Type M for Murder

"Masquerade" by Shelley Burbank

Hi Everyone. Shelley Burbank here. 

March has begun, and I'm wallowing and wading in my next Olivia Lively mystery. The first book was set in spring. The second in summer. The last one will be winter. 

This third mystery will be an autumn tale. 

Now, I love Maine in the fall, but it's a little difficult to feel that mood when living on a tropical island in Micronesia. I needed something to evoke woodsmoke rising from chimneys, pumkins decorating front porches, dusk falling quickly, the crunch of leaves beneath L.L. Bean boots, and all things Halloween. The answer? A "mood board" created on the front cover of the notebook I'm using to draft scenes, create character sketches, take notes on thematic elements needed for the plot, and synopses of chapters. 

This particular book will find my main character, Liv, in her darkest place. Her character arc (why do I always want to write "arch?" A plot is a structure of sorts, a bridge, taking my heroine from "here" to "there," but it's symbolic not literal, like an archway. Of course, in literary terms, there is also ARC--Advanced Reader Copy) over the course of my planned four-book series makes the third installment the logical place for the Dark Moment. And autumn has all those dark, witchy, Halloween vibes, too. It fits.

Anyway, I love making collages. I make them for my personal journal covers, and this particular piece was a fun way to spend a morning/afternoon. I let my verbal brain take a break while I played with mood and vibe and color and voila! The result is how I want readers to feel when they read the book: a little edgy, a little creepy, but also the cozy "pumpkin spiciness" of Gilmore Girls. And Guam. 

The idea for a certain plot/theme popped into my head while I was listening to a podcast episode about a goddess cult back in ancient Sumeria. That's actually all I'll say. I've typed more and deleted because I want no spoilers. Guam becomes a destination as Liv investigates the crime in Book 3, but whether or not it's a red herring I'll have to leave unanswered here. I'm not even TOTALLY sure myself what will happen here, but I'm pretty excited to share some of my current home with my readers.

And readers might not have to wait for the book to learn more about Guam because an idea for a short story (please, please, dear Muse, let it remain a short story) in the Olivia Lively world, but this time featuring her ASSISTANT/APPRENTICE, Marion! Yes, Marion is getting her own short story. I'm grateful to my Muse for gifting me with that brilliant idea. I already had the title from a t-shirt I found at a local tourist spot. 

I'm going to attempt to make a piece of art based on the photo I took, and I'm hoping maybe it will be good enough for an illustration for the short story if I use it as a lead magnet for building my email list. (Of course current subscribers will also have access to it, and I might also load it up to KDP for a .99 purchase for people who don't want to give me their email address.) 

The other option would be to submit it to a mystery magazine. 

Which do you think would be more likely to attract new readers? A. Free short story in exchange for email sign up or B. publication in a mystery magazine

Let me know what you think because I really can't decide. Sometimes people sign up for freebies, then unsubscribe after they get the freebie. I'm hoping to find readers who actually enjoy my stories and want to read more of them. Which is the better option? Help! 

Do YOU use vision boards for your life/work/writing? I'd love to hear more about that, too. Drop a comment! 

 

 by Sybil Johnson

I spent last week in Las Vegas, one of my favorite places to vacation. I’m not a partier, I just find it endlessly fascinating. Things are constantly changing on the Strip. Casinos come and go. Restaurants come and go. Shows come and go. The only thing guaranteed is that you’re going to walk and walk and walk. 

Sunset over the Strip. The Excalibur casino to the left, part of the New York New York casino on the right

It was nice to get away for a while. We went to several shows: Cirque de Soleil’s Ka, David Copperfield and a showing of the Wizard of Oz at the Sphere. The Sphere is, well, a huge sphere just off the strip near the Venetian. They have concerts there and show The Wizard of Oz. It’s an immersive experience. They cut out about 15 minutes from the original movie. It’s also processed so it seems 3-D and has occasional 4-D effects. Quite fun.

As I said, casinos come and go. The Mirage casino no longer exists. The new Hard Rock casino is being built in its place. Here’s the beginnings of a giant guitar.

 

The Flamingo is still around. They have a very cool bird sanctuary on the grounds which includes, yep you guessed it, flamingos.

 

We also went to the Arté museum, which is an immersive art experience. Well worth the visit.

Here in Southern California, we have driverless taxis called Waymos. They are modified cars. In Vegas, they have Zoox, which are vehicles that are made specifically to be robotaxis. There is no space for a driver, just space for passengers. Right now, they are in a test phase, giving free rides to limited places on the Strip. As soon as they get the go-ahead, they will start charging for the rides and, I would guess, go more places. You can read more about Zoox here.

