When I first started writing, I tried a mystery series starring Sylvia Thorn and Willie Grisseljon, a sister and brother who were older. In their 60s, as a matter of fact. Their elderly parents are still alive and active as well. Writing The Prairie Grass Murders and The Desert Hedge Murders was fun, but I wanted to try a thriller, and historical fiction, and short stories, so off I went to dabble in a variety of genres. I also read in almost every genre, including non-fiction, but when I’m looking for mysteries, I start with my go-to favorites among the authors of the Rocky Mountain states, most of them in Colorado. With all the excellent writers here, one hardly needs to search anywhere else in the country. I couldn’t begin to mention them all in one blog post, so I’m going to talk about just a few of the ones I’ve read in 2020. My want-to-read list for 2021 is is even longer. Shannon Baker Shannon lives in Arizona these days, but she spent lots of time in the state of Colorado and ...

Veterans Day is celebrated on November 12 (the actual date being November 11), but why limit thinking about and honoring our veterans on just a single day? And how about reading a book (or two) that would help us learn more about and appreciate the men and women who have served and are serving their country? The following lists offer some possibilities for you to consider. I'll start with mystery-related reads, since mysteries are "my thing": Mystery Fanfare by Janet Rudolph salutes Veterans Day mysteries in this post , mentioning Jacqueline Winspear's series with protagonist Maise Dobbs (a World War I nurse veteran), as well as Charles Todd's two series featuring Inspector Ian Rutledge (post-World War I) and battlefield nurse Bess Crawford (World War I). You can read more of her suggestions here .  A 2007 In Reference to Murder post by BV Lawson highlighting mystery series for Veterans Day includes the series by John D. MacDonald featuring Travis McGee, a...

Laura Caldwell is a lawyer-turned-author-turned-life-saver. She is a former civil trial lawyer, now a professor at Loyola University Chicago School of Law. She is also director of Life After Innocence, published author of 14 novels and one nonfiction book (to date), and speaker, daughter, sister, aunt, and friend. Caldwell’s fictional work began as chick-lit and soon turned into the mystery/thriller genre. Her first book,   Burning the Map , was voted as one of the year’s best books by BarnesandNoble.com in 2002. The Chicago Tribune called   A Clean Slate   “a page turner.”   The Year of Living Famously   and   The Night I Got Lucky   prompted Booklist to declare, “Caldwell is one of the most talented and inventive ... writers around.” In 2009, Caldwell released a trilogy on character Izzy McNeil, a Chicago lawyer who finds her way into a myriad of situations in which she must use her wit and legal skill. While researching her sixth novel, Cal...

First in a week-long series exploring novels to film. A few years ago, when I started writing longer stories and began developing the Morristown mystery series, I noticed my tendency to naturally break chapters into tight scenes that seemed more like scripting theater scenes than book chapters. I also found myself looking for photos of people who might play the roles of my characters, and as I built character files, I added images to give me strong visual descriptions for my writing. That seemed like casting actors for a play or movie. When my male protagonist took over my writing voice, I had quite a few challenges identifying with his character, and visuals became even more important to my writing. I spent hours looking for my main character, J. Lindsey Calhoun, and thought I’d found him in this man: But two aspects always bothered me about this image. He needed to have blue eyes – that changed from light blue to stormy dark depending on emotion - and I didn’t get th...

If there's any single word in the English language that expresses this concept, I don't know it. The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as: The spirit or genius which marks the thought or feeling of a period or age . Another way you could put it would be the ethos or customs of the times. Having written books set in three distinct periods, I've come to the conclusion that, important as correct historical detail may be, still more important is to understand--and accurately present to the reader--the Zeitgeist of your chosen setting. Included in this term is the status of women, the possible paths open to them, and the consequences they were likely to face if they stepped outside the conventions. Your female protagonist may  do anything she chooses, but if she acts in an unconventional way for the times, you must explain why, and how she suffers as a result. For instance, in my Regency novel, The Improper Governess , my heroine goes on the stage in order to...

I love to read well-researched novels. It seems many of my favorite authors are in it for the joy of research, and spend hours meandering down history lanes, or psychology avenues, or literally down the garden path. The dose of reality they infuse into their plots makes reading that much more interesting, and many times I’ve felt prompted to pursue a topic or an idea simply because of the seeds planted during a well-informed read. One of my favorite writers for just this reason is the late Blaize Clement . I love her books for three reasons: The marvelous sense of place in her Florida setting The bittersweet character development from book-to-book The fascinating tidbits of little-known facts skillfully woven into each plot-line In her recent Dixie Hemingway mystery #7, The Catsitter’s Pajamas (published posthumously by St. Martin's Press ), the protagonist seeks to understand the motivations of the perp in a burglary-turned-murder scenario. She seeks the advi...