Greetings! I’m excited to join the Sisterhood of the Traveling Book and share where my books have been spotted.
In choosing one particular book, it occurred to me that all of my books have traveled. Many across the U.S. some internationally. In fact, I’m rather jealous. They are far better traveled than…well, me!
So, for purposes of my first Traveling Book post, I decided to talk about New Mexico, the state where I currently live, and the places my books have appeared within the Land of Enchantment.
Taos: One such place was Taos, New Mexico. A Santa Fe bookstore owner invited me to talk about Until Dead: A Cold Case Suspense with a Taos book
club. Not only did this wonderful group buy my lunch; they were well prepared with their questions and perceptions about the book and the series.
Taos Book Club members
About Taos: I’d been to Taos as a young girl. Later, my family and I hiked, held family reunions and attended a balloon festival in the northeastern part of the state. There is so much outdoor activity to do in this area.
Taos Pueblo (Moreen Drake Photographer)
Taos is a historian’s dream. Located in the Sangre De Cristo Mountains, the city has a history that dates back to the 16th Century when Spanish Conquistadors flooded the area in search of gold. Later, in the 1800s, Kit Carson settled here. He is perhaps the most renowned, but only one of the legends that make this area famous.
San Francisco de Asis Church, Rancho de Taos, NM (Moreen Drake Photographer)
The Taos Pueblo has a strong Native American population and is something to behold. Rich in tribal tradition, you will find Southwestern art and jewelry, witness tribal dances and enjoy authentic Southwestern cuisine (my personal favorite Indian fry bread!)
Nevertheless, if you visit Taos, pack your patience in your suitcase. It is an incredibly popular tourist destination. Its population isn’t quite 7,000, and I visited off season. Downtown has limited ingress and egress and is comprised of restaurants, hotels, bed and breakfasts, parks and museums. Trust me, though, the food, scenery, history, skiing, and additional things to do while you’re there will make it worth the effort.
Farmington: Another place my books have taken me is to my hometown of Farmington, New Mexico. When Black Pearl: A Cold Case Suspense was published, I was interviewed on a local radio station. Sometime afterward, I participated in a joint author signing at the Farmington Public Library.
The new library is an impressive architectural feat of glass and steel and is well organized and managed. However, I was sad not to enter the library I remembered from my childhood. The old building, long torn down, had a museum attached. Inside, I could view mannequins behind roped-off sections operating antique sewing machines, opening ice boxes, or read about the farming community for which the city is named. The honest truth is though, back in those days, I went to the museum mostly to see the two-headed calf!
About Farmington: Farmington is located in the Four Corners area, because the tip of New Mexico borders Arizona, Colorado and Utah. If you’re interested in Native American studies and artifacts, you will find the Aztec Ruins National Monument and Salmon Ruins close by.
Southwest of Farmington, you’ll encounter Shiprock, New Mexico, which in Navajo is Tse.Bit’a’i, for “rock with wings.”
Shiprock at Sunrise (Jim Rhodes, Photographer)
To the east of Farmington is Navajo Lake State Park, while if you travel fifty miles northwest, you’ll reach Durango, Colorado. Farmington’s climate has four seasons and outdoor enthusiasts love this area. So, whether you ski on a mountain or in the water, you can plan accordingly.
Las Cruces: I only had to drive fifteen minutes to the Thomas Branigan Memorial Library for this event. With help from the Friends of the Library, here I am pictured with my good friend, Author Bailey Herrington who interviewed me about my cold case suspense Black Pearl.
About Las Cruces: In addition to having an outstanding library, I have enjoyed living in Las Cruces. The city comes with a small-town ambiance. Further, I love the culture. It’s home to New Mexico State University, which offers cultural and educational programs as well as sporting events. Surrounded by Mesilla Valley, the Organ Mountains, White Sands National Park, we live thirty minutes from El Paso. I grant it’s hot during the summer, but the climate is generally mild in the remaining months. I’m outdoors more than I’ve ever been in my life. Everywhere I turn, I see bicyclists and runners. I walk, and my husband and I are active in the pickleball community. As for him, he’s in his element, hiking, hunting and running. 
I know this blog sounds like a Travelogue. However, isn’t that what it is–to talk about the places my books have traveled? I’m still trying to alert people that New Mexico is in the United States. Ideally, this blog has mentioned some great New Mexico cities you may want to consider visiting in the future. And, of course, I hope you’ll check out my books!
