Prepping For Malice

 by Sybil Johnson

I’ll be attending Malice Domestic once again this year. For those who don’t know, it’s a mystery convention celebrating traditional and cozy mysteries. This is my 10th or 11th one or something like that. I’ve lost track over the years.

Malice is my favorite mystery convention. I look forward to it every year, even though it means a plane ride across the country and a 3 hour time difference. An added bonus is I get to visit the pandas at the National Zoo.

I’m particularly excited for this year since I know both the Guest of Honor, Annette Dashofy, and the Toastmaster, Ellen Byron. They’re both great writers and people.

I’ve been lucky to be on a panel every year I’ve attended as a published author. This time around I’m moderating a panel, MUSEUM MACGUFFINS: Art & Artifacts in Mysteries. On the panel are Lynda Allen, D.R. Ransdell, Lane Stone and Jeff Tanner. The topic is an interesting one. Should be quite fun.

I feel the role of the moderator is to keep the conversation flowing, ask interesting questions, and make sure everyone gets in on the conversation. In order to do this, I need to know about each panelist so I’m checking out their websites and reading at least one of their books. After all that, I should be able to come up with interesting stuff to talk about.

I had better get back to it.

For the full Malice schedule: https://www.malicedomestic.net/ Clicking on 2026 Schedule will bring up a pdf of the current schedule.

How Far Should We Go?

 By Charlotte Hinger

I hate hate hate writing a novel synopsis. Curiously, I love writing query letters and judging by the reception I get, I'm good at this.  

A novel synopsis is a totally different process. Mine sound dull and stilted. Like what you would write to a college professor or your grandmother. No phazazz. 

A couple of days ago, I finished a synopsis of a historical novel for my agent. It was mediocre at best. My judgement, not hers. 

Then inspired I turned to ChatGPT. I asked my new BFF if it could create a synopsis. "You bet," it replied eagerly. I uploaded my book--all 115,000 words. It created a wonderful sparkling synopis in seconds. 

WOW!

Then I ran my mystery through this process with the same instruction: Create a one page synopsis. Again, a terrific result. 

I would never write a book with ChatGPT. In fact, I'm so frustrated with Microsoft's CoPilot attempting to interfere when I write that I'm ready to tear my hair out. And yet, and yet--I find myself paying attention when it insists a comma is needed here or there. On the other hand, it doesn't understand the impact of incomplete sentences. Or phrases, or a whole bunch of other things involved in creative writing. 

Thinking back, I've resisted adopting any new development regarding writing. I didn't want to give up my bouncey Royal portable typewriter that was a gift from my parents. When I switched to computers, I clung to my Apple 2e. Then I went through PCs at a record pace. These choices involved equipment, AI is in a different realm.

 I've discoveredd I'm very superstitious. Those synopses!! It was just too easy. I'm a Kansan, after all. Our state motto is Ad Astra Per Aspera. To the Stars Through Difficulties. If it isn't hard, it doesn't count. 

I wonder if I asked how my novel could be improved, what would ChatGPT say. Do I dare ask? Would I throw a hissy fit if I didn't like its suggestions and turn to Anthrotopic's Claude instead? 

For that matter, I've questioned the HUGE number of five star reviews some authors have on Amazon. Are they for real? If I asked ChatGPT to post a thousand fawning reviews on Amazon, would it do it? 

Does "it" resent not having a real name? Should I ask?

Calling Dr. Freud - or - Novel Writing for Fun and Psychoanalysis

Over the course of my novel-writing career, it has occurred to me to wonder about the psychology of those of us who create whole worlds on paper and populate them with characters who do exactly what we want them to do. Are we indulging in self-psychoanalysis without being totally aware of it? I’ve often said that what readers say to me about my books tells me more about them than it does about the books. So I’d better admit that what I write says a lot about what’s going on in this unfathomable (to me) l brain of mine. 

