Barbara Fradkin's Blog, page 11

Envy

My writing career has been very much up and down since the pandemic. It frustrates me no end. Seeing Sybil's fabulous photos of Malice made me envious. I had nothing to promote this year, so didn't want to spend the money to travel from Arizona to the east coast. Dennis PalumboOne of my fellow Poisoned Pen Press authors, Dennis Palumbo, not only writes smashing thrillers, he's also a

Malice Domestic 2025 Recap

 by Sybil JohnsonI am back from Malice Domestic where I had a great time seeing people I hadn’t seen in a while, meeting new people and seeing people IRL that I’ve only seen online. But, yes, I am tired. Amazingly enough, I didn’t have too much of a problem adjusting to the three hour time change at Malice. And I seem to be back on Pacific time now a day after returning home. I always do

Random thoughts about Private Eye stories

 by Michael Chandos     In "real life", whatever that is, I have been a multi-State licensed private investigator. I'm putting that aside this year to clean up my house clogged with clutter, to finish projects I started years ago, and to get my writing process into gear rather than the spare time activity it has become. I write PI short stories and a novel is also forming up.

Another Hollywood Scam

No doubt many of you are familiar with the news that Meta used sites pirating books to train their AI. But that isn't the only scam going after us writers. This month I've invited Sue Duff from my critique group to share her story of yet another grift in this publishing biz.Too good to be true was never more true for me recently! Last month I received an email from an individual in Hollywood

More on setting

Thanks to my fellow Type M'er Thomas Kies for his excellent discussion of one of my favourite topics: the use of setting in fiction. Setting is so much more than the location where the action occurs. As Tom says, it draws the reader into the story, engages their imagination, and allows them to live the experience along with the characters. It can capture many moods, from menacing to tranquil to

A Late Start

by Catherine DiltsI’ve gotten a late start on gardening this year. Consideringthe weather this spring, perhaps I’m starting right on time.Back in March, my husband and I did some yard clean-up. Iprepped my containers, refreshing the dirt and pulling out last year’s roots. Ialso started a few seeds indoors.In the past, I aggressively pushed the boundaries. Knowingwhen the last hard freeze

Where the Magic Happens---Setting

 By Thomas KiesAll of my Geneva Chase mysteries take place in Fairfield County, Connecticut.  I like that setting because it allows me to show the broad disparity between the haves and the have nots.  Plus, it’s got a New England flavor and yet it's close to New York City.  The setting for my latest book, EXIT SIGNS, is upstate New York in the dead of winter.  I used to

Finding Stories in Popular Non-Fiction

Greetings Lovely Readers! This is Shelley, writing today about finding mystery story ideas in unlikely non-fiction places. I'm not talking about a "true crime" narratives or newspaper stories. I'm talking about pop science, pop psychology, or any other pop non-fiction books. Health and wellness? Personal finance? Technology? Yup, yup, and yup.I've found ideas for various fiction stories from

Prepping For Malice

by Sybil JohnsonNo, I’m not preparing to commit bad acts. I’m heading to Malice Domestic next week (April 25-27). I am very much looking forward to it, even if there's a 3 hour time difference. I love Malice. It’s a fan convention devoted to celebrating traditional and cozy mysteries, my favorite kind of crime novels. There are generally around 800 attendees. I would count it as a medium size

Openings

by Charlotte HingerSo what is the crazy group of people doing? I don't have the slightest idea. But nevertheless, that's the writer's job. To make a coherent pattern of disconnected elements. Screen writers have it made. In a single opening scene they can portray the weather, the family's income, relationships, time of day, the professions of the characters, pets the family has acquired.