There’s an excellent new post on Mysterious Matters regarding motives for murder.  It’s important not only for your perpetrator to have a strong motive, but for each of your suspects to have a [...]

Most fans of mystery novels know a lot about detectives—likely more than they know about suspects and murderers.  After all, the reader is usually following the case and evaluating the clues through the [...]

As I mentioned in my last post, it’s a challenge to write mysteries; you have to get in the heads of so many different people.  Today we’re going to think like a suspect.  [...]

One of the reasons writing mysteries (mysteries that are any good, anyway) is challenging is that you have to “get inside” so many heads. You have to think like a killer, suspect, and [...]

Writing is one of the least-expensive activities on earth; you don’t need a lot of sophisticated equipment to do it. Don’t, however, underestimate your need for some tools to successfully capture your ideas [...]

Writing can be an isolating experience, but it doesn’t have to be. There are ways to get plugged in to the writing community: join a group, read a forum, sign up for a [...]

What’s your favorite type of mystery to read?  Your reading preferences usually help determine whether you’re writing a police procedural, noir, private eye, or cozy mystery.  My favorite genres of mystery are the [...]

  I’ve mentioned before that I think placing clues is the trickiest part of mystery writing.  After all, you don’t want your clues to be too obvious (no neon signs screaming for the [...]

Naturally, at the top of the your list should be an accountant or tax preparation service. Most writers are word-people, not numbers-people. If you are going solo, or plan on using tax preparation [...]

I’ve discovered that I’m really, really lucky. The art department at Llewellyn Publications (Flux/Midnight Ink) has tremendous talent and has been receiving much acclaim for their covers. They sketched out a preliminary cover [...]

I’m a subscriber to the Dorothy L. listserv for mystery lovers. I recommend it for anyone who enjoys reading or writing mysteries. You subscribe to the listserv (my subscription is through my Google [...]

I came across this quiz, “What Font are You?” which was linked from Literary agent Janet Reid’s blog.  My font is Mrs. Eaves.  Sigh… [...]

I’m excited that my upcoming release, Pretty is as Pretty Dies, (August 2009) is already available for preorder on Amazon. And I love the great cover the art department at Midnight Ink designed. [...]

So you’ve got your victim, sleuth, suspects. You need your murderer. Maybe you’ve known all along who you were planning to tag as the perpetrator–maybe even before you knew who your victim was. [...]

This is an old (2002), but still relevant Salon article that details an editorial assistant’s experiences plowing through the slush pile (the heaps of unsolicited and unagented manuscripts that fill editors’ desks.) Humor aside, [...]

For those of us who don’t know as much about guns as we’d like/need to, I came across an interesting post on the Make Mine Mystery blog: http://makeminemystery.blogspot.com/2008/12/bang.html . Here you can find [...]

I enjoy my subscription to Poets and Writers. Online, their website has a really interesting interview with four, young literary agents.  They discuss the types of material they’re looking for, problems facing beginning [...]

Here’s November’s list of best-selling mysteries from the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association: Hardcovers 1 – P.D. James, The Private Patient, Knopf 2 – Michael Connelly, The Brass Verdict, Little Brown 3 – Donna [...]

Don’t underestimate setting as a valuable part of your mystery and serve to set the tone for the book.  Some of my favorite reads have placed murderers on virtually-inaccessible islands, in lighthouses, in [...]

Sometimes when I’m reading mysteries, I have to suspend my disbelief.  That’s okay, as long as it isn’t too long.  I want to enjoy each book I read, but sometimes that’s hard to [...]

Now, a holiday treat for anyone who’s interested in Christmas mystery reading: a list of Christmas-related mysteries, courtesy of Grave Matters. Enjoy! [...]

I came across a very insightful blog post today, that I thought I’d share.  On the Make Mine Mystery blog, there was a post by Mark Troy that included excellent suggestions on adding [...]

So you’re busily cooking up your mystery recipe, fully realizing some innocent victim or two will die as a result of tasting it.  One of the most important ingredients in your fatal stew [...]

Think creative writers don’t have to work on business writing?  Think again.  It’s as important (or maybe more so) to have a well-crafted query or cover letter as it is to have a [...]

One of the most important elements in your mystery novel is your detective.  Depending on the type of book you’re writing (police procedural, thriller, cozy), your detective might be a member of the [...]

Several of the mystery writers I know really have a lot of fun with their victim.  Sometimes an author purposefully makes the victim similar to someone he’s had a  run-in with or someone [...]

  Sometimes a task can be easier if you make yourself a checklist to ensure you’re covering all your bases.  With that idea in mind, here’s a brief checklist you might want to [...]

To me, one of the most fun things about reading a mystery is the puzzle. I love finding the clues along with my sleuth…and being misdirected by the author’s red herrings. I also [...]

I know there are a lot of writers who have a germ of an idea for a mystery novel. Most of them are mystery readers and feel like, if they can just get [...]

Okay, I’m intending this post to be a warning to all you parents out there.  PLAN YOUR QUIET WRITING TIME IN ADVANCE!  I managed to do this during the summer, but for some [...]