Things change in the course of a life, and what did the trick for you when you were younger may not fill the bill after a while, and time may come for a change. The one constant in my life has been the love of storytelling. I started writing short stories when I was very small. The first story I remember writing was about a girl who turned into a cat. It had pictures and everything. I was an English major  in college, and have always been a prolific reader, but I always felt I had to be practical and concentrate on having a successful career, be self-sufficient, make a living.  I surely did not want to end up like my mother, who drove herself crazy trying to be the epitome of a perfect 1950s wife and mother. So for the bulk of my life, my fiction writing was just for me.  I have a trunk full of short stories dating from the early 1960s, but  before I wrote my first mystery novel, all my published works consisted of professional articles, including a book on U.S. Government tax publications. I’m sure you remember. It was riveting.

I was always fairly successful at my various career endeavors, but I found none of them particularly fulfilling. It took me half a century to realize that maybe I really didn’t want to be a captain of industry or a leader of men. So the day came when I asked myself, Donis, what has always given you joy in your life?  And I had to admit that I’ve always been happiest when I was telling a story.

So I took a leap. I sold my business and went home to write. And interestingly, the book I decided to put my heart into was entirely different than anything I had ever written before. All the books and stories I had written before had to do with cool people, usually unmarried, childless professionals, often scientists, always intellectuals, mostly messed up and angst ridden.

But this time I wrote a historical mystery series set in rural Oklahoma at the turn of the 20th century, featuring a farm wife with a very large family: Alafair Tucker, who couldn’t care less about cool. How I conjured up this character I do not know, for she could not be less like me.  And yet she obviously is me to some extent, since she lives in my head.    

Am I wish-fulfilling? I don’t have the slightest desire to romanticize her lifestyle. It was tough.  Alafair lives the life I never did, or never could. I couldn’t abide it.  However, it seems I imbue her with all the virtues and strengths I do not have.  She knows what she knows and takes action.  Then once she has, she doesn’t second-guess herself.  I agonize over every decision and sometimes take no action at all.  She’s kind and tolerant of human weakness.  She takes care of everyone.  She’s patient with the follies of others.  Me: not so much. She’s a moderately well-adjusted mother of children, who doesn’t worry about her own shortcomings nor her place in the world, instead of what I am, which we won’t go into.

I never set out to deliver a message or make a statement when I write.  I just want to tell a ripping yarn. However, every time I finish an Alafair Tucker novel I do find myself wondering what Dr. Freud would say about the story.  Alafair is always much more successful at confronting her fears than I am. And she is never afraid to fail. She sticks herself out there. 

For the first time in my fiction writing career, I created a character who isn’t hip or svelte or rich or independent or even particularly young. Or male. She goes against all conventional wisdom. Yet I had immediate success with Alafair’s first novel, The Old Buzzard Had it Coming.  Why it couldn’t have happened when I was young and thin and beautiful I don’t know, but we come to our authentic place in our own time, I guess.

Maybe I want to spend time with Alafair because she reminds me of some of the women in my past whom I loved, but didn’t fully appreciate. She is funny, reflective, wise to ways of the world and the ways of kids, and a bit sad because of the losses in her life, like my own mother was.  She’s the center of her family, loving and giving to a fault, adored by her children, and a legendary cook, like my late mother-in-law.  With the best of motives, she’s all up in your business and can drive you crazy, too, like a relative of mine who shall remain nameless, lest she recognize herself (though she won’t. They never do.)

I may have created Alafair out of pieces of women I love, but she’s much more than the sum of her parts.  The great British mystery novelist Graham Greene said, “The moment comes when a character says or does something that you hadn't thought of.  At that moment, he’s alive and you leave it to him.”  I first put Alafair on the page, but then she stood up and walked away, and now I just follow where she leads. And what that tells me about myself I do not know.

Calling in the experts

 I have been really struggling with my current WIP, Sins of the Father, the thirteenth Inspector Green novel. The word count suggests I am three-quarters of the way through, which means I should have at least a vague idea how I'm going to "land this sucker". The last quarter of a book is all about catching all the balls I have tossed up in the air, pulling them together into a satisfying, dramatic climax, and tying together the loose ends. The central question of the story must be answered as well as most of the subordinate questions. I don't mind some ambiguity that leaves a few puzzle pieces unplaced, but it's a fine line between that and leaving readers dangling and frustrated.