All in all, it was a good trip. Now, back to work.

 by Charlotte Hinger

Once in while someone comes to me (usually after a signing) saying they have the most wonderful story. They know I will just love it. They have a proposal for me. Because they are lots smarter then me. I will be oh so grateful. They will give me their idea. (For free, yet.) Then I can write the story and we will split the money.

At that point I usually have a brainstorm. Why don't I give them an idea and they can do the work and we'll split the money.

Even if the idea is terrific, to write a book requires an emotional connection. Your idea will rarely stir another writer to actually sit down and produce some work. There are obvious contradictions to this, of course. Some work very effectively as collaborative writers. And one of the greatest husband and wife teams I know are Michael and Kathy Gear. But that is an entirely different process.

A book is a difficult undertaking under the best of circumstances. It requires a tremendous investment of time and energy. The idea you have will be best written by you, because of the fire in your heart. The most common reason people don't proceed is they don't think they can. "I'm not a writer," they protest. "Really. I wouldn't know where to start."

Do you think we Type M'ers know where to start, just because we are published authors? Actually, no. You would think, after all these years. . . but no! I have always believed that there are wonderful writers out there who will never experience the joy of seeing their work published because they could not stand to bat their way through the fog. Because when writing doesn't come easily, they think they have no "natural" talent.

There have been several posts about ideas on Type M over the years. I've never understood where ideas come from. I'm the happiest when I've made some progress on a book and instead of being bombarded by ideas for books, stories, sewing projects, computer workarounds, because my mind switches to plot problems and stays there. Plotting might be hard, but it's more comfortable than the pre-book restlessness.

One of my best short stories developed when someone asked me what I was getting my granddaughter for Christmas. I said "that depends on what the other grandmother is buying." Loved the phrase"the other grandmother." No, "the other mother" would be even better. I liked the way it rolled off my tongue. Such an unlikely source for a workable idea. The story morphed into "Any Old Mother," and was selected for the MWA anthology, Blood on Their Hands.

 Michael Chandos

February is always ruined by doing taxes. 

We keep records of business expenses, taxes paid for major purchases, donations,etc. We appear to be semi-organized. Every piece of paper involving money, business, or Government goes into a box for February sifting. We print out credit card history, checking and savings. We highlight questions, billings that don't have enough information (credit card companies think a 12 digit number tells you everything you need to know, but make no mention of the reason for the charge, who charged, or a hint about why), and problems.  We noticed a few apparent double payments.

Taxes for people in creative activities are out of the system. Tax structures are made for hourly or monthly earners, ie real, normal jobs. If I spend 40 hours on a short story and send it to an editor for possible publishing, actual payment may be next year, not this year when I spent the time, bought postage, did market research.  Expenses last year, income this year, even 2 to 5 years later. The IRS wants expenses to link to income.  Creative taxes?  Don't get too creative, lots of guidance exists, but be careful what you believe.  If you are really busy selling, maybe you hire an accountant that specializes in writing clients. Tax law changes all the time, too, even into late December.

I want to be a writer, not a tax accountant.

I think we successfully collect 98% of the information needed for comprehensive personal and business returns. The last 2% can make a difference. We don't claim floor space in the house, tough to justify these days. Searching for missing data eats up most of February.

The "Last 2%" is critical in writing, too. I volunteer as a judge every year for various mystery writing groups. The Private Eye Writers of America, the Short Mystery Fiction Society, and Mystery Writers of America are just three of dozens. The winners are always "complete". These authors worked hard to include the Last 2%, and it shows. Story actions are justified, consequences matter, no blind alleys trap the mind of the reader, consistent characters. Authors satisfied with 98%, or even 90% or less, are quickly identified. 100% stories rise to the top.

The last 2% will take much more thought and time than the previous 98%. I think that's true of any creative activity from sculpting to poetry.  

 2026 makes the 20th anniversary of my career as a professional writer. In those two decades, one can get jaded about plans foiled, marketing campaigns that sputtered out, expectations dimmed. I mean, my original goal was to become so outrageously wealthy in this writing game that I could hire Stephen King to clean my house. I even published an essay about it. Those riches never came to pass. But I have learned to count my blessings and embrace my successes however humble they may be to others. 

Last Saturday I was a panelist at In Conversation With Lisa Gardner, #1 New York Times Best-selling author. I'd been invited by Sean Eads, a librarian (and author) with the JeffCo Public Library, which hosted the event in the Teel Sanctuary at the Mile Hi Church in Lakewood, CO. For the panel, I was one of six local authors, four were well-established writers: Jon Bassoff, Kristin Koval, Mark Stevens, and Cynthia Swanson, and the fifth, the emcee Carter Wilson, himself highly acclaimed in the thriller genre.

