The Mystery Writers

When I began writing back in the dark ages (before computers), the only creative writing instructions available were from the Famous Writers School, which was beyond my limited budget at the time. Fledgling writers had to suffer through enough rejection slips to wallpaper an entire room and many gave up in frustration. I nearly did until I was hired as a news reporter, which taught me brevity, a useful tool for novelists.

Then, after my first novel was published,  following five nonfiction books, I decided to share what I’d learned with other writers. One way was to interview bestselling, award-winning and other mid-list authors for my blog sites. My first mystery writer interview book was published by Poisoned Pen Press in 2010, titled Mysterious Writers. It did so well that I was encouraged to put together another book so that all those informative interviews wouldn’t disappear into cyber space.

The Mystery Writers is finally available and features Sue Grafton, Lawrence Block, J. A. Jance, James Scott Bell (former Writer’s Digest fiction columnist) and Julie Garwood, among other bestselling, award-winning and mid-list novelists. Their articles of writing advice not only entertain and inform, some will literally shock you. They're also generic and excellent for any genre, whether for novice or veteran writers.

A number of them have been written from as far away as South Africa, Thailand, Brazil, England and Canada. They write private eye and crime novels, police procedurals, historicals, noir, suspense, thrillers, amateur sleuths, cozies, humorous novels, contemporary western as well as traditional mysteries. Something for nearly every reader (and writer).

There are also a number of independently published authors such as Tim Hallinan, who turned down publishing contracts to publish his own e-books, which are now earning thousands of dollars each month. Many authors are currently following in his keystrokes now that the stigma of self-publishing seems to have lifted.

I’ve proud of this collection, although I’m only the editor, and I hope you’ll take a look at the print edition, which was just released  by Medallion Books and is currently available at: Amazon.com in print and Kindle, where you can read a sample of the execllent advice.  It will also be available on Nook.