Cover Craft: Examining Four Online Top Sellers' Covers & My Own Attempts

A first attempt at a cover design for my upcoming long short story.

Shelley here once again and wondering how two weeks could have passed so quickly since my last bi-monthly post! 

As I've been hard at work on my Strawberry Moon Mystery story--which will be a long short story or short novella depending on my ability to edit, pare, and trim--I've pondering what I might do with it once it's complete. 

I've been giving some thought to publishing it as a One Hour Short Read on Kindle. These are stories from between 33-43 pages, which is about where I expect Strawberry Moon to end up (15-20K words). As I have a bit of interest in design and art, though untrained, I wondered if I could create a passable book cover on my own, using Canva, that would align with the covers of my two Olivia Lively Mystery books published by Encircle Publications. 

I'd worked with the cover designer of those two books, giving her drawings with my ideas, so the concept was already clear in my mind. I had designated comp books with a similar vibe: The Finlay Donovan series by Elle Cosimano and Where'd You Go, Bernadette, by Maria Semple. I wanted a female character in bright colors, flat design, and a kind of "chick lit" energy. 

The designer, Deirdre Wait, executed these wonderfully. 

If I'm going to self-publish, I wondered, could I do the cover myself? And is my design style choice still working in today's competitive market? I moseyed over to Amazon this afternoon to look at the Best Selling Kindle Mystery Private Detective books to see what the covers looked like. 

Okay, the #1 book in that category today is Homemaker: A Prairie Nightingale Mystery that is due out next month. Written by Ruthie Knox and Annie Mare, it is published by Thomas & Mercer which just so happens to be an imprint of Amazon Publishing. 

Does the book's #1 status  have anything to do with the fact that Amazon is publishing it? And not until next month? Ummm...

Self-serving retail tactics aside, I am very heartened to see the cover design. I like the handwriting fonts and the big eye in the magnifying glass, the flat art, the vibrant colors, the female sleuth image. Not only does the story sound like a good comp for my titles (Prairie is an amateur sleuth, at least she starts out that way, so I'm not sure why it's in the Private Detective category), but also the character is tangled up with an FBI guy--just like my Olivia Lively character. 

Actually this is GREAT news. It just means that there are readers out there who want these kinds of books, and I've written a couple of them. 

The book in the #2 spot is Murdle, Volume 1 by G.T. Karber, published by McMillon/Griffin. Again, we have the flat art and color. Interestingly, the SAME colors. Again, I'm baffled by Amazon rankings because guess what? This isn't really a Private Detective story, either. It's a collection of mystery logic puzzles. 

Moving on. 

In the #3 spot is The Beast of Littleton Woods by T.E.Kinsey. This is book 12 in the series and it's published by . . . you guessed it. Thomas & Mercer. This looks much more like a cozy mystery with the dog image and the yellow eyes peering out from the roots of the tree. The curly script is also more cozy than my preferred Women Sleuths and Private Detective categories. 

(Even though it pops up as #3 on the Private Detective click, when you look at the book's bestseller rankings, Private Detective isn't even listed. It shows up as #1 in Amateur Sleuth and #2 in Cozy and #3 in Traditional Detective.) 

But okay, Amazon. 

Last one from Amazon. This is Closer Than You Know by Debra Web, published by, yup. Thomas & Mercer. 

The cover is more realistic with the author's name and book title getting equal play. The simple sans-serif font looks clean and simple. To me this looks more like a police detective or even a thriller cover that would appeal to both men and women readers. Sure enough, two of the rankings are for Police Procedural and Serial Killer Thrillers. The protagonist is actual a crime analyst. Is that a private investigator/detective? I really don't think so. 

NONE OF THESE FOUR BOOKS RANKING IN PRIVATE DETECTIVE MYSTERY IS REALLY A P.I. MYSTERY.

Whaaaat???

Yes, I could slightly tweak my search and end up with different books on the list. This baffles me all the time on Amazon best-seller rank listings. It's almost comical. In this case I searched by choosing: Best Seller/Kindle/Mystery & Thrillers/Mystery/Private Detective. 

Isn't it interesting that 3 of the top 4 ranking on Amazon in this category are published by an imprint of Amazon? 

On to my cover. 

This is the potential cover for my Strawberry Moon Mystery that I created using Canva Pro. Originally, the colors were slightly more muted and gray, but after feedback from readers on the blog, I found a way to change the colors of the images to better reflect their suggestions. Of COURSE the moon had to be pink. Or pink-ish! Does it make any sense that Olivia's wearing sunglasses at night? Nope but it continues the trend from the two full-length books. Also, the moon woudn't be reflecting in her glasses because the moon is behind her. But it makes for a more compelling image, right?

It doesn't have the panache of that handwriting font. It seems a little stiff in comparison, not as "messy" which is what they are trying to get across, I think. I might need to add a nose and some shading. Maybe I should play with some handwriting fonts. I might need to hire a cover designer to make it really work. 

And it's NOT red and black. 

But in a pinch? Maybe I could get away with it. I think this plays in the same sandbox with my comp titles, which will now include the Prairie Nightingale book as well as Finlay Donovan. Olivia, unlike these two, is actually a licensed P.I. running her own Lively Investigations business, but I think she fits in.