Donnell Ann Bell is an award-winning author who began her nonfiction career in newspapers. After she turned to fiction, her romantic suspense novels became Amazon bestsellers, including The Past Came Hunting, Deadly Recall, Betrayed, and Buried Agendas. In 2019, Donnell released her first mainstream suspense, Black Pearl, A Cold Case Suspense, which was a 2020 Colorado Book Award finalist. In 2022, book two of the series was released. Until Dead, A Cold Case Suspense won Best Thriller in 2023 at the Imaginarium Conference in Louisville, Kentucky. Currently, she’s working on book three of the series. Readers can follow Donnell on her blog or sign up for her newsletter at www.donnellannbell.net.
One-Hit Wonders
/in Anthologies, Inspiration, Judy Penz Sheluk/by Judy Penz ShelukDo you know there’s a list of one-hit wonders on Wikipedia? It’s true, there is, and those one-hit wonders are even broken down by decade. Back in May 2025, Jay Hartman, Editor-in-Chief, White City Press emailed me with an invitation to submit a short story for Lunatic Fringe, a sequel to their anthology (I Just) Died in Your Arms: Crime Fiction Inspired by One-Hit Wonders. The only criteria was the song had to come from the list, could not have been done before, and it had to actually inspire the story. It wouldn’t do just to have a character listen to the song or dance to it or some other easy way out.
Now, I’ve had stories in anthologies before (including five that I published under Superior Shores Press). In fact, I got my start as an author by being published in three anthologies in one year (2014). But invited? I’d never been “invited” before. I allowed myself ten minutes of feeling important before surveying the one-hit wonder list. And there it was:
Baby, It’s You by Smith
I was probably a bit too young to fully appreciate the angst in lead singer Gayle McCormick’s voice (though I’ve certainly been there and done that since), but I’ve loved that song since the first time I heard it, which would have been 1969, the year it was released. I wasn’t the only one. Baby, It’s You sold over one million copies between July and October 1969, out-charted popular versions by the Beatles and Shirelles, and was awarded a gold record.
Like many bands with or without one-hit wonders, Smith soon disbanded, and after a brief solo career, McCormick left the music business. A lifelong smoker, she died of metastatic lung cancer in 2016, at the age of 67.
My protagonist in the story is named (you guessed it) Gayle. And the man that broke her heart? None other than Mac McCormick, a wannabe writer and very much married man.
The opening paragraph of my story goes like this:
And later…
If you’ve never heard the song …
or if you’d like a refresher, there’s a fabulous Youtube version.
You can find Lunatic Fringe at your favorite retailer or purchase directly from White City Press.
The past Chair of Crime Writers of Canada, Judy Penz Sheluk is the bestselling author of seven mystery novels, five anthologies, and two award-winning books on publishing, including Finding YOUR Path to Publication and Self-publishing: The Ins & Outs of Going Indie. Find her at www.judypenzsheluk.com.
Cheating and Scamming
/in writing life/by Lois WinstonImage from Pixabay
Cheating and Scamming
People have been scamming the system since forever. Going all the way back to my days in junior high school, there were those students who didn’t bother to read the assigned book. Instead, these lazy cheats bought the CliffsNotes edition of the book and wrote their book report from that, often lifting the synopsis verbatim.
Back in the day, sometimes the thief was caught but depending how savvy or diligent the teacher, not always. I suppose if the teacher had a copy of the CliffNotes edition or more than one student had pulled the same stunt, he or she would’ve quickly caught on and handed the culprit an F. Otherwise, probably not.
Over the last ten years or so, publishers have been taking the easy way out to cut costs. They’ve either stopped hiring cover artists or dramatically cut back in their use of them. Instead, they generate their covers in-house, using stock photography. Think about how many mysteries, thrillers, and romantic suspense covers you’ve seen that feature a woman wearing a red coat or dress and running off into the distance, her back turned to you. Often, it’s the very same photograph slapped onto a new background.
When a book breaks out, publishers also glom onto that book’s success with their own versions of the title. Think about all the books with “girl” in the title that came out after the success of Gone Girl.
Not only are publishers doing this, but many authors are now trying to capitalize on the success of other authors by copying the series ideas, style, and even cover art of successful authors and/or books. Dragons are everywhere ever since Game of Thrones, including and especially in multiple middle-grade and YA series.