When sitting behind the panel table and looking onto the audience, I made it a point to thank those who had taken time from their Saturday afternoon to attend and thank those from the library and the church staff responsible for the marketing and logistics that made the event possible. In the course of an hour presentation, we couldn't speak in depth about writing and publishing, but Carter Wilson is a skilled moderator and did a great job asking questions that ranged beyond the usual topics. Afterwards, Carter interviewed Lisa and the zoom audience who had tuned-in numbered over 500!

Being a panel of local authors, over the years I've met them all before except for Kristin Koval, and so it was a pleasure getting acquainted with another writer. It was also a pleasure to meet the headliner, Lisa Gardner, who was eminently gracious and sociable. 

Group selfie from the Green Room. From left, back row: Mark Steven, Sean Eads, me, Carter Wilson, Jon Bassoff. Front row: Kristin Koval, Cynthia Swanson, Lisa Gardner.

As we writers toil for years in solitude, it's encouraging to get out in public and have people show up to give us a listen. I count that as a success.

 

By Catherine Dilts

When creating a setting for a work of fiction, some authors invent their world from scratch. Others place their characters in recognizable cities, down to the street names and businesses. Much depends on the genre.

Thrillers and spy novels demand worlds ripped from the news headlines. Cozy mystery authors typically develop their own small town or neighborhood settings. They might be based on a real place, but everything about the location is fictionalized.

Most of my fiction falls in the cozy category, set in a Colorado you won’t find on a map. The Rose Creek Mystery series is set in Oklahoma, a state I lived in for nearly a decade, but the town is pure invention. Some of my short stories are deliberately vague about their locations.

In a new series, The Ninja Grandparent Placement Mysteries, my co-author/daughter and I are going the realistic route. The story premise is ridiculous, so maybe we needed to be grounded in reality in one aspect of the novels. How realistic? We use Colorado Springs as the setting.

The main location for much of the action is the former UnionPrinter’s Home. We reimagined the renovations that are actually taking place, turning it into an idyllic senior retirement home with an atrium connecting it to a gym. But the elegant red sandstone and white limestone exterior remains the same.

Which brings me to a recent visit to the iconic Denver Restaurant Casa Bonita. For those of you unfamiliar with Casa Bonita, it is not merely a restaurant. It is an event. An adventure. The pink building is a Colorado landmark.

Generations of Colorado residents were heart-sick when the world-famous restaurant declared bankruptcy and closed in 2021, a victim of the pandemic. It’s a part of our heritage. Like the mountains to the west, it seemed to occupy a permanent place in the landscape.

No ordinary restaurateur or entrepreneur could afford to purchase the building and restore it to its former glory. Who could possibly come to the rescue? This had to be a labor of love.

Casa Bonita was featured in a 2003 episode of the animated TV show South Park. When they learned the landmark was going away, Colorado natives and South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker began the effort to purchase the restaurant in the fall of 2021.

Casa Bonita reopened in June of 2023. My family went this month to celebrate a granddaughter’s birthday. All of us had been to the restaurant years ago. We were eager to see the changes.

It looked almost exactly the same! This is a good thing. We were going for nostalgia. It would have been tragic if the South Park boys had remodeled the interior into something unfamiliar. And the exterior is the same pink, with the fountain and the bell tower on top.

One important thing changed: the food was vastly improved. The previous menu was infamous.  As my son-in-law noted, it didn’t matter what you ordered; your plate would be drowned in orange nacho cheese sauce. But you didn’t go there for the food. This time, we were seated and given menus! Our table had lighting that allowed you to see what you were eating. Always a good sign.

One other thing changed. Matt and Trey are determined to pay Casa Bonita employees a living wage. So the price was a bit daunting. But this isn’t a restaurant you pop in on for a quick lunch. It’s a special-event sort of experience. Cliff divers, puppet shows, a live mariachi band, Black Bart’s cave, and more. All those folks have to be paid!

Whether a writer uses actual locations, or invents a world from scratch, may depend on the genre. Will Casa Bonita find its way into my fiction writing? My co-author and daughter Merida Bass agrees, the Casa Bonita experience deserves to be included in a future Ninja Grandparent Placement Mysteries novel. One of our lonely grandparents in need of a family could make the hour drive and wind up at the famous Denver restaurant!