Are You “by accident” or “on accident”?

 by Sybil Johnson

I find languages endlessly fascinating. I’ve taken enough linguistic classes to know that they change over time. Unless it’s a dead language, of course.

I accept that there are regional differences in American English. I even welcome them. Still, I find some changes to be unnatural. 

Case in point: 

A friend recently asked me what preposition I would use in the following sentences: 

The girl hit her brother _____ accident. 

 I threw away the book ____ accident.

I said “by”. Apparently, though, “on” is used by some people now. It seems unnatural to me, bordering on the unacceptable. I haven’t yet encountered this in my reading, but I’m sure I will one day. I’ll cringe a little, but move on.

I did a little investigating online about this on vs. by thing. 

This article says that which one you say depends on your age. Anyone born before 1970 (me!) uses “by”. Anyone born after 1995 use “on”. Those born in-between use either one.

The article has a pointer to the research paper that backs this up. Yep, a linguist noticed the on vs. by usage in “on/by accident” and did some surveys in various parts of the U.S. I found it very interesting. The change seems to be generational rather than regional. You can read the paper through a link in the article.

That got me thinking about other changes in English. Specifically, how words can drastically change their meaning over time. 

Here’s Merriam-Webster’s take on some words that have changed over time.

 https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/words-that-used-to-mean-something-different

 Here are a few of them I found interesting. Read the article to see the rest of the words they mention and get the details on how these changes came about. 

nice: old meaning is trivial, stupid; current meaning is pleasant, agreeable 

bully: old meaning is sweetheart, darling (of either sex); current meaning is a person who habitually seeks to harm or intimidate 

disappoint: old meaning is to remove from office; current meaning is fail to fulfill the hopes or expectations of someone. 

I can totally see how disappoint could have that old meaning. We do appoint people to office. Why can’t we disappoint them because they disappoint us? 

clue: old meaning is ball of thread or yarn; current meaning is a piece of evidence or information used in the detection of a crime or solving of a mystery. (Or at least the meaning I find most interesting to mystery writers.)

As a writer, I’m not going to worry about whether someone thinks I’m wrong when I use a preposition or something that seems to be wrong to them. I have my own pet peeves, but they don’t prevent me from enjoying a book. I will, however, when writing historical stories try to be hyper aware of what a word meant at the time the story is set. 

Let's go back to the on/by thing. Do you say “by accident” or “on accident”? Do you find one of them unacceptable or wrong?

WHAT'S A WRITER TO DO?

     by Steve Pease/Michael Chandos 

     A short one tonight, I'm afraid. I've been sick for a week with a chest cold and didn't do anything interesting except cough.  I didn't do new writing. I could see my head was spinning, and anything I wrote was bound to be a logical mess. So what's a writer to do?

     Any creative work is non-romantic. The flashy part, for me, happens in my head out of sight. Ideas pop up, words flow, clever writing magically falls together on the page.  Inspiration is really a fun time. That's only 10% of the time.

     For a working writer, there's Work. Editing, format checking, balancing First Reader comments, and the editor's apparent lack of understanding. Filing, paying bills, researching, hunting for coffee creamer, answering the telephone. It's office work. I add regular exercise, dog walks, and decent breaks.  

     So, this week, as I shuffled around in my bathrobe, I did lots of little things. Going thru magazines and tearing out the articles that count. Filing things, playing an old and familiar computer game, and trying to use the treadmill. The weather last week cooperated: cold, wet, even snowy, and very windy. 

     I put out Friskies for the feral cat, was glad the weather kept me inside and not in the yard picking up the dog mines.  Better today, but I can tell the train is still off the tracks.  Better next time.

Social Media self-destruction

 I read with interest Shelley's post about the baffling and frustrating world of marketing. No author I know becomes a writer because they love the marketing. Most of us hate it - perhaps not all of it but the relentless push to keep your book or your name visible. I love the human encounters. The book club talks and public presentations, the chance meetings with readers, even the conferences like Left Coast Crime, although the pressure to perform and "be seen" can be intense.

But the day to day promotion online, mostly through social media, is becoming harder and harder, and I find myself wondering whether it's even worth it. Besides this blog and my website, I use two SM platforms - Facebook and Instagram - although I am much more engaged with Facebook. I did join Twitter but quit when Musk bought it. Instagram feels like flinging mud at a wall. I have no idea whether anything sticks. There is no give and take. Facebook, on the other hand, allowed me to build a community and communicate back and forth. I did create an author page as well as a personal one but found most people joined the personal page, which became a combination of friends, family, and fans who became friends. I post about book news but also about my dogs, cottage, travels, and notable day to day stuff. Since I joined in 2009, I've reconnected with faraway cousins, old classmates, and book lovers I've met at conferences and events.

But Facebook is becoming less and less useful and enjoyable. It is increasingly filled with sponsored ads, unsolicited posts, and pointless reels, so much so that posts from my actual friends are far fewer and are lost in the clutter of junk. In Canada, Meta blocks all links and posts from news sources, which means we can't share interesting information found in magazines or websites. And as people have noted, a web search on a product results in a feed inundated with similar products. 

