!” in red. It’ll be there when I need it.

That’s not how all ideas happen, of course. There are different levels of ideas. There are the big shining book-writing-motivating ones, like the uncashed lottery ticket. Those don’t happen all the time, probably a good thing since I can only take so much excitement.

There are also the smaller ones that can work for a scene or character development.

The same day I read about the uncashed lottery ticket, I read in one of my local papers (yes, I do read a lot of newspapers, a blog post for another day), about a neighbor feud in which one drove a log skidder into the side of the other’s house, which caused about half of it to collapse. Sure, that’s something someone in one of my books could do.

Boom. Another screen shot.

One day a few months ago I was at the transfer station (the dump, for those of you from away) and a sheriff’s deputy pulled up behind a woman who was sorting her recycling. He tried to serve her some papers, which she ignored, so he put them in the front seat of her pickup truck. He was being kind of a jerk, taunting and harassing her as she sorted her recycling into the bins and ignored him. It was like a whole scene from a book, with characters I hadn’t written yet. I played it over in my head until I got home and wrote it down.

It’s in the same folder on my computer with some other scenes like that, of characters who I haven’t written yet.

The inspiration for the book I’m working on now was sparked by the story of a guy who was making a movie in Maine back in the 1970s. It was his lifelong dream, but wasn’t going very well. Then someone killed him. It’s not so much the ready-made plot that struck me as the poignancy. The guy had quit his job, moved his family halfway across the country and put his marriage at risk to live a dream. Even though it wasn’t working out, he didn’t seem to know that yet. Then some jerk killed him for a really crappy reason.

It actually took me a long time to work a plot out, but that wasn’t the point of the inspiration. It was the feeling of it that struck me.

The thing is, I know there are some days I would’ve read that paragraph about the uncashed lottery ticket and thought, “Gee, that’s too bad,” and moved on.

There are days when I would’ve read about the splitter being run into the house and said, “That’s Maine for you,” and turned the page.

Maybe on a different day I would’ve watched the deputy harassing the woman at the transfer station and felt annoyance and nothing else.

The murdered movie-maker? Maybe in a different mood, I would’ve thought it was a great topic for the podcast my sister and I do and that’s as far as it would’ve gone.

When someone asks me where I get my ideas, sometimes I toy with the idea of explaining all of this. How sometimes there’s a convergence of thought and feeling that comes together in my brain and heart and blows something up into an idea, big or small. Other times, though, ideas pass by without me catching them.

I never do try to explain it, though. I know from hard experience that the stuff going on in my head doesn’t translate well.

Instead I just say, “They’re everywhere. If I’m lucky, I catch a few.”

 Maureen Milliken bio

Maureen Milliken is the award-winning author of the Bernadette “Bernie” O’Dea mystery series. The fourth book in the series, “Dying for News,” won the 2025 Maine Literary Award for Crime Fiction. The fifth book in the series, “News From Away,” is due out later this year. She has also been co-host since 2016 of the Crime & Stuff podcast with her sister, Maine artist Rebecca Milliken. She lives in Central Maine.

How Do You Find Your Story?

By Michael Geczi 

Authors regularly get asked the same question: “Where/how do you come up with the story?” I like responding; it helps me fine-tune the process and, hopefully, improve.

I’m a pantser. Have some planning genes, but I get bored quickly and shortchange intricate plotting. Which is not to say there isn’t some structure involved.

Anyway, not sure if I fall into the minority, majority, or some small extreme, but I spend time with my potential main character first. Each of the MCs in my “Serial Killer Anthology” approached me and said “we need to talk.” We did, often at length. I maneuvered them. They maneuvered me, which is interesting and valuable. I tried to get a sense of whether they might be playing me and whether that might bring us to a confrontation in Act Three.

Someone – maybe even multiple someones – will get killed at some point. It’s highly likely. I’m interested if we – me as the writer and my MCs – share any common thinking on that potential development and how it might play out.

The wonderful Elmore Leonard said he “loved to make up characters and gradually build a story around them,” as they essentially “auditioned in the early scenes” and sometimes ended up with a larger role. (It’s great to have a collaborator, yes?) My “Santa Monica Homicide” collection is exactly that.