Once upon a time, writers were told not to follow trends. By the time your book was written and submitted, the trend would be on the downside. All you have to do is look at the proliferation of books in multiple genres that all take place in libraries to know that no longer seems to be true.
Cheating & Scamming
Fast-forward to the present, and we’re all contending with people who use AI to generate novels that are flooding the system. Does Amazon really think that by asking on their upload dashboard if AI was used to create any part of the book or cover that those who have used it will be honest enough to say so? If you believe that, I’ve got a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.
Cheating & Scamming
image from Pixabay
Too many people aren’t interested in putting in the work to create original works of art. Big tech is stealing from authors, artists, actors, and musicians to train their AI using our copyrighted works without permission or compensation. They’ve now used AI to generate a “live” actress that an agency is shopping around for roles in TV and movies. And an AI generated country singer and song recently hit #1 on Billboard’s Country Digital Song Sales chart.
For those of us who expend the time and brain cells to write unique books rather than copying the works of others or resorting to AI to do the work for us, it’s depressing and demoralizing. But we continue writing because for most of us, we can’t not write. (Excuse the double-negative!)
New technologies play a role in the plot of Embroidered Lies and Alibis, the fifteenth book in my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery Series, (currently available for preorder and releasing Feb. 10th).
Many ethical questions are being raised about the use of AI and the people who are profiting from it. What are your thoughts? Post a comment for a chance to win a promo code for a free audiobook download of any of the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries or the Empty Nest Mysteries.
Embroidered Lies and Alibis
When Anastasia’s mother Flora is offered a free spa vacation from Jeremy Dugan, a man connected to her distant past, Anastasia and husband Zack suspect ulterior motives. After all, too-good-to-be-true often spells trouble. Their suspicions are confirmed when the FBI swoops in to apprehend Dugan. However, Dugan isn’t who he claimed to be, and his arrest raises more questions than answers.
The Feds link Dugan to a string of cons targeting elderly single women across the country, but his seemingly airtight alibi leaves investigators stumped. Then, shortly after his release on bail, he’s kidnapped. A certain segment of New Jersey’s population is known for delivering deadly messages, and the FBI believes Dugan received one of them.
Meanwhile, bodies begin showing up in the newly created public garden across the street from Anastasia and Zack’s home. With two baffling crimes, no clear suspects, scant evidence, and every possible motive unraveling, both the FBI and local law enforcement are once again picking Anastasia’s brain. This time, though, her involvement is far from reluctant. Will she stitch together enough clues before she or someone she loves becomes the killer’s next victim?
Craft project included.
Buy Links: Amazon Nook Kobo Apple Books
~*~
Sisterhood of the Traveling Book
/in Sisterhood of the Traveling Book/by Donnell Ann BellGreetings! I’m excited to join the Sisterhood of the Traveling Book and share where my books have been spotted.
In choosing one particular book, it occurred to me that all of my books have traveled. Many across the U.S. some internationally. In fact, I’m rather jealous. They are far better traveled than…well, me!
So, for purposes of my first Traveling Book post, I decided to talk about New Mexico, the state where I currently live, and the places my books have appeared within the Land of Enchantment.
Taos: One such place was Taos, New Mexico. A Santa Fe bookstore owner invited me to talk about Until Dead: A Cold Case Suspense with a Taos book
club. Not only did this wonderful group buy my lunch; they were well prepared with their questions and perceptions about the book and the series.
Taos Book Club members
About Taos: I’d been to Taos as a young girl. Later, my family and I hiked, held family reunions and attended a balloon festival in the northeastern part of the state. There is so much outdoor activity to do in this area.
Taos Pueblo (Moreen Drake Photographer)
Taos is a historian’s dream. Located in the Sangre De Cristo Mountains, the city has a history that dates back to the 16th Century when Spanish Conquistadors flooded the area in search of gold. Later, in the 1800s, Kit Carson settled here. He is perhaps the most renowned, but only one of the legends that make this area famous.
San Francisco de Asis Church, Rancho de Taos, NM (Moreen Drake Photographer)
The Taos Pueblo has a strong Native American population and is something to behold. Rich in tribal tradition, you will find Southwestern art and jewelry, witness tribal dances and enjoy authentic Southwestern cuisine (my personal favorite Indian fry bread!)