But meanwhile, Sins of the Father is still out in the weeds, looking for direction. As I wrestled with the question "What next?", I realized that part of my problem is not knowing what my characters, especially my police characters, would be doing in the real world. I try to write reasonably realistic stories which means trying to follow proper police investigative procedures and avoiding having the cops make outlandish or frankly illegal moves. But in this book, I have embroiled them in a plot that involves them in situations outside their normal investigative protocols. I know a reasonable amount about police protocol, but in this story, I have ventured far beyond my comfort zone. I have rogue cops, secrets, cover-ups, and inter-jurisdictional complications with other police forces. It's the nature of the story I have developed, but I still want to preserve some appearance of realism. I don't want readers with some knowledge of normal procedure and acceptable conduct to throw the book at the wall in exasperation. Would such and such an action be grounds for dismissal? How much can an officer get away with? Would police forces keep secrets from each other without consequences? And so on.

I don't have answers to these questions as I plough ahead with the story, but I have a solution. Once I have finished the first draft the best I can, with fingers crossed it's not too outlandish, I hope to send the manuscript to a couple of retired police friends for their input. Both of them love mysteries and hopefully will be able to offer suggestions if I have bent credibility too far. It is fiction, after all, and some suspension of disbelief is acceptable in the interests of a good story. Sometimes it's a matter of setting up the motivations properly. Instead of thinking "Oh, he would never do that!", I can reframe the issue as "under what conditions might he do that."

I still don't know what should come next, but I have some idea of where I want to end up. I just have to figure out how to get there, and leave the realism aside for the time being. Trusting the cops will set me straight.

Traveling With Pets

by Catherine Dilts

Why do I always imagine I can write while on vacation? This trip had an added challenge. My husband and I have never traveled with pets.

We began on February 28 in Colorado. The plan was fairly loose, with the only reservations being for a Grand Canyon campground on March 2^nd. Maybe we’d find places to camp along the way. Maybe not. But we were driving a new-to-us RV. Any place you can pull over and fit becomes an impromptu campground.

Planning a winter camping trip, we figured we might not face the intense crowds of summer travel in national parks.

Traveling with a forty-pound, seven-month-old English Springer Spaniel and a two-month-old Humane Society rescue kitten had its moments. A car-sick puppy, a kitty so tiny I was afraid he might get stepped on.

Most of my fiction includes cats, dogs, and horses. I’ve felt slightly hypocritical extolling the virtues of animal companions in my stories, while not having a pet in over fifteen years. I did manage to do a little writing on this trip, but not on any of my fiction projects. Instead, I kept a journal and began a series of articles for my SubStack account.

I have noticed that my posts that include a photo of an animal get more views and reactions than anything else I throw on social media. Starting this Sunday, March 15, I’ll release one article a day for over a week at https://substack.com/@catherinedilts. These have nothing to do with my fiction work. They’re all about my experience of travel with pets.

Is it a waste of time to write and post articles that won’t promote my fiction? Or will this create that human connection that’s supposed to make people care about reading our books and stories?

I’m kind of past caring whether my social media presence sells books or not. If this venture isn’t about pure self-expression and having some fun, then I don’t really want to engage any longer.

Writing about the stresses and joys of traveling with pets has definitely been fun. The work of writing can roll along without me for a few more days.

And roll along it does, with Grandpa’s New Year’s Relocation available now at Basecamp Books and Adventure, and in the usual places online. Grandma’s Valentine Abduction released on the first day of my vacation. 

Vision Board Before Writing

"Masquerade" by Shelley Burbank

Hi Everyone. Shelley Burbank here. 

March has begun, and I'm wallowing and wading in my next Olivia Lively mystery. The first book was set in spring. The second in summer. The last one will be winter. 

This third mystery will be an autumn tale. 