Given my focus is psychological thrillers, this first meeting is enlightening and an adventure.

Do they have a fault line that I can use? Is it obvious and already there? Or do I have to manufacture it or draw it in and, even there, will it be credible?

Do I find this person interesting? Will I fall in love with them be able to “disappear” them or turn them into a hero at some point (because I haven’t the slightest idea at this early stage).

And then there’s always the unknown: is this character capable of surprising me later, as in “two-thirds in will he or she still be the right fit for the scene I have planned for that day?”

These early characters tend to be female, at least at the beginning. That may not continue, however. Why? More interesting, more flexible, more resourceful.

Good enough for me if it’s also good enough for Richard Ford, who calls characters “unfixed, changeable and provisional … I can change them at will, and do.”

They tend to be a familiar face from a previous book. I know them, but not everything. Seems like an opportunity to explore, and what could be better than that?

I wonder what they have been up to – whether it’s interesting or just the passage of time – and would it be credible or logical for them to play a major role in a new adventure.

Admission: this is the point where I start to get concerned about “putting the same people through a similar adventure as last time” and start to create plot scenarios in my head.

·       The victim becoming the offender.

·       The unlikeable protagonist and the likeable antagonist.

·       The extraneous character who inserts herself into the mystery.

·       The faulty memory that shapes an entire life.

·       The role of revenge and how it can play out differently.

·       Endings that catch the bad guy, or endings that surface the motivation.

·       Experiment with structure and try something new. (Check my latest, “Damaged.”)

And then I consider locations, and how they could function in different locales. Los Angeles is not New York, and neither are Cape Cod. Location significantly impact what they encounter, how they act, how they perceive others, and how they achieve or fail in their personal arc.

Dennis Lehane says, “Location is crucial to good writing. A strong sense of place fixes the action in the reader's mind ... without that ... it doesn't matter how strong your characters are.”

Which brings me to that other regular query authors encounter: “How many draft/rewrites/edits do you do?” My answer is always “as many as it takes to know – really know – that I’ve created the best story I can.”

It’s done when it’s done. I know when it is. I know when it isn’t.

Psychological thrillers offer endless opportunities to tell complex stories and enjoy myself in the process. I can break rules, twist tropes, create wonderful and hateful characters who interest me (and I feel I know), and generally skirt around violence without ever describing it in detail.

I invite you to check out my work.

***

Michael Geczi is the author of ten books, including the five-book “The Serial Killer Anthology,” the two-book “Revenge, Unhinged Series,” and the stand-alone novels, “Equinox,” and “Damaged.” He also wrote an investment-advice book earlier in his career. He lives in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Nothing bad can happen in your hometown…right?

 By Sarah P. Blanchard

My second novel, Grabtown, was published October 15, 2025. It’s a multi-generational small-town thriller, structured as a book-within-a-book that follows an old cold-case murder set within a contemporary timeline.

 The story opens in the present with a vignette portraying three young girls confined in a cargo container, traveling to an unknown destination. The focus then shifts to a seemingly unrelated story, following two adult twins, Cassie and Ana, after the death of their mother.

 As Cassie and Ana begin clearing their mother’s house after her death, they find an unpublished novel from 1985, written by their mom’s best friend, that tells of sexual trauma, abuse, arson, and a 40-year-old unsolved murder—and their mother is a key character in the story.

 The twins aren’t sure whether to burn it or read it. Is it fiction, or confession?

 They must navigate their own troubled relationship as they try to figure out why their mother left this story for them—and also why Cassie’s husband is now desperate to keep them from digging further into the past.  

 The story-within-a-story weaves together two timelines and tackles difficult topics with a “tactful approach [that] exposes a sad reality with understanding and compassion.” (Reviewer Lorraine Cobcroft, Reedsy).

 Grabtown has an interesting background. I first wrote the 1985 part of the story about 35 years ago, and came close to having it traditionally published back then as a stand-alone mystery. That didn’t happen, the manuscript went into a box, and I mostly forgot about it. Two years ago, I found it, read it, concluded it was rubbish, and nearly tossed it. Then I reconsidered and gave it a second chance because, although it was badly out of date and not very well-written, the core of the story about abuse and betrayal is, sadly, still very relevant today.