Nevertheless, if you visit Taos, pack your patience in your suitcase. It is an incredibly popular tourist destination. Its population isn’t quite 7,000, and I visited off season. Downtown has limited ingress and egress and is comprised of restaurants, hotels, bed and breakfasts, parks and museums. Trust me, though, the food, scenery, history, skiing, and additional things to do while you’re there will make it worth the effort.
Farmington: Another place my books have taken me is to my hometown of Farmington, New Mexico. When Black Pearl: A Cold Case Suspense was published, I was interviewed on a local radio station. Sometime afterward, I participated in a joint author signing at the Farmington Public Library.
The new library is an impressive architectural feat of glass and steel and is well organized and managed. However, I was sad not to enter the library I remembered from my childhood. The old building, long torn down, had a museum attached. Inside, I could view mannequins behind roped-off sections operating antique sewing machines, opening ice boxes, or read about the farming community for which the city is named. The honest truth is though, back in those days, I went to the museum mostly to see the two-headed calf!
About Farmington: Farmington is located in the Four Corners area, because the tip of New Mexico borders Arizona, Colorado and Utah. If you’re interested in Native American studies and artifacts, you will find the Aztec Ruins National Monument and Salmon Ruins close by.
Southwest of Farmington, you’ll encounter Shiprock, New Mexico, which in Navajo is Tse.Bit’a’i, for “rock with wings.”
Shiprock at Sunrise (Jim Rhodes, Photographer)
To the east of Farmington is Navajo Lake State Park, while if you travel fifty miles northwest, you’ll reach Durango, Colorado. Farmington’s climate has four seasons and outdoor enthusiasts love this area. So, whether you ski on a mountain or in the water, you can plan accordingly.
Las Cruces: I only had to drive fifteen minutes to the Thomas Branigan Memorial Library for this event. With help from the Friends of the Library, here I am pictured with my good friend, Author Bailey Herrington who interviewed me about my cold case suspense Black Pearl.
About Las Cruces: In addition to having an outstanding library, I have enjoyed living in Las Cruces. The city comes with a small-town ambiance. Further, I love the culture. It’s home to New Mexico State University, which offers cultural and educational programs as well as sporting events. Surrounded by Mesilla Valley, the Organ Mountains, White Sands National Park, we live thirty minutes from El Paso. I grant it’s hot during the summer, but the climate is generally mild in the remaining months. I’m outdoors more than I’ve ever been in my life. Everywhere I turn, I see bicyclists and runners. I walk, and my husband and I are active in the pickleball community. As for him, he’s in his element, hiking, hunting and running.
I know this blog sounds like a Travelogue. However, isn’t that what it is–to talk about the places my books have traveled? I’m still trying to alert people that New Mexico is in the United States. Ideally, this blog has mentioned some great New Mexico cities you may want to consider visiting in the future. And, of course, I hope you’ll check out my books!
Donnell Ann Bell is an award-winning author who began her nonfiction career in newspapers. After she turned to fiction, her romantic suspense novels became Amazon bestsellers, including The Past Came Hunting, Deadly Recall, Betrayed, and Buried Agendas. In 2019, Donnell released her first mainstream suspense, Black Pearl, A Cold Case Suspense, which was a 2020 Colorado Book Award finalist. In 2022, book two of the series was released. Until Dead, A Cold Case Suspense won Best Thriller in 2023 at the Imaginarium Conference in Louisville, Kentucky. Currently, she’s working on book three of the series. Readers can follow Donnell on her blog or sign up for her newsletter at www.donnellannbell.net.
Short Story Terminology
/in Anthologies, Paula Gail Benson, Short Stories/by Paula Bensonby Paula Gail Benson
With the start of a new year, some writers may be looking to experiment with a new fictional form. Why not try short stories?
If you haven’t already dabbled in this genre, here is some terminology you may wish to use to guide you. Short stories are defined by their brevity. Their word count determines how they are categorized.
Drabble—is a story of exactly 100 words (not including the title or author attribution)
Flash Fiction—are stories of 1,000 or fewer words. Some sources say up to 1,500 or 2,000 words.
Brief fictional forms in addition to drabble and flash fiction include:
(1) “the six-word story” exemplified by one attributed to Ernest Hemingway: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”
(2) the 280-character story or “twitterature” (based on the maximum number of characters allowed by X as a tweet or twitter). Philip Pullman and Neil Gaiman are practitioners.