Now, I love Maine in the fall, but it's a little difficult to feel that mood when living on a tropical island in Micronesia. I needed something to evoke woodsmoke rising from chimneys, pumkins decorating front porches, dusk falling quickly, the crunch of leaves beneath L.L. Bean boots, and all things Halloween. The answer? A "mood board" created on the front cover of the notebook I'm using to draft scenes, create character sketches, take notes on thematic elements needed for the plot, and synopses of chapters. 

This particular book will find my main character, Liv, in her darkest place. Her character arc (why do I always want to write "arch?" A plot is a structure of sorts, a bridge, taking my heroine from "here" to "there," but it's symbolic not literal, like an archway. Of course, in literary terms, there is also ARC--Advanced Reader Copy) over the course of my planned four-book series makes the third installment the logical place for the Dark Moment. And autumn has all those dark, witchy, Halloween vibes, too. It fits.

Anyway, I love making collages. I make them for my personal journal covers, and this particular piece was a fun way to spend a morning/afternoon. I let my verbal brain take a break while I played with mood and vibe and color and voila! The result is how I want readers to feel when they read the book: a little edgy, a little creepy, but also the cozy "pumpkin spiciness" of Gilmore Girls. And Guam. 

The idea for a certain plot/theme popped into my head while I was listening to a podcast episode about a goddess cult back in ancient Sumeria. That's actually all I'll say. I've typed more and deleted because I want no spoilers. Guam becomes a destination as Liv investigates the crime in Book 3, but whether or not it's a red herring I'll have to leave unanswered here. I'm not even TOTALLY sure myself what will happen here, but I'm pretty excited to share some of my current home with my readers.

And readers might not have to wait for the book to learn more about Guam because an idea for a short story (please, please, dear Muse, let it remain a short story) in the Olivia Lively world, but this time featuring her ASSISTANT/APPRENTICE, Marion! Yes, Marion is getting her own short story. I'm grateful to my Muse for gifting me with that brilliant idea. I already had the title from a t-shirt I found at a local tourist spot. 

I'm going to attempt to make a piece of art based on the photo I took, and I'm hoping maybe it will be good enough for an illustration for the short story if I use it as a lead magnet for building my email list. (Of course current subscribers will also have access to it, and I might also load it up to KDP for a .99 purchase for people who don't want to give me their email address.) 

The other option would be to submit it to a mystery magazine. 

Which do you think would be more likely to attract new readers? A. Free short story in exchange for email sign up or B. publication in a mystery magazine

Let me know what you think because I really can't decide. Sometimes people sign up for freebies, then unsubscribe after they get the freebie. I'm hoping to find readers who actually enjoy my stories and want to read more of them. Which is the better option? Help! 

Do YOU use vision boards for your life/work/writing? I'd love to hear more about that, too. Drop a comment! 

 

Viva Las Vegas

 by Sybil Johnson

I spent last week in Las Vegas, one of my favorite places to vacation. I’m not a partier, I just find it endlessly fascinating. Things are constantly changing on the Strip. Casinos come and go. Restaurants come and go. Shows come and go. The only thing guaranteed is that you’re going to walk and walk and walk. 

Sunset over the Strip. The Excalibur casino to the left, part of the New York New York casino on the right

It was nice to get away for a while. We went to several shows: Cirque de Soleil’s Ka, David Copperfield and a showing of the Wizard of Oz at the Sphere. The Sphere is, well, a huge sphere just off the strip near the Venetian. They have concerts there and show The Wizard of Oz. It’s an immersive experience. They cut out about 15 minutes from the original movie. It’s also processed so it seems 3-D and has occasional 4-D effects. Quite fun.

As I said, casinos come and go. The Mirage casino no longer exists. The new Hard Rock casino is being built in its place. Here’s the beginnings of a giant guitar.

 

The Flamingo is still around. They have a very cool bird sanctuary on the grounds which includes, yep you guessed it, flamingos.

 

We also went to the Arté museum, which is an immersive art experience. Well worth the visit.