 So, about 25 percent of that old novel became the basis for the 1985 timeline in Grabtown.

 Full disclosure: There is no abandoned village in Connecticut called Grabtown.  I borrowed the name and origin story from the place where the actor Ava Gardner grew up, a poverty-stricken town close to where I lived for ten years in North Carolina. I liked the double meaning of the word, with its sinister overtones.

 When readers ask, “Do you follow the classic advice to ‘write what you know’?” I usually say, “sort of.” Because no, I’ve never killed anyone, or committed arson, or had to escape a dangerous spouse. (Though I do know people who have done those things.) Both of the storylines, old and new, are fiction, but with elements of fact woven in. What I’m always aiming for is truth, carried by a fictional plot that will bring the truth home in a wrapped-up way that real life usually doesn’t do. 

In my novel, Grabtown is an abandoned village just outside a fictional, colonial-era mill town I’ve called Winslow, which looks remarkably like the very real town of Putnam, Connecticut, where I live. I’ve included several Easter eggs—personal-history references and place names—especially in the old timeline. Yes, I worked in the 1970s as a news reporter at the local radio station, and I was a volunteer firefighter for a couple of years. I once owned a four-ten shotgun like the one in the story, and I’m very familiar with the farming community here. The state police barracks in Danielson is real. There’s a footbridge over the river—though not right over the falls—and a very nice café across the street from the old theater.

 In my writing, I’m drawn to flawed, compassionate characters who believe they must battle their demons alone, and desperately conflicted antagonists who feel they have nothing to lose. Then I create a challenging situation, require my characters to make difficult choices based on imperfect information, and see what happens. Just like life, right? Except life doesn’t always bring a satisfying conclusion. And I’ve found that readers want their stories to first keep them on their toes, and then bring some form of justice at the end. And that’s what all good mysteries and thrillers should deliver, right?  Justice.

 A BookLife reviewer commented on the importance of creating this tension that leads to a final sense of justice. “The novel’s greatest strength lies in Blanchard’s deft control of mood and tone. Gothic motifs and haunting imagery lend the book an atmosphere of constant unease, right up to the final page. Yet it never overshadows the emotional force of Cassie’s discoveries, nor the sharper social commentary on the silences small towns demand. In the end, Grabtown is a story about refusing the inheritance of secrets and cycles of harm—and mustering the courage it takes to rise above them.”

Follow Sarah at:

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Rotary Cutters & Red Herrings

Talking “Murdah” at the Sewing Table

By Author Kathryn Mykel

Quilter| Quilt-Fiction Author| Quilt Pattern Designer

Writers are often asked where their story inspiration comes from. Some point to dreams or travel, while others credit long hours studying the criminal mind.

Mine tend to begin at a folding table covered in fabric scraps, with a dog asleep beside my chair while someone passes the chocolate and says, “If she goes missing, check under her stash first.”

From the other end of the table comes a warning about hiding fabric in the oven.

A moment later, someone huffs, “I’m going to murder that seam with Jack the Ripper.”

Quilters, it turns out, do talk about murder, but not in a sinister way. In a practical, problem-solving, plot-twisting kind of way (we swear!). The same quilters who debate a scant quarter-inch seam allowance and the right or wrong side of batting can, within minutes, be calmly discussing poison delivery systems, suspicious alibis, and how a 2½-inch fabric strip might make a surprisingly effective murder weapon.

To be fair, not every sewing group treats fabric like forensic evidence. Mine may simply be used to having a mystery writer in their midst. Our sewing circle can quickly become a brainstorming lab without anyone officially meaning it to. Discussing fictional “murdah” over fabric doesn’t make us morbid. I think it makes us all storytellers.

Those conversations don’t just stay at the sewing table. They follow me home and find their way into my plots, shaping the tone and stakes of the mysteries I write.

In one of my quilting cozy mystery series, starting with Sewing Suspicion, Alex, a lone amateur sleuth, finds herself drawn into a world of genuine danger. In her cozy hometown, secrets run deep and criminal networks lurk behind the scenes. The emotional stakes are high—not just for Alex, but for the found family she’s determined to protect. Alex must rely on her own instincts and resilience.

In my second series, the tone shifts entirely.