(3) the “dribble” or “minisaga,” which is exactly 50 words (here are some examples).
(4) “micro-fiction” or “nano-fiction” is less than 300 words.
(5) “postcard fiction” is up to 500 words.
(6) “sudden fiction,” which can go up to 750 words.
(7) the “microstory.”
Novelette may be 7,500 to 19,000 words.
Novella may be 17,500 to 40,000 words.
A novel can be 40,000 words. Most mystery novels are around 80,000 words. Science fiction and fantasy novels may be as long as 120,000 words.
In addition, short stories are defined by where they are located. Many are found in magazines or online sources. A book of short stories is categorized by the number of authors whose work is contained in it.
Collection—consists of stories all written by the same author, such as John M. Floyd’s River Road and Other Mystery Stories or Barb Goffman’s Don’t Get Mad, Get Even: 15 Tales of Revenge and More
Anthology—contains the work of more than one author and may be organized by theme, for example the Malice Domestic anthologies: Malice Domestic: Mystery Most Diabolical, Malice Domestic 18: Mystery Most Devious, and Donna Andrews Presents Malice Domestic: Mystery Most Humorous.
A Free-Association Glimpse Into My Mind—Yikes! by T.K. Thorne
/in Uncategorized/by TK ThorneI don’t have a single thought in my head….
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Full Circle Moments
/in Detective Parrott Mystery Series, Dog books, memories, Mysteries, writing life/by Saralyn RichardBy Saralyn Richard
Once in a while in the writers’ journey, serendipitous moments occur, and they seem magical. I’ve had three such moments recently and will share them with you.
First of all, I’m writing an historical mystery that takes place in my hometown, Galveston, Texas, after the 1900 Storm, which is still the deadliest natural disaster in the history of America. In the information-gathering stage, I invited newsletter subscribers to send me names and/or stories of relatives from that place and time.
While I waited for responses, I worked on making burial arrangements for my cousin, Jill Jacobson, a Hollywood actress who grew up in nearby Beaumont, Texas. The plan was to bring Jill’s remains to Beaumont for burial in the family plot.
One of my newsletter subscribers sent me an email saying that I would be hearing from her friend, Betty, who had some 1900 Storm stories. Betty and I ended up chatting on the phone for more than an hour about her family’s experiences in the storm. During the conversation, Betty mentioned growing up in Beaumont, so I asked her if she knew my cousin Jill, and I told her what I was setting up with the cemetery.
To my surprise, and Betty’s, we realized that Jill is Betty’s cousin, too, on the opposite side of the family. So Betty is going to come to the memorial service, which she wouldn’t have known about if not for my work-in-progress.
The second full circle moment occurred last week at Then and Now Bookshop during ArtWalk. I was selling books at a table in the bookstore, when a mother and her nineteen-year-old daughter came over to look at my books.
The cover of Naughty Nana, the children’s book narrated by the real Old English sheepdog puppy, Nana, caught their eyes. “Oh, we remember Nana! We’re big Nana fans!” the mother said. “We were at the library when you brought Nana there to do a reading a long time ago, and we’ve followed Nana ever since.”
They were sad, but not surprised, that Nana crossed the Rainbow Bridge two years ago, but we reminisced about Nana’s many appearances in parades, on tv, at schools, etc. They purchased some of my other books, signed up for my newsletter, and left. The next day, I sent the mother an email with pictures from that long-ago library event they attended. Something made me include a drawing that one of the children did for Nana that day.
The next day I received a return email. The daughter was indeed one of the children in the picture, and she was the one who drew that treasured note to Nana. Thirteen years later, I still have the original!
The third full circle moment happened that same day at the same bookshop. One of the customers came up to my table asking if I was a local author, and if I was “BOI” (born on island). Being a BOI locks you into an immediate fraternity of special people. In fact, there are pregnant women who insist on delivering their babies in Galveston, so the babies can attain that status.
Turned out that customer was also a BOI, and she mentioned her connection to Dominican High School, a Catholic girls’ school here. I said, “I’m sure you knew my dear friend, Father Frank Fabj.”
That opened up a squealing that galvanized the entire bookshop. Yes, she knew Father Frank well. He was important to her and her family through several life cycle events. She was astounded to see that I dedicated A Palette for Love and Murder to him. She clutched the book to her chest, the same way I do sometimes when I think of and miss Frank’s presence.