But even worse, in the past six months or so, the increase in AI posts, bots, and misinformation has increased exponentially, to the point that nothing on Facebook is trustworthy. During our recent election, Facebook was flooded with fake videos about the candidates, especially Mark Carney, our new Prime Minister. The veracity of ads has always been suspect but now I believe nothing. Even if the source is a recognized business or person, there's no guarantee the post actually comes from them. Hacking and scams are everywhere, and I scroll in vain through piles and piles of junk in search of meaningful posts from friends. 

In Meta's pursuit of the almighty dollar, Facebook has lost its original purpose, and in the process its soul. It had been a unique platform for staying in touch with people and building new friendships, and I mourn its passing. No other platform does this; most are shallow and self-centred "look at me" style trivia. 

It's taken me over fifteen years to build a community on Facebook, and I know I will lose most of that if I give up on Facebook, but I am near the tipping point. I  have not yet tried Blue Sky, but it seems to function as Twitter used to, sharing information but not creating a community. What do others think? Has anyone found a promising alternative?

Are Conferences Business or Pleasure?

Catherine Dilts

Why would hundreds of introverts flock together? Isn’t that contrary to their very nature? When asked, most people told me they were hugely uncomfortable in crowds. But they could endure a weekend at a conference because this was their crowd. Their people. The weirdos who “get” their weird.

Writers’ conferences are both invigorating and draining. Last week Sybil Johnson shared her experiences at Malice Domestic. I attended the multi-genre Pikes Peak Writers Conference this weekend in my hometown. Here’s a peek at my adventure.

The theme at PPWC 2025 was The Future Is Now. Even people who do not write science fiction wore their SF-based costumes to the Friday night banquet. What? You don’t have a Star Trek uniform in your closet? An Alien face-hugger in a dresser drawer? Firefly-based attire? (A very realistic Mal was in attendance.)

And now I’ve revealed too much about myself. I suppose that was the point this three-day weekend. Revealing your true self to like-minded folks: WRITERS.

PPWC wasn’t all fun and games. We were there for business, too. The workshops provided educational opportunities. Three different class tracks offered craft education, business enlightenment, and writing life advice.

There was also the chance to pitch your project to industry professionals.

My dear friend and critique partner Beth pitched to an editor. She received validation for years of study and work with a “send me pages” from an editor. For non-writers, this means the person Beth pitched to was intrigued enough to request to see more of her novel. Send me the first three chapters may lead to acquisition and publication. Exciting!

I was seeking all the info I could get about Indy publishing and marketing. I’ve survived two small presses folding, my write-for-hire gig drying up, and my agent retiring. I’m ready to try something different. I received a fire-hose level education. How-to on an epic level.

A recently added feature at PPWC is Friday late-evening classes and roundtables. Starting at 9pm, these less formal gatherings kept writers energized for just a little bit longer – or way longer. Marketing Tips & Tricks with Susan Mitchell and Jenny Kate didn’t end until people were literally falling asleep at the table. We stumbled off to our rooms, hung up our Star Trek uniforms and hoped to get enough sleep to recharge for the next day.

Which started as early as you wanted. A 7:30 morning meditation with Johnny Worthen, a newcomers’ briefing at 8am, and workshops at 8:30. Another full day of classes, workshops, and hallway meetings with new writing friends.

Bar Con is the Saturday night opportunity to rub shoulders with industry professionals, and to unwind after two days of conference intensity. Yes, I really was having a good time. We unexpectedly became the cool kids table when Johnny Worthen pulled up a chair. Soon we had a lively crowd that talked until far too late into the evening.

Sunday morning, a surprising number of folks made it to the classes starting at 9am. My crew tried to divide and conquer, attending different sessions, then sharing notes later. I was exhausted, but dragged myself through the morning. My granddaughter insisted on staying for the lunch speaker, David R. Slayton. I’m glad she insisted, because he delivered an inspiring message.

As did all the mealtime speakers. That’s the part I left out about attending a writers’ conference. Besides business and pleasure, we received Inspiration. The words to keep you going in this often brutally unforgiving path.

Now, I’m ready to retreat into my writing cave and enjoy quiet time. Until next year…

Rediscovering the Joy of Writing

 

Happy Friday! Shelley here, once again, from Guam where I'm finding inspiration in the oddest places, like this moldering, broken balustrade overlooking the ocean from high atop a cliff covered in tangled vegetation and littered with trash--beverage containers, plastic bags, tattered towels, even a computer screen coming apart at the seams. 

There must be a story here at the end of the narrow path winding through the overgrown lot. A former resort hotel? Or the vacation compound of a wealthy Japanese family destroyed in some long-ago typhoon? I could probably research and find out, but I'm not sure I want to. I'd much rather imagine. 

Often there's a strange beauty in the broken things. A piquant nostalgia for what once was and could have been. An acknowledgment of a particular failure and the world and life moving on just the same. 

JOY 

Conflict--external or internal--is the heart of story. We put our characters through the proverbial wringer, squeezing the emotions from their arcs, pinning them up to dry on the narrative clothesline where they once again take shape, billowy like sheets or white, button-down shirts. They come off the line at the end of the day smelling like sunshine and grass with a faint, clean whiff of Ivory soap.

In our own creative journeys, we writers and artists also find ourselves conflicted. We are dumped into crucibles of our own making or of someone else's. The heat's turned up. We're bashed around. At this point, we must either adapt, change, or (metaphorically) die. 