​
Grandpa’s New Year’s Relocation is available now at Basecamp Books and Adventure, and in the usual places online. Grandma’s Valentine Abduction is coming February 28th! Available for pre-order now.

 by Thomas Kies

 On Friday, February 27th, I’ll be joining a panel at Left Coast Crime with Harriet Cannon, Craig Clevenger, and David Putnam, moderated by Laurie Stevens. Our topic-- “Getting Inside the Criminal Mind”--sounds like fun. If you’re going to write crime fiction, you’ve got to have that motive. So, in preparation for the discussion, I began listing the forces that might drive a person to break the law.

The most obvious motivations are greed, jealousy, rage, hubris, and desperation. There are more, like revenge and compulsion, but for this blog, I’m just going to talk about the five I listed. 

Greed and jealousy are siblings. Both come from desire--specifically, the desire for what someone else possesses. It might be money, a car, status, fame, professional recognition, or a romantic partner. Greed whines, “I want more.” Jealousy growls, “I want what you have.” In either case, the criminal act becomes a shortcut, a way to acquire something unattainable--or perceived as unattainable--through legitimate means. Many white-collar crimes, embezzlements, and even murders for inheritance are a result of greed.  Many “crimes of passion” are rooted in jealousy.

Rage, on the other hand, often erupts without careful planning. It simmers beneath the surface until one provocation too many causes it to boil over. A barroom insult, a heated argument, a moment of humiliation, or even being cut off on the highway can ignite it. Crimes of rage are frequently impulsive. They are not the product of elaborate schemes but of emotional explosions. In such cases, the perpetrator may not have intended to commit a crime when the day began. The act is born in a flash of anger—and the consequences last far longer.

Hubris is another powerful motivator. This is the belief that one is smarter than everyone else, immune to consequences, or entitled to bend the rules. Some criminals are driven less by need than by arrogance. They believe they can outwit the system, manipulate the evidence, or charm their way out of suspicion. For others, the appeal lies in the thrill itself—the adrenaline rush of taking risks and defying authority. Hubris whispers, “You won’t get caught.” For some, that challenge is irresistible.

Desperation sets the stage for a more complicated moral landscape. When options begin to disappear and survival feels at stake, people may justify actions they would otherwise condemn. If your family is starving and you have no money, would you steal food to keep them alive? Many crimes arise not from ambition or arrogance but from fear and scarcity. Desperation narrows perspective. It transforms illegal acts into perceived necessities.

Of course, human motivation is rarely singular. Greed can mingle with hubris. Rage can be fueled by jealousy. Desperation can coexist with resentment. Real-life crimes—and the most compelling fictional ones—often stem from a volatile mixture of emotions and circumstances.

Mix in a few additives like drug use or revenge and you can have a deadly cocktail of motives. 

And then there is the uncomfortable reality that some individuals act without empathy or remorse. While I am not a psychologist, it’s clear that certain offenders display traits associated with sociopathy or an absence of moral restraint. Whether we label that “evil” or understand it through clinical terms, it reminds us that not every crime fits neatly into a rational framework.

Getting inside the criminal mind means recognizing that, at its core, crime begins with motive. And motive, however dark, is almost always human. And interestingly, often, when a criminal acts, they don’t necessarily see it as a bad thing but more as an imperative.  Something that needs to be done. 

 

By Shelley Burbank: This includes an excerpt from my latest PINK DANDELIONS newsletter. 

FROM PINK DANDELIONS

With everything going on right now, and in spite of the tasteless, smell-less, sterile poison that is AI’s non-living“breath” seeping into nearly every corner of our human world, I feel something rising in humanity: a desire to turn our backs (some a little, some a lot) on technology and to return, instead, to our humanity. All our messy, emotional, fleshy, smelly, oozy, soaring, dancing, laughing, swirling in circles on the grass, and lifting our faces to feel the rain humanity.

Do you feel it? Do those words grab you by the hand and swing you around? Do they make your heart lift?

Typing them makes me feel happy. I wrote about this creativity era in my journal yesterday, about how I feel as if we are moving into a new phase of life, one that is more connected with actual, living things: people, nature, animals, human-made art and crafts, voices raised in song, feet pounding a rhythmic dance, long hugs, big smiles, and laughing together over a shared experience.

Our new creativity era has begun, I feel it swirling around me, and it brings a feeling of peace and giddiness at the same time. I want to create. I want to share. I want to be in commune with other creators.

I’m dedicating myself to creativity. I’m letting ego and the materialist/capitalist side of the writing life become just a sidenote to the main event. It feels like turning a corner. Here, something whispers to me, is the human-scaled place to dwell.