The two of us, complete strangers moments before, bonded over the dedication in a book, and we ended up shedding tears and hugging together.
Recently, an interviewer asked me what surprised me most about becoming a writer, and I answered something about the network of readers and fellow authors I’ve met and the friendships I’ve made. The books that I’ve published are only the vehicles. The transmission of thoughts and feelings and ideas that comes from being a writer and a reader is what really counts—that is the basis for these magical, delightful, and, yes, thrilling connections with others.
I’d love to hear about one of your full circle moments.
Saralyn Richard writes award-winning mysteries, including the Detective Parrott mystery series, Bad Blood Sisters, Mrs. Oliver’s Twist, A Murder of Principal, and Naughty Nana, a children’s book. An active member of International Thriller Writers and Mystery Writers of America, Saralyn has taught creative writing and literature. Her favorite thing about being an author is interacting with readers like you. For more information, check https://saralynrichard.com.
Beginning the Year with Celebrations
/in Paula Gail Benson/by Paula Bensonby Paula Gail Benson
The year 2026 is starting with a series of significant celebrations and anniversaries. For my first post of the year, I sought out the historical context of resolutions. Then, as I learned of upcoming events, I realized I needed to prepare for a year of recognitions.
Peacock Image by 123stitch.com
When I looked up the history of New Year’s resolutions, I found a reference to the “peacock vow,” a tradition from medieval times involving knights pledging their civility and support to a community by placing their hands on a live or roasted peacock. (See Ringing in the New Year: A Medieval Perspective – History Tools.) Such a feast is described in “Vows of the Peacock” a poem written by Jacques de Longuyon around 1310. I wondered if that practice might have influenced a number of cultures, perhaps including the United States’ holiday of Thanksgiving.
Monks on Gervais Street Bridge Image by msn.com
Next, I began hearing news stories of a group of about two dozen Buddhist monks based in Fort Worth, Texas, walking 2,300 miles to Washington, D.C., in support of peace. During the journey, due to a vehicle accident, one had to have his leg amputated. The group’s “peace dog” Aloka, a stray acquired on a trip to India, missed some of the walk to have tendon surgery. Part of their route brought them to Columbia, South Carolina, where thousands followed them across a bridge to the steps of the Statehouse. In a very real way, the monks shared their peacefulness with all who observed them. You can follow them through their Facebook page.
Monks on Statehouse Steps Image from Facebook
Martin Luther King, Jr. Image from Wikipedia
This post will appear on Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, a holiday signed into law by President Ronald Reagan in 1983 and first observed in 1986. This year with be the fortieth year it has been recognized. King’s actual birthday was January 15, 1929. The federal Uniform Monday Holiday Act requires that it be celebrated on a Monday. In South Carolina, King Day at the Dome is celebrated beginning with a service at Zion Baptist Church, a march to the Statehouse, and speeches by community leaders and elected officials with a keynote by U.S. Senator Cory Booker (NJ-D).
A new series premiered this week to celebrate Star Trek’s sixtieth anniversary. Starfleet Academy features Holly Hunter as the new Chancellor for the school that is opening for the first time in one hundred years. Even though set in the 32nd century, the far future from other Star Trek series, it draws on characters and cultures that viewers will find familiar.
So far, 2026 has had an auspicious beginning. and still to come is the United States Semiquincentennial, to celebrate the 250th birthday of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Where history meets mystery
/in Uncategorized/by donalee Moultonby donalee Moulton
Many writers are attracted to the historical mystery genre because they like weaving a mystery for readers to solve. Many other writers are history buffs and want to share their love of the past with readers in the present. I’ve learned you need both elements to keep readers turning pages. Two worlds are always at play in the historical mystery: mayhem and yesteryear.
Writing historical mysteries means focusing on both whodunit and whentheydunit. I recently taught a course on this subject and thought I’d share some suggestions for writers to help you travel back in time to commit your crime. For readers, it’s an inside look at the process.
Start with the history, not the mystery
Before writers plot the perfect murder, they need to be as comfortable in their historical setting as they are in their own living rooms. The time period shapes everything in the story: how people talk, what they eat, how they live their lives – and how they investigate when a life ends.
