Kassandra Lamb's Blog, page 18

A Crime Writers Interview: Barbara Monajem

We occasionally like to introduce our readers to other mystery writers whom they might find interesting. (Because as we all know, there is no such thing as too many books to read.) Today, we bring you a crime writers interview with historical fiction writer, Barbara Monajem.

Rumor has it that Barbara is descended from English aristocrats. If one keeps to verifiable claims, however, her ancestors include London shopkeepers and hardy Canadian pioneers. As far as personal attributes go, ...

Do You Believe in Paranormal Phenomena? (and a New Release)

by Kassandra Lamb ~ Do you believe in paranormal phenomena? Or not? Or do you teeter somewhere in between?

Non-believers will say that there’s no scientific proof that these phenomena are real.

Photo by Max Larochelle on Unsplash.com

But then again electricity existed, probably since the beginning of time, without any humans proving its existence. And people were electrocuted by lightning now and again.

In most cultures, such events were explained as the gods striking someone down f...

Crime Writers’ Interview (and our new author at misterio): Candace J. Carter

DRUMROLL PLEASE!! Help me welcome a New Author at misterio press, Candace J. Carter!!

Candace has walked many paths in life. She served in the military, earned a degree in veterinary medicine, and worked for the National Park Service. Much of her professional career was spent with Threatened and Endangered species, including the black-footed ferret, Florida scrub-jay, and four species of sea turtles.

Her stories are drawn from these experiences. Growing up in a rural town, she was ...

Writing from Multiple POVs: Part 1 (for Readers and Writers)

by Kassandra Lamb ~ Once upon a time, writing in more than one point of view was a no-no, unless you were writing romance, and then you were supposed to stick with just the hero’s and heroine’s POVs. But it’s becoming more common these days to see stories that include other perspectives. There can be good reasons for doing this, but there is also an art to writing from multiple POVs.

I did a guest post (on Jami Gold’s blog) about this topic back in 2019 when I was just finishing up a ten-book...

Off-Week Goodies: New Stories Coming and Contest Reminder

Just a few announcements this week — new stories coming out soon and a contest reminder.

Kirsten Weiss has a new story coming out the end of April.

Damsel in a Dress is Book 5 in the Perfectly Proper Paranormal Museum series, fun cozies with just a touch of paranormal.

Bridesmaid duties can be deadly…

Maddie Kosloski has more than wedding cake on her plate. She’s managing her paranormal museum, helping her best friend Adele with wedding plans, and trying to prove that Adele’s vin...

Crime Fiction Sub-Genres – 3 Distinctions That Are Clear As Mud

by Kassandra Lamb ~ Genre definitions and crime fiction sub-genres can be quite murky and confusing for both writers and readers.

First there is the question of what is crime fiction. Some use it as a broader umbrella that includes any kind of fiction related to crime (including true crime, which isn’t fiction) and view mystery as one of its main sub-genres. Others use the two terms interchangeably (as we do here at misterio press).

If you do a search for mystery sub-genres, you will find ...

Fear of the Grocery Store Shouldn’t Be Part of Our New Normal

by Kassandra Lamb ~ Up until last Friday morning, I’d planned a completely different blog post for this week, one on mystery subgenres (which we’ll run next week). Then I realized there was a far more important topic I should be addressing—fear of the grocery store.

And then, it dawned on me that it shouldn’t have taken me several days to come to that realization.

We’d had two mass killings in less than a week, the second one in a grocery store, and it took me days to realize I should blog...

Peek Behind the Screen: How We Come Up with Book Cover Designs (an Encore)

by Kirsten Weiss ~ While book cover design is certainly not the most stressful part of the publishing process, it has its quirks. A good cover doesn’t tell the story, but it does need to do three things:

Grab the reader’s attention and make them curious about the story.Tell the reader what type of story they’re buying – funny mystery, spooky suspense, lighthearted romance. And this information needs to be easy to identify when the reader is looking at a thumbnail sized image.

That said, I’...

Writing the Other (an Off-Week Goodie)~Plus a New Contest!

By Kassandra Lamb ~ Over on our Facebook readers’ group today, Vinnie Hansen has a discussion going on “writing the other.” How do authors avoid stereotypes and unintended offensiveness when writing about cultures, religions, ethnic backgrounds other than their own?

It isn’t easy!

And yet “diversity” is one of the big buzz words in the writerly world right now. There is pressure for more diverse characters and topics in our stories.

As a member of several privileged groups—white, m...

Exploring the “Rules” of Writing ~ for Readers and Writers

by Kassandra Lamb ~ Writers find this quote amusing, because it’s sort of true. Ask a bunch of writers what the three most important rules of writing are, and you will get somewhat different answers from all of them.

The one you will probably hear most often is “Show, don’t tell.” This is an excellent rule. But even this one needs to be broken at times.

For example:

On the drive home, Paul pondered his options. He needed to make a decision soon.

This is telling, but it is a comm...