I write cozy historical mystery fiction and cozy fantasy mystery fiction. “Novel Basics,” my book on writing fiction, is available now.
-
DIY Covers for Self-Publishers 1. For the cover of January Jinx, the first in a series of historical mysteries set in Kansas City around 1900, I needed an image to work from. And I’d already decided I wanted something distinctive.…
-
Cover Story (Part 1)
Lessons Learned By the time I needed a cover for January Jinx, a light-hearted historical mystery set in Kansas City around 1900, I’d already done cover illustrations and design for several stories and two books, plus the theme for my…
-
Beating Myself Up for No Good Reason
AKA Some New Year’s Resolutions When I retired in May 2004, I immediately got cracking on my long-time dream of becoming a full-time writer. I started with an ambitious project: a dozen historical mystery novels set in Kansas City beginning…
-
Should You Self-Publish?
Earlier this month, when the wonderful Mysteryscape Bookstore held a Local Author Fair, a baker’s dozen of self-published and small-press-published writers came together to promote and sell their books. During the afternoon, as I sat there behind a display of…
-
Juliet’s Favorite Reads for 2013
Becoming a publisher in addition to being a writer has cut into my reading time quite a bit this year, so instead of my usual rate of four books a month, I read fewer than three a month in 2013.…
-
Giving Thanks for Mysteryscape
Among the many things I’m giving thanks for this year is Mysteryscape, the independent bookstore at 7309 West 80th Street in old downtown Overland Park, Kansas. How come? As a reader, I love fiction. And though I’ve downloaded eBook versions…
-
The Hunger Name Games
Naming Characters Can Be Hard When I joined an online fiction writers group some time ago, the current topic of discussion was naming characters. I identified with this since I had a terrible time naming a set of characters in…
-
Hello Again, World!
Two months ago some pervert hacked my website and I was so offended that I took my website down. But more than one person has pointed out that a writer who publishes her own work needs a presence on the…
Join 900+ subscribers
Stay in the loop with everything you need to know.