Three questions dominate the journey back in time:
1. Why this specific time? What drew you in? What do you think will fascinate readers?
2. What conflicts defined this time? Political unrest, economic hardship, social upheaval—these create natural tension.
3. How did people solve crimes then? In the absence of DNA and surveillance cameras, investigations relied on observation, word of mouth, and intuition and maybe sneaking in a window to surveil a crime scene.
A historical mystery’s believability depends on accuracy. This doesn’t mean reciting every historical fact—indeed, this doesn’t work—but the writer must be comfortable enough in this other world to enable characters to move through it naturally.
Choose a main character who belongs
The investigator in a historical mystery guides the reader through clues and through the era. They might be an amateur or a professional. This might be the three-hundredth crime they’ve solved or the first. It doesn’t matter; they belong here.
In historical settings, investigators often have limitations modern detectives don’t—and this goes well beyond technology. Everything from restricted travel, class barriers, rigid gender roles. These limitations can be opportunities to connect with readers. Lean into them; they nudge creativity and add tension.
The sleuth’s personality and background should also reflect the era while also offering traits—curiosity, stubbornness, empathy—that transcend time.
Research like a detective, not an archivist
If a detective needs to walk down a street in 1912 Montreal, the writer should know what that street smelled like, whether cobblestones rattled under carriage wheels, and how likely the character was to meet someone selling newspapers on the corner.
Sources for rich and authentic detail include:
* Newspapers and periodicals from the time (full of language, concerns, and advertisements)
* Diaries and letters for personal perspectives (where possible)
* Historical maps for accurate geography
* Material culture research what fabrics, foods, and objects were common
The goal is to take readers into this world by recreating it for them without overwhelming them with facts that will weigh the story down and bore readers. Instead, historical details work like seasoning, enhancing the flavour without overpowering the dish.
Layer in historical conflict
The best historical mysteries don’t just place a modern crime in an old-fashioned setting; they weave the mystery into the fabric of the time. A theft in 1920 might be tied to Prohibition smuggling. A murder in 16th-century Spain could intersect with religious persecution. These historical tensions add stakes and make the story more than a puzzle; they transform it into a lens through which readers experience the era.
Make dialogue a cornerstone
Language is one of the quickest ways to immerse readers in the past, but it’s also a common pitfall. Too much archaic phrasing can make dialogue stiff and hard to follow, while overly modern speech breaks the illusion.
The key is selective authenticity:
* Use period-appropriate vocabulary for objects, occupations, and social customs.
* Avoid slang that didn’t exist yet (dictionaries can help here).
* Keep sentence structure readable for modern audiences.
Keep pacing tight
While the past moved at a different pace, the plot shouldn’t drag. There is a need to balance richly detailed scenes with moments of action and revelation. In historical mysteries, tension often comes from the slow build. This can be delays in communication, the time it takes to travel, the risk of misinformation spreading. But every delay should raise stakes, not stall the plot.
End on a deeper note
When the mystery is solved, consider how this crime fits the morality of the era. Would a killer from a higher social class face justice? Would certain motives be more understandable, or unforgivable, back then? The ending of a historical mystery should leave readers feeling they’ve solved more than a crime, but that they’ve understood something about the world that once was.
Derringer Danger!
/in Anthologies, author promotion, Mysteries, Mystery, writing life/by Bethany MainesEvery year, the Short Mystery Fiction Society holds the Derringer Awards. Judged by volunteers from the society’s membership, these competitive awards recognize short mystery stories published that year. The judging process and program management are a lot of work and I’m always impressed at the volunteers who bring the awards program to life.
Derringer Categories
Derringer Judging
Each category requires three primary and one alternate SMFS members to whittle their assigned category down to five finalists. Each judge is provided with a criteria sheet and a batch of short stories, and then the scores are totaled by the Derringer coordinator. And having judged before, I know that the quality of the stories is fantastic and that anyone who submits is up against some top-notch writers. I loved getting to read such a wide spread of stories with different mystery sub-genres and sensibilities. Believe me, getting down to top five is hard!
Stiletto Gang Stories
Several of the Stiletto Gang are also SMFS members and have submitted their stories. With the array of submissions below, I’m hoping that at least one of the Stiletto Gang can take home a Derringer Award medal.
donalee has three stories in consideration. With a 2024 finalist spot, donalee is shooting for a repeat with one of her three stories. “Bon Ami” from the Signed, Sealed…Deceased Cozy Mystery Anthology. “Maladaptives Anonymous” from the Midnight Schemers & Daydream Believers Anthology. And “Zebra Finch” from The Most Dangerous Games.