In Raining Quilts and Dogs, Elizabeth and her group of quilting friends—a nod to the classic “Scooby gang”—stumble into mysteries that are sometimes outrageous, often chaotic, and always infused with friendship. Suspicious happenings might include runaway animals, muddy paw prints at a crime scene, or community mishaps that spiral into something more complicated than anyone expected.

Some days readers want a hint of mafia intrigue, and some days they want a DB wrapped in a quilt and floated down Main Street during a flood.

Let’s think about the solo sleuth vs. a sewing circle. The psychology of investigation changes dramatically depending on whether your sleuth is alone or surrounded by friends.

A solo sleuth must internalize fear, doubt, and responsibility. Every decision feels personal. The narrative often digs deeper into motivation and consequence.

A group of sleuths, on the other hand, brings natural conflict, humor, and energy. They challenge one another’s assumptions. They divide tasks and argue over crafts, snacks, and suspects in equal measure. The mystery becomes a shared experience rather than a solitary burden.

Interestingly, this mirrors both quilting dynamics and writing habits. Some quilters sew alone, finding solace in the quiet repetition of stitching. Others rely on the interaction and encouragement that come from working alongside friends. Writers navigate those same choices between solitude and collaboration. I experience both worlds myself: quilting with friends around a sewing table and writing with them each day in a small online co-working group.

Where do your best ideas seem to find you?

Kathryn Mykel is a bestselling author of quilting-themed cozy mysteries and a professional quilt pattern designer whose work has appeared in national quilting publications. She lives in New England with her pup, Bentley.

 Find Kathryn’s work here www.authorkathrynmykel.com

 

RISKY PURSUIT

By Nancy G. West                    

We write because when we see things, feel things, and wonder about things, we need to share.

I’ve watched people on the verge of divorce try to decide whether to split up while their children are little or wait until the children are young adults. That’s when Decker Savage popped into my head. An 18-year-old baseball player, Decker still grieves the loss of his baby brother while he dreads his parents’ impending divorce. And things are about to get worse.

 He spots his mother with a mysterious stranger at a dingy café. When the man bolts, and his mother looks devastated, Decker follows the stranger into the darkness. The pursuit leads to a violent confrontation, life-changing secrets, and a dangerous web of lies that threaten to destroy what remains of Decker’s family.

Someone is stalking him, and anonymous notes demand his silence. As the threats escalate, Decker must make an impossible choice: confess to a crime he didn't commit, or watch his family pay the price. With his baseball scholarship on the line and criminal charges looming, Decker must solve the mystery before the stalker strikes again.

When protecting your family means risking everything—
 including your future—how far would you go?

Have you had to make difficult choices? How do you approach them?

 Nancy G. West was a business major who switched to English literature and discovered that writing fiction was a lot more fun than accounting.

She won the Clue award for Nine Days to Evil, and her Aggie Mundeen Rom-Com Mysteries included a Lefty Award Finalist, Chanticleer Awards, and the Raven Award from Uncaged Book Reviews. The Plunge, lead-in to the new spin-off featuring Aggie in The Lake Mysteries, was a June 2019 pick by the American Library Association's Book Club Central. Lake Mystery 2 is in progress. Because she absolutely had to write Risky Pursuit, she ponders Decker’s next dilemma.

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   Goodreads Reviews     Goodreads Lists for Risky Pursuit

Happy New Year

By Suzanne Trauth

The new year is always a good time to take stock of my reading and writing life. I like to think back through the past year and note what I wrote and what I read. Since my recent suspense novel, The First to Die, was released in November, it’s pretty clear what I’ve been doing during the past year: editing and proofreading and promoting. In addition to drafting my next mystery, new writing has been focused on creating marketing materials.

Though I began my crime fiction career with a series of cozy mysteries, I have since turned my focus to psychological suspense. My new book, The First to Die, is a departure for me. I am shifting sub-genres of crime fiction. Shifting genres can happen for any number of reasons: sometimes a story demands a particular category. I wanted to flesh out a narrative that had been on my mind for a while, and I could only satisfy my writing goal through suspense. 