I recently went through an intense period of creative questioning, searching, and ultimately changing, fueled by reflection on the last several years which involved publication of two novels; social media engagement and marketing; disappointing royalty statements; learning how to use a graphic design app for making marketing materials like headers, social media images, and reels; an experiment with Facebook ads (these worked but I disliked the process); wrangling with an expensive website that required coddling and fixes too often for my liking; and countless hours reading and listening and studying and watching "experts" on the topics related to "selling your books" and the publishing industry in general.

My conclusions? Marketing makes me miserable. A creative life doesn't have to be this hard. A mailing list is key. The publishing industry is a hard, cold, capitalist business. A really, REALLY good book sells itself by word of mouth. Social media is a dumpster, and it's on fire every single second of every single day. A total waste of time. 

My a-ha moment? When I remembered I got into this because of my love of books and my desire to craft stories. I realized nobody can "beat" me at THIS game, the game of writing (as opposed to the game of publishing.) 

If I continue to write, I win. 

If I continue to learn my craft and improve, I succeed. 

This isn't a unique perspective. We've all heard it before, but when it hits you, really hits you, that you don't care anymore if you ever make a living from your writing, or even if you ever sell another copy of your book, you feel a particular and awesome joy. The joy of creativity, purpose, and play. 

AM I JUST A LOSER?

I know what some of you are thinking (because I've thought it myself about myself and others. Yup. Not proud). People who have failed resort to this sort of thinking to make themselves feel better. 

I nod and say in reply, Yeah. And what's wrong with that? 

Is it more noble to feel terrible every day? Is it more worthwhile to pout and rail about the unfairness of life and publishing? Does it serve creativity to concentrate on failure and despair rather than joy? Is suffering somehow a better, more elevated outcome than happiness? 

How perverted that perspective!

Given the choice, I'll take happiness in my creative life, thank you very much. Publishing's game continues on. Rules change. Someone's gonna "win" and many are gonna "lose," and I'll watch from over here on the sidelines, stoic and detached, while others fight it out. I'd rather concentrate on my craft--something within my control--and revel in this lightness I'm feeling. 

I haven't felt this good about my writing life in several years. I'm listening to podcasts and reading articles on craft not on marketing. I'm enjoying the challenges of narrative structure, of thematic choices, and progressive plot complications. I'm about to rip my current short story to pieces and start all over again, and I DON'T CARE how long it takes me to get it right.

So, if you are struggling with these same dilemmas and are feeling like all this marketing and social media and striving are sucking the joy out of your creativity, consider setting all that aside, at least for now, and focusing just on the work for awhile. 

When you've finished something, send it out and see if anyone bites. Then forget about it and get back to the page . . . where the joy lives. 

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For more on creativity, purpose, and nurturing a creative life, check out my once-per-month, free newsletter, PINK DANDELIONS. This month's issue is below. Click to read. 

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 Palumbo

One of my fellow Poisoned Pen Press authors, Dennis Palumbo, not only writes smashing thrillers, he's also a psychologist working in Hollywood. Many of his clients are in the entertainment industry, naturally, which is job security if I ever heard of it. On top of working as a full time therapist and knocking out novels in his spare time, Dennis writes a blog called "Hollywood on the Couch" for the online edition of Psychology Today magazine. A few years ago he wrote an entry called "Envy", which I recently reread - because I needed the reminder. I had just written these words to a friend of mine: "I read what other authors are doing with their careers and am overcome with bitter envy."

Not necessarily because so many other writers are more successful than I – that doesn't bother me as much as you'd think. Many years ago I had a friend who couldn't stand  the success of others. Not schadenfreude, exactly. She didn't wish them ill, but she didn't want them to be richer/happier/more talented than she. Even in my youth I never thought that happiness or success is a finite commodity in the universe. I like to think that good fortune begets more good fortune in the world.

What I envy is other people's ability to work in spite of obstacles in their lives. I envy time to promote and travel, their discipline and work ethic. My perception is that other people are better able to cope with the difficulties of their lives than I. They seem to be able to concentrate after a traumatic day, the carve out time to work in spite of all the picayune things they have to deal with during a day. Why can't I do that?

In his article. Dennis says, "only by investigating what envy means to us can we risk acknowledging it. The plain fact is, it's just a feeling, like other feelings – which means it's simply information, data about what's going on inside of us."

I've known for years that emotions good and bad come and go like the tide, the best way to get through is to feel them and then let the go if you can. They will go, eventually, without effort on your part. Judging yourself for feeling bad, or nursing your hurts and fears, only makes the pain last longer.

One of my favorite quotes by Sholem Asch is: "To dream of the person you would like to be is to waste the person you are."

Dennis' excellent essay on envy is at https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/hollywood-on-the-couch/201112/envy-in-hollywood

However, if you're an author, you won't go amiss to read all his entries at Psychology Today. It'll make you feel better, I guarantee.

Malice Domestic 2025 Recap

 by Sybil Johnson

I 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 better with time changes going west.

We got to the hotel late Wednesday evening so we had Thursday to do some sightseeing. We went to the National Zoo to visit the new pandas and went to the National Cathedral. We’d never been to the cathedral before. It is beautiful!