Here in Southern California, we have driverless taxis called Waymos. They are modified cars. In Vegas, they have Zoox, which are vehicles that are made specifically to be robotaxis. There is no space for a driver, just space for passengers. Right now, they are in a test phase, giving free rides to limited places on the Strip. As soon as they get the go-ahead, they will start charging for the rides and, I would guess, go more places. You can read more about Zoox here.

All in all, it was a good trip. Now, back to work.

It Won't Work

 by Charlotte Hinger

Once in while someone comes to me (usually after a signing) saying they have the most wonderful story. They know I will just love it. They have a proposal for me. Because they are lots smarter then me. I will be oh so grateful. They will give me their idea. (For free, yet.) Then I can write the story and we will split the money.

At that point I usually have a brainstorm. Why don't I give them an idea and they can do the work and we'll split the money.

Even if the idea is terrific, to write a book requires an emotional connection. Your idea will rarely stir another writer to actually sit down and produce some work. There are obvious contradictions to this, of course. Some work very effectively as collaborative writers. And one of the greatest husband and wife teams I know are Michael and Kathy Gear. But that is an entirely different process.

A book is a difficult undertaking under the best of circumstances. It requires a tremendous investment of time and energy. The idea you have will be best written by you, because of the fire in your heart. The most common reason people don't proceed is they don't think they can. "I'm not a writer," they protest. "Really. I wouldn't know where to start."

Do you think we Type M'ers know where to start, just because we are published authors? Actually, no. You would think, after all these years. . . but no! I have always believed that there are wonderful writers out there who will never experience the joy of seeing their work published because they could not stand to bat their way through the fog. Because when writing doesn't come easily, they think they have no "natural" talent.

There have been several posts about ideas on Type M over the years. I've never understood where ideas come from. I'm the happiest when I've made some progress on a book and instead of being bombarded by ideas for books, stories, sewing projects, computer workarounds, because my mind switches to plot problems and stays there. Plotting might be hard, but it's more comfortable than the pre-book restlessness.

One of my best short stories developed when someone asked me what I was getting my granddaughter for Christmas. I said "that depends on what the other grandmother is buying." Loved the phrase"the other grandmother." No, "the other mother" would be even better. I liked the way it rolled off my tongue. Such an unlikely source for a workable idea. The story morphed into "Any Old Mother," and was selected for the MWA anthology, Blood on Their Hands.

I'm working a new Lottie Albright mystery. Off and on it's set in one of the seven natural wonders of Kansas: The Salt Mines. It's an amazing place. Soon I'll write more about this. 

In the meantime, write a book using your great idea. I promise your inner owl will fly to your aid.

DOING TAXES

 Michael Chandos

February is always ruined by doing taxes. 

We keep records of business expenses, taxes paid for major purchases, donations,etc. We appear to be semi-organized. Every piece of paper involving money, business, or Government goes into a box for February sifting. We print out credit card history, checking and savings. We highlight questions, billings that don't have enough information (credit card companies think a 12 digit number tells you everything you need to know, but make no mention of the reason for the charge, who charged, or a hint about why), and problems.  We noticed a few apparent double payments.

Taxes for people in creative activities are out of the system. Tax structures are made for hourly or monthly earners, ie real, normal jobs. If I spend 40 hours on a short story and send it to an editor for possible publishing, actual payment may be next year, not this year when I spent the time, bought postage, did market research.  Expenses last year, income this year, even 2 to 5 years later. The IRS wants expenses to link to income.  Creative taxes?  Don't get too creative, lots of guidance exists, but be careful what you believe.  If you are really busy selling, maybe you hire an accountant that specializes in writing clients. Tax law changes all the time, too, even into late December.

I want to be a writer, not a tax accountant.

I think we successfully collect 98% of the information needed for comprehensive personal and business returns. The last 2% can make a difference. We don't claim floor space in the house, tough to justify these days. Searching for missing data eats up most of February.