That said, as I take stock of my reading habits during the past year, I’ve asked myself what books have influenced my thinking about, and writing, crime fiction, especially as I shift from cozies to suspense? The answer is: many; but here are a few authors who stood out:

Louise Penny (The Black Wolf) is my go-to writer when I want to create a tight-knit community of characters in a small-town setting. Though a crime writer of more traditional mysteries, with a touch of police procedural, Penny makes me feel at home in Three Pines, with Inspector Armand Gamache, and adds suspense, psychological insights, and intricate stories with twists and turns. She is my north star.

S. A. Cosby (King of Ashes) burns the cover off his latest thriller, literally. His work has steadily increased my admiration for his use of language, beautifully-shaped sentences, and piercing imagery. He thrusts his characters into deep, dark places and isn’t afraid to watch them fight for their lives. Cosby has his finger on the pulse of contemporary life…and death. He gives me courage.

Laura Lippman (Murder Takes a Vacation) is in this group because she also took a step away from her staple—suspense and thrillers—to pen this witty, intelligent, engaging mystery that captivated me with its humorous, but poignant, take on love, independence, and aging. I appreciate the flexibility of her writing and her shifting perspective in crime fiction. She is a great role model.

Megan Abbott (El Dorado Drive) thrills me with every one of her books. I never know where she will lead me, but I willingly follow the leader, and learn that sometimes the reader needs to be cajoled into joining this expedition. Bread crumbs are dropped, senses are stimulated, sentences well-crafted, the story drenched in atmosphere so thick I can almost touch it. And underlying her mesmerizing plot is a frightening darkness that I must acknowledge—humanity can be terrifying.

Ann Cleeves (The Killing Stones) is an inspiring master who schools me with every book: here is how a writer describes windswept, isolated, weather-beaten island life. Combining vivid settings with ingenious plots, Cleeves has such compassion for her characters that I feel for them all—even the guilty ones. And of course, there is her work ethic as she juggles several outstanding series…

Oyinkan Braithwaite (My Sister the Serial Killer) makes me ask: Is there a better title for a crime novel? She wastes no words in this slim mix of the wicked and the witty and teaches me that less is definitely more. Her story is captivating and compelling, giving me all I need to track the crimes and yet not too much—I am forced to read between the lines to follow her protagonist’s journey. She trusts me to keep up.

I will continue to read these writers into the future. But in case I need more, and different inspiration, here are a few authors I plan to tackle in 2026:

Lori Rader-Day (Wreck Your Heart)

Lou Berney (Crooks)

Michael Connolly (Nightshade)

Karin Slaughter (We are All Guilty Here)

Lisa Scottoline (The Unraveling of Julia)

Lisa Jewell (Don’t Let Him In)

Who inspires you? Who do you plan to read this coming year?

Suzanne Trauth is the author of the suspense novel The First to Die, the Dodie O’Dell mystery series—Show Time, Time Out, Running out of Time, Just in Time, No More Time, and Killing Time—and What Remains of Love, an historical romance (Firebird, American Book Fest, Chanticleer book awards), as well as plays and non-fiction books. In her previous career, she spent many years as a university professor of theatre and when she is not writing, she coaches actors. She is a member of the Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, the Dramatists Guild, and the League of Professional Theatre Women and has appeared on many panels at Bouchercon Mystery Conferences. She lives in Woodland Park, New Jersey. www.suzannetrauth.com

What to do With a Long Running Series by Vicki Delany

 

Eventually, if a cozy series is lucky enough to run long enough, the author will be faced with the question of what to do with it.

You want to keep the series interesting, keep appealing to long-time readers as well as attract new readers. At the same time, the author needs to keep herself interested in telling the story of her characters.

The question I posed above has been on my mind as regards the Lighthouse Library series I write under the pen name of Eva Gates. Book twelve, Shot Through the Book, will be released on May 6, Book thirteen is well underway. I like these characters and I like the setting (Bodie Island Lighthouse outside of Nags Head, North Carolina, and the town of Nags Head), and I’d like to keep writing them as long as people want to read them.

There are series that have been successful when nothing much happens in the characters’ larger lives, but I’ve tried to give the feeling of time passing, of characters ageing and (hopefully) growing. Enemies to frenemies to friends. Boyfriends to friends. Friends to boyfriends and eventually maybe even husbands. Babies born, children growing.