Read the entire newsletter 

https://open.substack.com/pub/shelleyburbank/p/our-creativity-era-has-just-begun

_____

So, Dear Type M-ers, one way I am dedicating myself to this creativity is letting go of social media. I know I've talked about it a lot, but I've reached my limit of patience with this poisonous, anti-human, dumpster-fire technology. Social media isn't necessary for the writing life, and it's not really all that effective in growing a readership, despite all the hype that it will and that there are no better alternatives. 

I'm calling B.S. on that "common knowledge."

I don't need to outline all the reasons social media is bad for human beings, especially kids, and for society in general. You've heard it all. I've heard it all. I've come to the conclusion that I can't support these platforms anymore, even if it means I'm undermining my writing career. 

But I don't actually believe that anymore. I think there are better ways, especially since the great algorithmic pivot on the platforms around 2019-2020 which severely limits organic reach.

It's a waste of time. It's emotionally and psychologically addictive. It stokes conflict and outrage. 

So, the other day I posted a "this is why I'm taking a 30-day break from social media" reel in Facebook and Instagram. I moved these apps to the "back" page of my phone apps so I don't see them. I turned off push notifications so they don't pop up to tempt me. I'm officially taking a 30-day break, but I'm pretty sure at the end of that time I'm going to abandon my accounts, leave them there as a "calling card" directing people to my website instead, or possibly even delete them altogether. 

I should delete them. Why? Because that's how we take these platforms down. One deleted account at a time. Oh, by the way, some estimates are that 50% of the ad traffic comes from "bots." In other words, when you are paying for an ad and you get charged for an "impression" that impression might be made by a bot, not someone who might actually buy your book. Even accounts are, by some estimates, 10-16% fake. 

It's a zombie apocalypse in there, you just don't realize it yet. 

____

Meanwhile, new mystery novella (137 pages) has launched and is available in both ebook and paperback on KDP/Amazon. I'm really pleased at how it came out, and early reviewers are giving it very high marks and enthusiastic comments. 

Read the description and buy at https://www.amazon.com/Strawberry-Moon-Mystery-Olivia-Novella-ebook/dp/B0GGYX6CJB

Meet Your Next Favorite Female Sleuth. Strawberry Moon Mystery by Shelley Burbank. Olivia Lively, P.I. Mystery Series

• Coastal Maine Setting
• Female Investigator
• Frenemies & Betrayal
• Literary Mystery

 by Sybil Johnson

In the last few months, I have been listening to a lot of Audible Originals. I got the Audible subscription because I wanted to listen to Mistletoe Murders. And, they had a three month deal I couldn’t pass up. 

Hallmark has a TV series, which I really like, based on the Audible Original series so I was curious how they compared. Both are good. They are their own things, equally enjoyable IMHO. 

That’s how I got started on my Audible journey. 

Audible Originals, or at least the ones I’ve listened to, are stories that are more akin to the radio dramas of the 1930s and 40s, than books. I’ve listened to a lot of those old radio programs and have enjoyed them. All of the AOs I’ve listened to are full cast narrations (multi actors). They rely heavily on dialog and background noises (soundscape) to tell the story. The background noises like horns honking, people talking help orient the listener to where they are so narration like “Ron and Amy were in a bar” isn’t necessary.

So far I’ve listened to all of the Mistletoe Murders plus its spin-off as well as a couple of Agatha Christie stories featuring Hercule Poirot that were adapted for AO. I have enjoyed all of them. I’ve even recognized some voices of actors that I’ve seen on TV shows. 

All of this got me thinking about what it means to write an AO story. Dialog is key. Some of the ones I listened to have some narration here and there, but mostly it’s dialog and background noises that tell the story. I found this 27-minute audio in a blog post on writing for audio that I thought was interesting. 

Worth a listen even if you have no intention of writing for audio. 

Has anyone written something specifically for audio? I’m curious to hear what your thoughts are.

M Chandos 

Dr. Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle once described the business side of his writing as "hateful negotiations". He immensely enjoyed the creative process of writing (not the Great Detective when he got in the way of ACD's important works ie "The White Company"), and he preferred to leave all the business details to his agents, A. P. Watson and Sons. Sherlock was a money-maker and was tolerated because the stories funded ACD's "serious" writing and his world-wide tours promoting spiritualism. 

Most writers write in their spare time, after kids, bills, the J.O.B., house maintenance and the lawn. I'm retired from the big career and from my 10-year sole proprietor LLC as a private investigator. The intent was to let the career pension pay for the house, and the LLC to provide juicy experience as background for writing mysteries, thrillers and PI stories. It has, but spare time still seems to be missing. 