The "Last 2%" is critical in writing, too. I volunteer as a judge every year for various mystery writing groups. The Private Eye Writers of America, the Short Mystery Fiction Society, and Mystery Writers of America are just three of dozens. The winners are always "complete". These authors worked hard to include the Last 2%, and it shows. Story actions are justified, consequences matter, no blind alleys trap the mind of the reader, consistent characters. Authors satisfied with 98%, or even 90% or less, are quickly identified. 100% stories rise to the top.

The last 2% will take much more thought and time than the previous 98%. I think that's true of any creative activity from sculpting to poetry.  

Learn to Take Nothing for Granted

 2026 makes the 20th anniversary of my career as a professional writer. In those two decades, one can get jaded about plans foiled, marketing campaigns that sputtered out, expectations dimmed. I mean, my original goal was to become so outrageously wealthy in this writing game that I could hire Stephen King to clean my house. I even published an essay about it. Those riches never came to pass. But I have learned to count my blessings and embrace my successes however humble they may be to others. 

Last Saturday I was a panelist at In Conversation With Lisa Gardner, #1 New York Times Best-selling author. I'd been invited by Sean Eads, a librarian (and author) with the JeffCo Public Library, which hosted the event in the Teel Sanctuary at the Mile Hi Church in Lakewood, CO. For the panel, I was one of six local authors, four were well-established writers: Jon Bassoff, Kristin Koval, Mark Stevens, and Cynthia Swanson, and the fifth, the emcee Carter Wilson, himself highly acclaimed in the thriller genre.

When sitting behind the panel table and looking onto the audience, I made it a point to thank those who had taken time from their Saturday afternoon to attend and thank those from the library and the church staff responsible for the marketing and logistics that made the event possible. In the course of an hour presentation, we couldn't speak in depth about writing and publishing, but Carter Wilson is a skilled moderator and did a great job asking questions that ranged beyond the usual topics. Afterwards, Carter interviewed Lisa and the zoom audience who had tuned-in numbered over 500!

Being a panel of local authors, over the years I've met them all before except for Kristin Koval, and so it was a pleasure getting acquainted with another writer. It was also a pleasure to meet the headliner, Lisa Gardner, who was eminently gracious and sociable. 

Group selfie from the Green Room. From left, back row: Mark Steven, Sean Eads, me, Carter Wilson, Jon Bassoff. Front row: Kristin Koval, Cynthia Swanson, Lisa Gardner.

As we writers toil for years in solitude, it's encouraging to get out in public and have people show up to give us a listen. I count that as a success.

 

Pure Colorado – As a Fictional Setting?

By Catherine Dilts

When creating a setting for a work of fiction, some authors invent their world from scratch. Others place their characters in recognizable cities, down to the street names and businesses. Much depends on the genre.

Thrillers and spy novels demand worlds ripped from the news headlines. Cozy mystery authors typically develop their own small town or neighborhood settings. They might be based on a real place, but everything about the location is fictionalized.

Most of my fiction falls in the cozy category, set in a Colorado you won’t find on a map. The Rose Creek Mystery series is set in Oklahoma, a state I lived in for nearly a decade, but the town is pure invention. Some of my short stories are deliberately vague about their locations.

In a new series, The Ninja Grandparent Placement Mysteries, my co-author/daughter and I are going the realistic route. The story premise is ridiculous, so maybe we needed to be grounded in reality in one aspect of the novels. How realistic? We use Colorado Springs as the setting.

The main location for much of the action is the former UnionPrinter’s Home. We reimagined the renovations that are actually taking place, turning it into an idyllic senior retirement home with an atrium connecting it to a gym. But the elegant red sandstone and white limestone exterior remains the same.

Which brings me to a recent visit to the iconic Denver Restaurant Casa Bonita. For those of you unfamiliar with Casa Bonita, it is not merely a restaurant. It is an event. An adventure. The pink building is a Colorado landmark.

Generations of Colorado residents were heart-sick when the world-famous restaurant declared bankruptcy and closed in 2021, a victim of the pandemic. It’s a part of our heritage. Like the mountains to the west, it seemed to occupy a permanent place in the landscape.

No ordinary restaurateur or entrepreneur could afford to purchase the building and restore it to its former glory. Who could possibly come to the rescue? This had to be a labor of love.