Some minor characters have come and gone when I felt there wasn’t much more I could do with them. I sent Charlene, academic librarian, off to her dream job at the Bodleian. I’ve introduced new characters, such as Tom Reilly, the mysterious man in Louise Jane’s life.

But most of all, I’ve tried to let my protagonist, Lucy Richardson, grow. When she first arrives on the scene in By Book or By Crook, she’s young, somewhat naïve about life. She grew up in a wealthy family and has been sheltered most of her life. Her big act of rebellion is moving to the Outer Banks to take  a job as a librarian. I am not young, and I am not naïve, but I enjoyed writing Lucy that way, with a sort of wide-eyed innocence. But she had to mature and develop personally, and by now I think she’s a good bit more practical. She still believes in the goodness of human nature, but that’s tempered by some of the things she’s seen over the years. She still believes in the importance and mission of libraries, and nothing at all will temper that!

She’s learned her way around a police investigation (not entirely what she might have wanted) and has earned the respect of the local police for her common sense, her sharp intellect, and her natural instincts. She’s had to learn when to trust those instincts and when not to let them lead her astray.

In the first books, Lucy lived on the fourth floor of the lighthouse in a tiny apartment she called her Lighthouse Aerie (yes, I know, unrealistic, but bear with me here). It was a great setting for having my protagonist on the scene when needed and, I think, made quite a charming home for her. But, if Lucy is to grow and change, her life had to grow as well and the studio apartment became too small once she got engaged to be married. Searching for the same sort of charm I created in the Lighthouse Aerie, I moved Lucy and her intended into a member of what’s called the Unpainted Aristocracy, historically valued and unique Nags Head homes.

I know my characters aren’t real, but I do enjoy watching their lives progress and I hope readers do also. As for what’s in store for Lucy and the gang, you’ll have to read to find out.

Readers: Do you prefer a cozy series remained trapped in time or do you enjoy seeing time pass and lives change?

 

Vicki Delany is one of Canada’s most prolific and varied crime writers and a national bestseller in the U.S. She has written more than fifty books: clever cozies to Gothic thrillers to gritty police procedurals, to historical fiction and novellas for adult literacy.  She is currently writing the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop series, the Year-Round Christmas mysteries, the Tea by the Sea books, and the Lighthouse Library series (as Eva Gates).

She is a past chair of the Crime Writers of Canada and co-founder and organizer of the Women Killing It Crime Writing Festival. She is the recipient of the 2019 Derrick Murdoch Award for contributions to Canadian crime writing, and will be the Cozy Guest of Honor at Bouchercon in Calgary in 2026. Vicki lives in Prince Edward County, Ontario.

 

From Celebrities to Criminals: Gay and Lesbian Performers in the Roaring Twenties

by Skye Alexander

“The job at Marco’s restaurant seemed a godsend. Best of all was the dapper piano player who entertained diners on Friday and Saturday nights. Smitten by his panache, talent, and sleek good looks, Lizzie flirted with him shamelessly. But although he was friendly enough, he never encouraged her affection. It took her longer than it should have to figure out why.” – Running in the Shadows

When I started writing Never Try to Catch a Falling Knife, the first book in my Lizzie Crane Jazz Age mystery series set in the mid-1920s, I decided to make the pianist in my protagonist singer’s band gay. That would enable them to work together companionably, without the complications of a romantic relationship. I also saw this as an opportunity to depict a close friendship between a gay man and a straight woman, especially in Running in the Shadows, the fourth book in my series in which the pianist’s former lover is murdered and he’s a suspect. Additionally, I enjoyed creating tension between Lizzie’s beau and her friend, showing the two men’s initial suspicion of each other and their jealousy, but not in the ordinary sense.

As the series evolved, I became interested in how people at that time viewed homosexuals–– men and women both––and what challenges they faced. During the early part of the Roaring Twenties in Manhattan, where my characters live, the subject of homosexuality gained popularity in novels, plays, and nightclub acts. Harlem’s Rockland Palace’s Hamilton Lodge hosted elaborate drag balls that drew thousands of attendees including high-society notables. New York’s prestigious Savoy, the Astor Hotel, and Madison Square Garden held drag beauty contests. Cross-dressing men and women performed in Times Square and Greenwich Village as well, during what was known as the “Pansy Craze.” 