Time for writing must compete for my attention. My wife and I are older now, so there are more medical appointments. It's February, so tax time is looming. I'm in Colorado at 7500 ft., so there is snow to shovel, although, without the J.O.B., clearing my long driveway 50 feet to the road is less important, and it almost never needs clearing at 6 AM like it did when we were both working. 

Writing for me takes concentration. Hours. I'm not like John Stith, who got up an hour before his house to write in the quiet of the early morning for DECADES. He wrote 4+ SF novels of quite respectable quality using that personal routine. I prefer the quiet hours of 8/9 PM to midnight or later. But when you have a DR appointment at 9 AM the next day, an aging dog to walk before you leave, a chin to shave, bedtime has priority. You, well, I, have to make time. 

There are multiple approaches contributing to solving the problem. I am concentrating on several house maintenance jobs that, once done, will be gone. I use the afternoon occasional hours for organizing files, collecting story versions, saving market data, and studying Tons of downloaded resources in the form of screen-copied articles, FBI PDFs, videos, and a broad catalog of interesting topics that seem to stimulate my writing imagination. Articles about cannibal ants, autopsy surprises, Victorian crimes, famous murders, and epic robberies. I think about titles, and I have two pages of cool titles waiting for their stories. I browse quotations and steal Great Ideas. I download interesting photos of people, places, and things. 

I write about PIs in the early 60's and in present day, so I file photos according to era as well as topic. And I read. I try to read twice, first like a reader, driving through the story and enjoying the trip. Non-critical. Sometimes, though, I read like a writer, slower, sometimes backtracking a page or two to understand how a plot point was set up and then executed. And every night, for at least a half hour, I read for fun. I have a tall stack of future reads, classic SF by Harlan Ellison, non-fiction about detective work, and classic tales by Joseph Conrad. And contests. I have been a judge for both the Private Eye Writers of America and the Short Mystery Fiction Society. For PWA, I currently have a box with at least 40 short stories that were published last year. The contest runs thru the end of March, so there will be more in the mailbox. I learn what makes a short story work by reading through many mediocre contest stories and happily discovering winning ones.

Excuse me. I see two hours unclaimed tonight. Back to my latest story about a movie collectibles conman who finds his holy grail.

 I (Donis) was told once that the construction of a mystery begins with a villain. I think it isn’t that simple. A mystery isn’t necessarily about heroes and villains, but more properly an exploration of the nature of evil, if I may wax pompous for a moment.  

I am especially intrigued by books that cause the reader to re-examine his ideas about right and wrong.  We’ve talked before on this blog about the need for justice to be done in a mystery novel, but does that mean that the killer is always caught and punished?  Case in point: Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express. Was justice done when the killers were discovered? But no. Justice was done when the victim was murdered, and right was done when Hercule Poirot contrived to see that the murderers were not punished. Same deal in my first book, The Old Buzzard Had It Coming.  The killer was not the villain at all.

My sleuth in that series, Alafair Tucker, very much had her own ideas of right and wrong, which may or may not have anything to do with legal and illegal. This makes for interesting resolutions to the mysteries, I think. If the author can pull it off, mysteries can really be wonderful explorations of the human psyche. Why do people do what they do?  What seems right to one person can do another tremendous harm. Even an insane killer has reasons for murder that make perfect sense to him.

I'm working on a book now in which the protagonist is the villain in two of my previous novels from the Bianca Dangereuse Hollywood series. Her name is Katy, and in The Wrong Girl and Valentino Will Die, she was very much the bad guy. But she was such a fun character that I couldn't let her go. And now, in her very own book she's the heroine of her own life, but she's still has no moral code other than her own survival. She's a delight to write, but she isn't someone you'd trust to watch your jewelry. 

One of my favorite villains to write showed up in my eighth Alafair book. He was a charming psychopath, so evil that who knows, he might even have been the devil. When the first edition of All Men Fear Me came out, people were always asking me about the man on the cover, but since the publisher chose the cover and I had no more to do with it than to say, "I like it", I could never tell them who he is, only that he is a perfect depiction of the villain in the book. However, thanks to a curious reader who actually queried my publisher about the cover photo, I now know who the man is! 

Here's what the cover artist revealed: "I acquired the actual photo (not a scan or reproduction) from a collector. It is an original 1900s mug shot one of about a dozen that I purchased. The collection is quite intriguing; each mug shot has a frontal face photo, a profile photo and on the back is the name of the arrested and a hand-written description of their crime! Although there were some murderers in the collection of mug shots, this man was arrested for being a 'disorderly person'. His alias was 'Jack the Hugger' and he was arrested in Jersey City, NJ in 1903."