Judy submitted “Baby, It’s You” from Lunatic Fringe and “A Foolproof Plan” from the Midnight Schemers & Daydream Believers Anthology. This fantastic mystery/crime anthology features 22 tales of mystery and suspense. Last year, the previous anthology, Larceny & Last Chances picked up a Finalist spot in the Derringer’s Anthology category, so we’re all hopeful for a repeat with Midnight Schemers & Daydream Believers!
Debra has “Candy Cane on the Case,” from Crimeucopia: The Not So Frail Detective Agency and “Opera Dinner Club, ” which was both a podcast and print story in Anything But Murder: Larceny and Lies. Like Bethany, her stories are falling in two different categories. If you visit her website you can see her extensive list of short stories! Visit: https://www.debrahgoldstein.com/short-stories/
In 2025, I wrote two mystery stories that qualify to be submitted for the Derringers – “Front Desk Staff” (published in Midnight Schemers & Daydream Believers) and “Love, Lefse, & Murder” (published in Cooking Up Death). “Front Desk Staff” went into the highly competitive Short Story Category and “Love, Lefse, & Murder,” which clocked in at 9k words, will be in the Best Novelette category.
Wish all of the Stiletto Gang members luck as our precious stories make their way across the judges desks!
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Would You Take This Advice?
/in Artificial Intelligence, amateur sleuth mysteries, Book Clubs, Cozy Mysteries, Gay Yellen, humor, Mystery Series, Romantic Suspense, Samantha Newman Romantic Mystery series/by Gay YellenAs the calendar turns, it seems like we’re bombarded with suggestions about how to improve our happiness and well-being in the new year.
Much of this purported wisdom comes from professional gurus, some from ordinary folks, and some—heaven help us—from chatbots. A meme I recently came across suggested that we had to invent artificial intelligence because we are running out of real intelligence. But I digress…
The New York Times columnist, Melissa Kirsch, asked her readers to share the best advice they got in the past year. A few ideas were practical, such as: “Don’t think harder, breathe deeper.” Or, “Baby steps still move us forward.” Or, “Always have a bottle of champagne chilling in the fridge.”
And others seemed less helpful, such as “You don’t need to tell everyone everything that goes into making the chicken soup.”
I’m guessing that one was from a chatbot.
If you take advice from TEDTalk gurus or best-seller book lists, you’ve probably come across the podcaster Mel Robbins and her blockbuster “Let Them” theory. At its core is this message: Don’t waste your energy worrying about people and situations beyond your control. Let them be stupid, mean, or just plain wrong, and get on with your life.
I received similar advice years ago.
After venting my frustration over a personal relationship, an older and wiser woman of few words, responded, “When you argue with a fool, there are two fools arguing.” She saved me from allowing an untenable situation to ruin my life. It’s been a lesson I’ve returned to time and again.
When our family doctor retired, we thought we’d lost his gentle, humorous counsel forever. But he recently reappeared as a columnist on The Buzz, a local publication that’s often fun to read. On New Year’s Day, he cited a university’s report showing that less than ten percent of resolutions are kept, and almost half are abandoned before the end of the month.
The good doctor’s believes it would help if we promised ourselves to do something less boring than lose weight or exercise more.
“Why not resolve to do things that you really secretly want to do,” he asks, like “eat some chocolate every day?” Wise man.
Still, the urge is strong at New Year’s to look inward for ways to improve ourselves. My own resolutions tend to revolve around my writing career, which puts me in mind of the main character in my Samantha Newman Mystery Series.
Samantha is too headstrong to worry about any personal shortcomings, even though they often lead her into dangerous territory. When she sees an injustice, she dives headfirst into fixing the situation. So far, she’s survived relatively unscathed. But will she make it through another dicey situation?
We’ll see. In the meantime, let’s all cut ourselves a little slack.
Have fun, be well, and no matter what… have a great year!
Gay Yellen began her award-winning writing career in magazine journalism. She also was the contributing editor for the international thriller, Five Minutes to Midnight (Delacorte), which debuted as a New York Times “Notable.” Her Samantha Newman Mystery Series is packed with suspense and laced with touches of romance, heart, and humor. Find it on Amazon or through your favorite bookseller.