One of the pandas at the National Zoo

Me toward the beginning of the conference when I'm fairly perky

Me and Misty Simon the last day of the convention when I'm not as perky. She's always perky.

The short story panel I was on

Diane Valler, Gigi Pandian and me

 

I did the Malice Go-Round this year, aka Speed Dating with Authors at 10am on Friday. Two authors go around from table to table and have 2 minutes each to talk about their books. I teamed up with Misty Simon who I adore. Had a great time doing it with her. It wasn’t as tiring as I remember it being from the previous times I’d done it. Not sure why. Maybe I was less uptight about it and decided to just go with the flow.

There were lots of interesting panels and interviews. Gigi Pandian, who I’ve known for a bit, was the Toastmaster. She did a wonderful job. The interview Ellen Byron did with her was great fun. Next year Ellen will be the Toastmaster and another author I know, Annette Dashofy, will be the Guest of Honor.

The Agatha banquet was fun as always. I met some people at my table I hadn’t met before. Lots of interesting table talk. I was very happy when Gigi won the Agatha for A Midnight Puzzle and when Phyllis Betz won an Agatha for Writing the Cozy Mystery. I am happy to say I contributed an essay to this book.

Agatha Award winners: 

Best Contemporary Novel: Gigi Pandian for A Midnight Puzzle 

Best First Novel: K.T. Nguyen for You Know What You Did 

Best Non-fiction: Phyllis M. Betz for Writing the Cozy Mystery: Authors’ Perspectives on Their Craft 

Best Children’s/YA: K.A. Jackson for Sasquatch of Harriman Lake 

Best Historical Novel: Amanda Flower for To Slip the Bonds of Earth

Best Short Story: Barb Goffman for “The Postman Always Flirts Twice”

Sunday morning I was on a short story panel moderated by Barb Goffman with Tina Kashian, Paul Awad and P.M. Raymond. There were a lot of people in the audience, which I was quite surprised about since Sunday is a travel day for many attendees. Lots of interesting questions and discussion about short stories. Some people expressed surprise that I find it easier to plot a Whodunit novel than a short story of the Whodunit variety.

Of course, I bought a few books and came away with other books to buy and authors to follow. 

All in all, it was a great conference. I don’t know how many people attended, but there were a lot, but not too many. I did walk a fair amount, but it was nowhere near as much walking as I did at Bouchercon in San Diego. The hotel isn’t huge and everything is on a couple floors in the same general area. There’s an escalator and an elevator that makes it easy to go between the two floors. 

I am looking forward to next year. If you enjoy traditional and cozy mysteries, this is the conference for you.

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. I read other writers' interpretations of PI tradecraft and I am usually disappointed.  I don't expect or want stories that sound like instruction manuals, but some of the clichés in PI stories persist when they are easily checkable.

     Booze - The pace in a hard-working PI Agency is pretty intense, especially if you are working for the Defense in a trial, but every client wants an answer in the short time it takes CSI to solve a case on TV. A PI doesn't have much downtime when a case is on the books (we usually work only one at a time). Drunkenness and lost time are bad. I don't have a bottle in the bottom drawer. A beer in my tiny fridge, maybe.  I mean, there are moments, you know? If you (your protag) is surveilling a Subject, the PI needs to understand drinking and its effects on human behavior to understand and perhaps predict what the Subject might do. And if the Subject goes into a bar, you have to look and act like you've been in one before, or you Will be noticed. It's not good tradecraft to be burned by the Subject because you are not prepared.

     Guns - Most PIs I know do not carry guns. We are Research Librarians, stalkers (not illegally, of course) and human counselors. None of those tasks requires a weapon. If you want to work in locations where a gun might be a good/bad decision, the licensing State and your insurance company need to know all about it. The State will require much more training and certification, and your insurance rates will soar. If you get in a "situation" and you are freelancing as an armed PI, you will lose your license and maybe a few years of your freedom. This is a concealed carry State (so far), so I have a pistol in my equipment bag. But not in a shoulder holster. I have had the husband of a female client damn near break my door down because she hired me to follow him on a little escapade. He went to jail for a little rest. PIs carrying a weapon in the line of business is an exception. Executive Protection is the main task for armed PIs.

     Real Life - PIs are people, real people. They need to eat, pee, sleep, pay rent. They get scared, make errors, run low on gas. Part of the cliche demands the PI have a quirk. They collect rare stamps, cook, knit, play piano. That's ok, because real people do that too. But, they don't NEED a quirk to fill out their character.

     Errors - I have a patch on my carry bag that says "Bad decisions make good stories". So true. Detectives used to be written like they have special knowledge, that they could tap into some storehouse of rare facts that solve the case to everyone's surprise. Dashiell Hammett changed all that. His Namless Detective made mistakes and he suffered for his errors, but he was very good at street-level investigation, so mistakes were few and we got to see him figure it out. American mystery writers in the early 20th Century changed how mysteries were written.

     An anecdote, then I'm out here.  When a new client comes in, we have a long discussion to get down to the essence of what they want. We strip away the TV influences, and we agree on the specific wording of the tasks they are hiring me to look into. They tell me about themselves, the Subject, and the situation. Do I accept it? I trust but verify by doing some quick research on the client. I want to verify they are telling me the truth and that they aren't asking me to violate a Restraining Order. PIs who don't check the client get into trouble. 