Now there's a story. I imagine old Jack was just a bubble off plumb, and was arrested for walking around Jersey City giving random hugs to people whether they liked it or not. 

Here is what the curious reader said to the publisher: "he must have been a murderer! His face was so creepy that I had to turn the book face down on the coffee table when I wasn't reading it!" She then called back a little while later to clarify that she did not mean to insult the cover--in fact, quite the opposite; she thought it caught the spirit of the villain and the book perfectly!

  

Barbara here. I am writing this high over the coastal plain of Belize, with its patchwork of farmland and forests visible through the fluffy white clouds. I am flying home to the frozen north after ten blissfully warm days exploring the country and hanging out by the ocean. To my delight, I missed much of the recent deep freeze in the northern states and eastern Canada, but we’d had plenty before I left and much more to come. I will be flying into a snowstorm in Montreal and Ottawa. From +23 to -20! Welcome to Canada!

I was with a G Adventures tour for the first week, which took me to Mayan castles and underwater caves and then out to Caye Caulker, an island off Belize in the Caribbean Sea, where we spent a day snorkelling and another one cycling around the village, which has a very laidback, Caribbean feel. Belizeans are a very friendly, easygoing people always eager to help. The motto off Caye Caulker is "Go slow". I had some amazing experiences, and during the snorkelling I saw sea turtles, manatees, sting rays, and even a hammerhead shark who swam by right underneath me. Luckily he didn’t stop for a snack.

I tacked three days onto the end of the tour in order to lay low and get some writing done. Life has been so hectic and fraught with political stress that I have not been able to make much headway on my current WIP. But at the quiet resort, I took my manuscript to the pool every morning, settled in a lounge chair, and got three solid hours of writing done every morning before the pool got at all busy. Birds twittered, wind rustled the palm trees, and in the background I could just hear the faint rhythm of reggae. The afternoon was spent at the beach or taking the little ferry down to the village to wander, window shop, or sit in a Muskoka chair on the beach and drink a local beer and eat. My favourite snack or light lunch was shrimp ceviche, packed with lime and cilantro flavour. I ate mostly seafood – lobster, shrimp, conch, and red snapper and discovered some delicious recipes.

I would love to share some of my photos but Blogger says Google won't let me, so you will just have to use your imagination. A big green sea turtle swimming by me, me lying on a lounge on the beach, the peaceful poolside where I wrote.

I have managed to kickstart my creative muse and look forward to capitalizing on the momentum I’ve built up. I think there is nothing better than a change of routine and a defined “writer’s retreat” to get over the lethargy that tends to grip us at the two-thirds point in our book, when we still don’t know how to get to the end and how to catch all the balls we have thrown up in the air.

Stay tuned to find out if I can keep the creative muse around! She’s been very fickle.

 By Catherine Dilts

Social media blasts out bite-sized tidbits of info with clickbait headlines. The algorithms flood us with posts on the interests we already have and opinions we already agree with. There’s not much genuine conversation.

Blogs allow for more thought.

I read an article recently on The Dos and Don’ts of Blogging for Writers on Writers in the Storm. Good timing. As a contributor to Type M for Murder, sometimes I struggle to come up with interesting articles. “Content,” in the parlance of social media.

I’ve been blogging for over a decade. There’s a temptation to delude myself into believing I already know it all. Still, the article contained helpful reminders. I especially liked Edie Melson’s closing remarks to keep your blog like a coffee shop conversation, or a welcoming front porch, not a performance.

I use my deck more than my front porch.

Shelley Burbank wrote about the pressure for authors to spread the word far and wide about their work in her Friday Type M for Murder post. I share her frustration. Marketing feels like the opposite of cultivating a “welcoming front porch.” The marketplace appears flooded. Some of the competition is stiff, while much of it will likely not stand the test of time. Yelling “buy my book” and “look at me” may sell a few copies, but longevity depends on quality writing.

How much time should authors spend launching a new book? What actually works? Is it worth paying for advertising? How does one make a profit in this business?

My Big Question lately is how much time should I devote to social media? Is it worth taking time away from creating fiction to attempt maintaining a presence? Is blogging worth the time and effort?

At a PPW meeting, Writing from the Peak blog co-editor Deborah Brewer gave her two goals for the articles. The first is Encouragement. How will the article uplift beginning writers, or authors whose careers are struggling? Second, she emphasized Community Building. Writing is mostly solitary. We need to make human connections using our writing organization Pikes Peak Writers. How will articles draw people into community?