Then in 1927, the State Legislature banned the appearance and discussion of gay men and lesbians onstage. Musicians, actors, and others risked having their careers ruined if their sexual preference became known. Anti-sodomy laws had been on the books in all states in the US since the end of the Revolutionary War, but now police earnestly enforced those laws. People found guilty of engaging in non-reproductive sex were sentenced to prison––up to ten years in New York, twenty in Massachusetts. The laws weren’t repealed nationwide until a Supreme Court decision in 2003.

When I began writing my fifth book in the series When the Blues Come Calling (scheduled for September 2025 release from Level Best Books), I learned that on June 11, 1926, police raided a Greenwich Village teahouse known as Eve’s Hangout, owned by a lesbian couple, Eva Kotchever and Ruth Norlander. Popular with artists, writers, and intellectuals including Anais Nin, Henry Miller, and Emma Goldman, the nightspot had become a haven for lesbians and counterculture types. Supposedly, a sign at the entrance said “Men admitted, but not welcome.” Police confiscated a self-published book of stories written by Kotchever (aka Eve Adams), titled Lesbian Love. She was arrested, found guilty of obscenity, and imprisoned in Welfare Island’s workhouse. Seventeen months later, she was deported to her native Poland, and in 1943 she died in an Auschwitz concentration camp. 

Her story became part of my book, for surely if my characters had been real people they would have known Eve Adams and frequented the teahouse. Not only did relating her sad fate allow me to share a story of discrimination unknown to most people outside Manhattan, it also gave me a chance to depict a friendship between my straight heroine and a notorious lesbian, at a time when such relationships could be dangerous.

Currently, I’m working on the seventh book in my Lizzie Crane mystery series, which centers on NYC’s fashion industry in 1927. As my tale unfolds, I expect to discover more about the prejudices LBGTQ+ individuals faced a century ago and how some of those problems still exist today.

About the Author

Skye Alexander is the author of nearly fifty fiction and nonfiction books. Her stories have appeared in anthologies internationally, and her work has been translated into fifteen languages. In 2003, she cofounded Level Best Books with fellow crime writers Kate Flora and Susan Oleksiw. So far, her Lizzie Crane mystery series includes four traditional historical novels set in the Jazz Age: Never Try to Catch a Falling Knife, What the Walls Know, The Goddess of Shipwrecked Sailors, and Running in the Shadows. The fifth, When the Blues Come Calling, is scheduled for release in September 2025 and she’s working on the seventh book now. After living in Massachusetts for thirty-one years, Skye now makes her home in Texas. Visit her at https://skyealexander.com

Who, What, When, Where, and Why

 by Skye Alexander

Journalists write according to what’s sometimes called the “inverted pyramid” style, which means they front-load their articles, presenting the most pertinent details in the first paragraph and then fleshing out their material as they proceed. Newsmen and women aim to present the five Ws––who, what, when, where, and why––in the first few sentences. This technique gives busy readers the key elements of a story right away, and allows the newspaper’s editor to cut less important information if space requirements dictate.

 Having worked as a journalist before turning to writing crime fiction, I noticed that mystery novels follow a similar practice. If you’re a mystery writer, your goal is to: 1) grab your reader’s attention quickly and, 2) introduce the main characters and story ingredients as soon as possible. If you’re a journalist, you may only have a few hundred words to tell your tale. If you’re a novelist, you’ll have a bigger arena in which to spin out your saga, but usually you’ll want to present the crime and the characters in the book’s first couple chapters.

Mysteries are games writers play with readers. Readers try to figure out whodunit before the end of the book. Writers try to trick them into guessing wrong. Let’s take a look at how we might play the game.  

Who

 One way writers introduce their characters to readers is by opening with a scene (or scenes) that include all the important people in the story, both good guys and bad. In her classic novel Murder on the Orient Express, Agatha Christie does this by bringing them together on a train traveling from London to the Middle East. Here, the hero or heroine meets the villain––although he or she doesn’t know it at the time, and neither should the reader. In Running in the Shadows, the fourth book in my Lizzie Crane Jazz Age mystery series, I chose to launch the story with a gala at the home of a flamboyant and infamous art collector where all the major characters are in attendance.