     Recently, two PIs were arrested for harassment. They were tasked to find a man and his family. They didn't check out their clients or establish what the client intended to do with the information. There is a smart protocol about "Locates". You don't tell the client the answer unless they are represented by Counsel. There are other rules, but my point is that these PIs found the man, and they told the clients where they were. The clients then savagely threatened the Subject and his family - - unless he returned to China. The clients were Chinese agents, and they used the PIs to find Chinese Nationals hiding from retribution. The agents got away, the PIs lost their business and went to jail. True stuff.

     That would make a good thriller, wouldn't it? And you don't need quirks or other crutches to make it a terrific story to read.

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, posing as a literary agent. He claimed to have read my first novel, Fade to Black, in my SciFi/Fantasy series The Weir Chronicles, and loved it! He shared how it just had “that something that popped right off the page” and how, as he read my book, he could see it playing on the screen. Based on its cinematic adaptation potential, he claimed the material was “just what Hollywood is looking for right now” and asked for a date and time to have a real conversation about it. Below his signature it stated he was the literary agent Nate Winslow. BUT (in hindsight) it also said he could connect me with the people who could make this happen. I made the mistake of assuming it meant production companies. I mulled this over and emailed him the next day asking how my book came to his attention. 

He was able to give me specifics (his scout found it, tagged it and had him read it), and that my “story stuck with him after he’d finished it,” etc., He shared enough details to convince me that he had, indeed, read my novel. He wanted to submit it to production companies as a potential limited 8-10 episodic series with options for the other 4 books in that series. I found him online and he appeared to be legit. I decided to take the next step and emailed him my phone number and a time I'd be available. He said to expect a call from his production assistant, who online was listed as an executive at an L.A. based production company, had years of experience in TV production, etc., and by all appearances was also legit. 

When this assistant (Dustin) called me, he explained that they would need three things from me to develop a presentation packet. 1) a short author video of me talking about my book, 2) a cinematic book trailer for producers to see my vision of the story and 3) a three-page synopsis. Once they received those materials, they would meet as a team and decide how best to proceed with my book. At that point, Dustin sent a list of 60+ production companies that they head hunt for. He asked if I had any preferences about who I’d want them to submit to first. I checked out a few online based on how they wanted to receive my packet and they were all true production companies. At this point I double checked with a friend, a literary agent. There was another agent in her firm who handles cinematic adaptation contracts. Together, they, too, confirmed the individual was legit. 

I scrambled to assemble the required materials. A week later, I received an email that they had reviewed everything and wanted to connect me with a film expert to discuss more details. They also shared that they had gathered the presentation packet just in time to submit to a production company, Wonder Street (a legitimate production company) for March. But Wonder Street was a “pass” because they already had a SciFi series they had contracted for in 2025. During the week with Dustin, I emailed the literary agent directly a couple of other times but it was Dustin who always responded. With them already submitting my project, I noted that we needed to discuss terms of the literary agent/author contract which had not been sent to me. Dustin replied that I’d be hearing from their film expert. The next day, Kevin, a man from yet another agency, Writers Edge Productions (who I discovered was in New York) called me. Kevin jumped into a very elaborate, intense “sales pitch” from a marketing lens about what it would take to get my book the best exposure in Hollywood. He mentioned getting a minimum of 5 book reviews in the LA Times, and had already posted my author video and book trailer on their Writers Edge website to “start the process.” He also mentioned working with the LA Talent Agency to hire actors to create a lengthier, more cinematic book trailer complete with CGI effects and arrange for a consultation with an award-winning cinematographer. He claimed I could expect thousands of dollars, even implied over a hundred thousand dollars, to sell my rights (which I knew would not be the case from previous research). He would email the contract to get their ball rolling and market my book before the next submission window opened for the production companies in April, and that they would be in charge of my submissions from then on. 

His email ended up in my SPAM folder. By the time I found it, I had already done a deep web search about this new company. Sure enough, when I clicked a few places, I found reviews on Writers Edge Productions, titled LEGIT or SCAM? The site was scored low (most likely a scam) and a warning that, to share any financial information with them, would be at your own risk. I researched further about the original literary agent in Hollywood and found his Linked In account. I messaged him through that site instead of our previous email exchanges. He called me later from an LA area code. He asked if I was Sue, and I confirmed that I was. He then said that dreaded next line that smashed any crumb of lingering hope from the past month’s endeavors, “I’m the REAL Nate Winslow.” Oh, and that contract they pressured me to sign to push my book into the Hollywood spotlight? $6000 for a 6-month contract or $12,000 for a year contract (my money up front, of course) with the promise of only one submission of my book to production companies each month, with no guarantee of acceptance. 

These guys know the business because most of what they told me was true. I suspect Writers Edge may be trying to get a foothold in the cinema business by taking a deceitful approach to build their portfolio with unsuspecting authors and touting it as the “new way of doing the book promotion business in Hollywood.” I may have been one of their first because my author's video and book trailer was the only one posted on their site on Friday, the day Kevin called me with the “sales pitch.” But by Tuesday, the following week, there were 12 more authors and their content. When I called them on it, they STILL claimed they were legit and had submitted my book through “GreenLightMyMovie.com.” After sharing everything I had with the real Nate Winslow, within another 8-10 days, all information on YouTube regarding this Writer’s Edge Company, was removed. Someone else had posted a video, sharing they were a scam and not to fall for it. 