Great advice. Is it counterintuitive to write helpful blog articles supporting other writers when our hope is to draw attention to our own work? I enjoy blogging. I don’t like selling myself. I posted a Substack last week that was about fishing for halibut, not writing. I suspect no one interested in ocean fishing went immediately to purchase my cozy murder mysteries set in northeast Oklahoma.

But isn’t that part of creating a front porch atmosphere? Engaging in genuine communication has to involve more of the personal, and less of the standoffish “I’m selling something to you, the customer.”

I’m trying to find the balance.

Deeper communication. I can’t completely abandon social media, but I have to make it work for me. Rein in the beast that can consume way too much of our time with mindless scrolling. I’ll still announce my book and short story publication news. That’s sort of a must-do, making use of free exposure.

Blogging will continue to be my outlet for less sell-sell-sell, and more here’s a cute photo of my puppy, the life-cycle of the cattail, news about record-breaking halibut, or escaped laboratory animals wreaking havoc.  

I’m a writer, not an advertising executive or marketing maven. When the muse is on my shoulder and the writing is flowing, I need to funnel that energy where it’s most important. My writing.

 by Thomas Kies

The good news first. It was officially announced this week that I am now working with a new publisher.  I’m thrilled to be working with Level Best Books who has agreed to publish two of my novels, Exit Signs and Murder Point, and a third book that I’m currently working on. 

Exit Signs was written as crime noir and takes place in a cold and snowy winter in upstate New York, in particular Buffalo, the Finger Lakes, and the Adirondack Mountains.  Neophyte detective Jamie Barefoot is assigned to investigate a two-million-dollar life insurance claim.  The problem for the insurance company?  There’s no corpse.  But Jamie does find government fraud, corporate intrigue, hit men, and seduction along the way. 

Murder Point is a Geneva Chase mystery that takes place primarily on the coast of North Carolina on a barrier island. She’s on the trail of artwork stolen from the Isabel Gardner Museum, a heist from over thirty years ago where none of the paintings have ever surfaced.  While investigating, she’s caught in a hurricane and one by one, people are being murdered. 

According to their website: Founded in 2003, Level Best Books is the publisher of crime fiction novels and short story anthologies. Well-regarded by readers and reviewers, stories published by Level Best have won the Agatha, Anthony, Macavity, Derringer, and Robert L. Fish Award for Best First Short Story presented at the Edgar® banquet. Level Best short stories have also been recognized as Best and Distinguished Mystery Stories by the editors of the Best American Mystery Stories series.

Level Best Books is a traditional, royalty-paying publisher with world-wide distribution and in-house marketing support. Headquartered outside of Washington, DC in the historic city of Frederick, Maryland, Level Best also has offices in Boston, Massachusetts and London, England.

I am so proud to now be known as a "Bestie". 

So, that’s the good news.  There have been some stories this week that haven’t been so good for the written word. The New York Times reported this week that the mass market paperbacks that I grew up with are the latest dinosaur to go extinct.  

At one time, they were ubiquitous.  You could find them everywhere, drug stores, supermarkets, airports, train stations. But you would rarely find them in libraries because they were cheaply made with thin paper and bindings that were glued, meaning that, under the right circumstances, the books would simply fall or pull apart. 

But because they were inexpensive and small that made them successful.  I recall getting my reading fix by plunking down sixty cents for a copy of the latest James Bond novel, or a mystery by John D. McDonald, or Stephen King. And the covers of those paperbacks were usually illustrated by a woman in distress or taking off some article of clothing. 

They were small enough to easily fit into your backpack or the pocket of your jacket.  So you could sneak a copy of Valley of the Dolls into your Junior High School without being detected.

Why are they going the way of the passenger pigeon?  Consumers aren’t buying them as often.  They’re buying e-books or the trade paperbacks.  “We follow the consumer,” said Dennis Abboud, the chief executive of ReaderLink. “In the case of mass markets, the consumer spoke. They were just done with it.”

And then there was the story about the Washington Post laying off 300 journalists, which includes trashing their sports section and their book reviews.  Not to sound snarky, but the owner, Jeff Bezos, managed to find the money to bankroll the “documentary” called Melania.  Including production and marketing, he spent nearly $70 million with $28 million going directly to Melania.  

According to some reports, he spent between $45 million and $55 million on his wedding in Venice last year. I guess my invitation must have gotten lost in the mail. 

Is it possible he's pivoting his attention to his Blue Origin space company, working on those NASA lunar contracts? Currying favor with government decision makers, perhaps?

All in all, I'm putting that behind me this afternoon and I’m going to raise my glass to Level Best Books.  I’m looking forward to working with them.  But I’ll also grieve for the mass market paperbacks and, once again, mourn the slow death of newspapers.