If you’re a reader trying to solve the mystery, notice who appears in the first part the book. Ideally, the protagonist and antagonist should meet early.

 What

 In mystery novels, the main plot (called the A story) centers on the crime. Most books also include a secondary or B story. Both present the protagonist with challenges as well as opportunities for growth. Maybe she’s involved in a problematic partnership or he’s battling alcoholism. If the hero/ine is an amateur sleuth, he or she may struggle to balance home life and career with solving a murder.

 What are the key elements in the tale? In addition to what actions take place, what other factors are important? Will readers learn more about the juvenile justice system? Drug trafficking? Auto racing? Lori Robbins’s On Pointe Mysteries take readers behind the scenes of the ballet business, where things aren’t always as pretty as they appear on stage. Some of the books in my series introduce readers to spiritual traditions they may not be familiar with. What the Walls Know, the second in the series, is set in a castle owned by an eccentric occultist and many of the characters are Spiritualists who communicate with discarnate beings. New Orleans voodoo is a major theme in my sixth book (scheduled for 2026 release). 

 When

 The period in which a story occurs is essential to the plot’s possibilities. If an author writes historical mysteries as I do, the details not only need to be accurate, they should also provide insights into the villains’ means, motives, and opportunities. For instance, if a story is set in the 19th century, characters can’t jet about the world to carry out dastardly deeds or escape from bad guys bent on killing them. The time involved in traveling by other means can serve as a plot device, an opportunity to develop tension, and a way of gradually revealing information. Forensics of the period will also dictate how a crime can be investigated and solved.

If you’re a writer, do your research to make sure you get it right. The fifth book in my series, When the Blues Come Calling (scheduled for release in the summer of 2025), is set in New York City in June 1926. That summer, the city was busily converting its elevated railways to subways. I had to find a map that showed which ones were still above ground that month and which had been submerged, in order to accurately transport my characters around town. 

 Where

 The real estate agent’s axiom about the importance of “location, location, location” also holds true for mystery writers and readers. The place where a story occurs provides a backdrop for the action and creates ambiance. It also grounds the tale in a time/space framework with a history, culture, and physical features that dictate what can or cannot happen there. A crime that transpires in a seventeenth-century French chateau, for instance, will be different from one that takes place on the mean streets of Al Capone’s Chicago.

Writers serve as tour guides for readers, providing information about places and the people who live there, as is the case with Tony Hillerman’s novels that take place in the Four Corners. The third book in my series, The Goddess of Shipwrecked Sailors, is set in the history-rich city of Salem, Massachusetts and spans two colorful time periods: the clipper ship era in the mid-1800s and the Roaring Twenties.

Much as I enjoy reading about Louise Penny’s fictitious town of Three Pines, Quebec, I didn’t want to limit my series to only one setting. Consequently, I created a cast of New York jazz musicians whom wealthy people hire to perform at special events. Each stint takes the entertainers to a different location where they’re presented with a unique set of obstacles and opportunities.

 Why

We read books to expand our horizons, to learn about people, ideas, environments, and conditions we may never experience ourselves. “Reading allows us to see and understand the world through the eyes of others,” explains writer/illustrator Chris Riddell. Author Anne Tyler says she reads, “So I can live more than one life in more than one place.” According to writer Allen Bennett, “A book is a device to ignite the imagination.”

 It’s interesting that during the pandemic lockdowns in 2021, print book sales in the US rose to a high of more than 837 million copies. When the world seems dire and we’re blocked from experiencing our usual lives, we turn to books not only for entertainment and information, but for hope and solace.

Perhaps the ancient Greek philosopher Plato best answered the question of why we read. “Books give a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything.”

About the Author

Skye Alexander is the author of nearly 50 fiction and nonfiction books. Her stories have appeared in anthologies internationally, and her work has been translated into fifteen languages. In 2003, she cofounded Level Best Books with fellow crime writers Kate Flora and Susan Oleksiw. So far four traditional historical novels in her Lizzie Crane mystery series have been published: Never Try to Catch a Falling Knife, What the Walls Know, The Goddess of Shipwrecked Sailors, and Running in the Shadows. After living in Massachusetts for thirty-one years, Skye now makes her home in Texas.