BEWARE of any literary agent claiming to be a legitimate Hollywood figure, or a real production company called Perspective Film House, or a New York based agency called Writers Edge Productions. 

Unfortunately, there are more scammers out there masquerading behind other named agents and companies. Remember, literary agents never ask for money; they only get paid at the backend, and it’s always based on you signing a contract with the production company. Luckily I knew this. But not everyone does. In hindsight: Speak directly with the literary agent, not just through emails, ask to see a contract early on, and be aware that to request a book trailer to include in a presentation packet is not standard practice. 

 

 Sue Duff Loeffler 

Author at CrossWinds Publishing and at Wicked Ink Books. Former President of Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers (RMFW) Coordinator of Youth Writers Programming and the Youth Writers Scholarships through RMFW. 

Sue grew up dreaming of dragons and spaceships before she chose her favorite genres as an author. She has written and/or contributed to 11 published novels, short stories, and anthologies. You can check out all of her work on her Amazon author page @Sue Duff - author

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 uplifting, helping the reader to experience those moods as well. 

Setting is much more than the physical place; it is the season of the year, the time of day, the historical time period,  the weather, the people and culture of the place. The more vivid and specific these elements are, the more unique and powerful the story is. 

I love writing about Canadian settings not just because I know them best and can draw on all my experiences with them, but also because Canada offers endless possibilities. On the macro level, it has everything from rugged coastlines, rain forests, wide-open prairies, thousands of acres of trees and sparkling lakes, arctic glaciers and tundra. The farms, small towns, and big cities each have their own distinct flavour. The people of the Newfoundland fishing villages are vastly different from Alberta ranchers, British Columbian loggers, and remote northern hunters.

Trail riding in the Alberta badlands for THE ANCIENT DEAD

The four seasons are also very distinct. Setting a story against a backdrop of frigid cold, blinding snow, and long hours of darkness evokes a very different experience than the hot sun, gentle breeze, bird song, and lush green of summer. Autumn is a vivid tapestry of oranges, reds and yellows, the rich golden carpet of prairie wheat, leaves swirling in the air and crunching underfoot. Spring is soggy, muddy, brown and grey, with the excitement of little green shoots poking through the last traces of dirty snow.

The weather is an almost constant surprise, and therefore a pet topic of conversation among Canadians, whether it's the welcome spring sun or the third blizzard of the week. And we're not untouched by climate change either. Tornadoes, forest fires, floods, fierce thunderstorms– all of them can  ramp up the tension and drama in a story, and even play a pivotal character in it.

Kayaking in Georgian Bay for PRISONERS OF HOPE

Creating a vivid sense of setting works best when the writer has a vivid idea of it, and for me, that means  spending time there and experiencing all the things the characters do. Relying on book research, the internet, and other sources doesn't give me the visceral, five-senses impressions I want to capture. When I stood on a clifftop in northern Newfoundland, I could hear the thunder and crash of the waves, feel the fine spray on my cheeks, hear the cries of the birds wheeling overhead, and see the humbling vastness of the land. And I wanted the readers to experience all that too. An added bonus - it made a fantastic trip!

A Late Start

by Catherine Dilts

I’ve gotten a late start on gardening this year. Considering the weather this spring, perhaps I’m starting right on time.

Back in March, my husband and I did some yard clean-up. I prepped my containers, refreshing the dirt and pulling out last year’s roots. I also started a few seeds indoors.

In the past, I aggressively pushed the boundaries. Knowing when the last hard freeze occurs here (Mother’s Day), I would use elaborate covers to protect plants. The growing season is short in the Rocky Mountain foothills. Too short to realistically attempt growing hot, long season plants like okra and watermelon.

Yes, I’ve tried to grow both, with minimal success. It’s difficult enough growing tomatoes and peppers. Cold climate foods like kale and broccoli do well.

I’m tired of trying to fool Mother Nature. My experience has been that all that boundary pushing did not result in a significant increase in tomatoes. Peppers are a summer crop, and they won’t abide being rushed.

This year, I’m not going to extremes to get my garden started early. I’m also trying a few new techniques.

I am starting plants in larger pots, then transferring them to even roomier pots when I estimate the roots have filled the container.

Fewer plants, with more attention to those I do grow.

Another experiment is leaving the grow lights on 24 hours a day. So far, this seems to have improved the size and health of my plants.

Part of my reason for relaxing my approach to gardening is that other activities have taken priority.

My husband retired, kinda sorta. He might continue doing occasional contract work for funsies. He’s just that kind of guy, plus his work as a medical device engineer is interesting. So when he’s actually not working, he appreciates me being available for hikes and travel. And I'm happy to be able to do things mid-week, instead of cramming everything into a hectic weekend.

Even though I’m retired now, I really have to schedule my days. I’m embarking on a co-author project that’s consuming a lot of time. My own fiction writing continues. There just doesn’t seem to be enough time in a day for writing all the stories I want to tell.

Which makes gardening an important hobby. Stopping, going outside, pushing my hands in the dirt, provides balance. It connects me to the changing seasons.

It’s finally gardening season in Colorado. Unless it snows again.

Where the Magic Happens---Setting

 By Thomas Kies

All 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 live there, and I know that from September until about April, it’s cold, gray, and spooky as hell. 

In mysteries, familiar tropes like quirky investigators, plot twists and red herrings often steal the show. But behind every great detective, behind every puzzle, there lies something equally important yet often overlooked: the setting. In mystery writing, the setting is not merely a backdrop. It is an active, breathing element that sharpens tension, deepens mood, and influences every layer of the narrative.

In almost any storytelling, setting is far more than a place where the novel takes place. It’s atmosphere. It’s tone. It’s the shadow in the forest, the strange noise in the attic, the musty smell of the basement, and the creaking of the floorboards that makes the reader’s heart pound. Whether it’s the fog-choked streets of Victorian London in the Sherlock Holmes stories or the idyllic yet sinister mountains in C.J. Box’s tales, the setting creates a framework for suspense to thrive.

Setting does more than add ambiance—it can be its own character. Think of the locked-room mystery (which can also be thought of as a familiar trope): a classic device where the confines of a space become the key to the puzzle. In these stories, the setting isn’t just where the crime occurs; it is the problem. 

The setting of a story helps build atmosphere.  Shadows falling across a motel wall, a thunderstorm rumbling in, a town filled with suspicious characters. They are tools to create a visceral reaction. Readers feel unsettled not just by the mystery, but by the texture of the world they’re navigating. In psychological thrillers especially, the setting often reflects the inner turmoil of characters. 

Cultural and historical settings also expand the possibilities of mystery. Stories set in unfamiliar locales or time periods bring with them unique rules, customs, and obstacles. The Edgar winning novel, FIVE DECEMBERS takes place just prior and during World War II, starting in California and ending in Japan. James Kestrel uses the setting to set the tone for a range of emotions, unease and terror. Stephen King set his book JOYLAND in an amusement park on the coast of North Carolina in 1973. There’s nothing spookier than an amusement park after it’s closed. I can vouch for that. I worked in a traveling carnival during the summer of... 1973.

Finally, setting helps readers suspend disbelief. When the world feels real, the stakes feel real. A well-rendered setting immerses the reader so deeply that even the most unlikely plot twist feels plausible. The setting anchors the mystery in a world that makes sense—until, of course, it doesn’t, and that’s where the magic happens.

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 books on all three of those last topics. Today a mystery plot blazed into being while I was reading a book about technology. The 2018 book, Hello World: Being Human in the Age of Algorithms, led to a eureka moment this morning while I was casually drinking my coffee and reading on my balcony. 

In Hello World, author Hannah Fry wrote about how supermarkets first began using customer reward cards to collect data, the success of which led, eventually, to the huge data broker businesses and affairs we've heard about in recent years, including the infamous Cambridge Analytica scandal. Basically, we are being tracked everywhere online and then fed advertisements that our data indicates will most likely result in a sale. 

Or a vote, as it turns out.  

But I'm not here today to talk about political shenanigans. It was a supermarket data collection example Fry gave that set  my author antennae vibrating. Early on, sending coupons via email was a tempting and useful marketing strategy for supermarkets and other retail stores (still is, judging by my inbox). Data analysis gave retailers a way to pinpoint what offers and coupons to offer to which customers. But they didn't stop to think about how these rewards programs and subsequent offers would impact humans on the other end. 

One story was about an angry father who telephoned a company that had been sending pregnancy-related product coupons to his teenage daughter based on her online searches for products like vitamins and moisturizer for stretch marks. He accused the company of "encouraging teenage pregnancy." The company apologized and took a note to stop sending the coupons. 

I bet you know where this story goes. 

Yes, he called back later and said he'd had an interesting discussion with said daughter. In other words, the retail store knew before he did that he was gonna be a grandaddy. 

Immediately, an idea for a murder mystery short story popped into my head with the "twist" being that a "wronged" person finds "incriminating" email offers sent to someone in his family and takes drastic action...but of course, he's misinterpreted why his family member was getting those offers and he's now grievously ruined his family and his life. Now I just need to figure out who is solving the crime. 

I could write it from the criminal's pov. I've never tried that. On second thought, I think it might be more fun for someone else to figure it out. I don't do police procedurals. Maybe I'll try an amateur sleuth.

As authors we have to make all these decisions. It's hard to know ahead of time what will work unless you have a large body of work and a readership that expects a certain type of story. Then they might be upset if you tried something new. 

So, you see, there are pros and cons to every success or lack of. 

The point is, stories are everywhere, and fiction writers might think they are wasting time if they read about topics seemingly unrelated to their genre. Yes, we definitely should read great fiction in the crime genres. It's essential to do so if we want to improve on our craft.  

We also should consider cleansing our creative palates with some non-fiction every so often, as well. I think it stimulates brain activity in different ways. You never know when the next exciting plot will pop up in the pop non-fiction section of your local library, bookstore, or bookswap. 

Check out my revamped blog/writer journal at shelleyburbank.wordpress.com where I wrote more about my non-fiction reading this week. 

Also, check out the new look of my website, shelleyburbank.com. I'll write more on this change in my next Type M blog. I think this is going to be an exciting chapter in my writing life. Stay tuned!