Casa Bonita was featured in a 2003 episode of the animated TV show South Park. When they learned the landmark was going away, Colorado natives and South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker began the effort to purchase the restaurant in the fall of 2021.

Casa Bonita reopened in June of 2023. My family went this month to celebrate a granddaughter’s birthday. All of us had been to the restaurant years ago. We were eager to see the changes.

It looked almost exactly the same! This is a good thing. We were going for nostalgia. It would have been tragic if the South Park boys had remodeled the interior into something unfamiliar. And the exterior is the same pink, with the fountain and the bell tower on top.

One important thing changed: the food was vastly improved. The previous menu was infamous.  As my son-in-law noted, it didn’t matter what you ordered; your plate would be drowned in orange nacho cheese sauce. But you didn’t go there for the food. This time, we were seated and given menus! Our table had lighting that allowed you to see what you were eating. Always a good sign.

One other thing changed. Matt and Trey are determined to pay Casa Bonita employees a living wage. So the price was a bit daunting. But this isn’t a restaurant you pop in on for a quick lunch. It’s a special-event sort of experience. Cliff divers, puppet shows, a live mariachi band, Black Bart’s cave, and more. All those folks have to be paid!

Whether a writer uses actual locations, or invents a world from scratch, may depend on the genre. Will Casa Bonita find its way into my fiction writing? My co-author and daughter Merida Bass agrees, the Casa Bonita experience deserves to be included in a future Ninja Grandparent Placement Mysteries novel. One of our lonely grandparents in need of a family could make the hour drive and wind up at the famous Denver restaurant!

​
Grandpa’s New Year’s Relocation is available now at Basecamp Books and Adventure, and in the usual places online. Grandma’s Valentine Abduction is coming February 28th! Available for pre-order now.

Inside the Criminal Mind

 by Thomas Kies

 On Friday, February 27th, I’ll be joining a panel at Left Coast Crime with Harriet Cannon, Craig Clevenger, and David Putnam, moderated by Laurie Stevens. Our topic-- “Getting Inside the Criminal Mind”--sounds like fun. If you’re going to write crime fiction, you’ve got to have that motive. So, in preparation for the discussion, I began listing the forces that might drive a person to break the law.

The most obvious motivations are greed, jealousy, rage, hubris, and desperation. There are more, like revenge and compulsion, but for this blog, I’m just going to talk about the five I listed. 

Greed and jealousy are siblings. Both come from desire--specifically, the desire for what someone else possesses. It might be money, a car, status, fame, professional recognition, or a romantic partner. Greed whines, “I want more.” Jealousy growls, “I want what you have.” In either case, the criminal act becomes a shortcut, a way to acquire something unattainable--or perceived as unattainable--through legitimate means. Many white-collar crimes, embezzlements, and even murders for inheritance are a result of greed.  Many “crimes of passion” are rooted in jealousy.

Rage, on the other hand, often erupts without careful planning. It simmers beneath the surface until one provocation too many causes it to boil over. A barroom insult, a heated argument, a moment of humiliation, or even being cut off on the highway can ignite it. Crimes of rage are frequently impulsive. They are not the product of elaborate schemes but of emotional explosions. In such cases, the perpetrator may not have intended to commit a crime when the day began. The act is born in a flash of anger—and the consequences last far longer.

Hubris is another powerful motivator. This is the belief that one is smarter than everyone else, immune to consequences, or entitled to bend the rules. Some criminals are driven less by need than by arrogance. They believe they can outwit the system, manipulate the evidence, or charm their way out of suspicion. For others, the appeal lies in the thrill itself—the adrenaline rush of taking risks and defying authority. Hubris whispers, “You won’t get caught.” For some, that challenge is irresistible.

Desperation sets the stage for a more complicated moral landscape. When options begin to disappear and survival feels at stake, people may justify actions they would otherwise condemn. If your family is starving and you have no money, would you steal food to keep them alive? Many crimes arise not from ambition or arrogance but from fear and scarcity. Desperation narrows perspective. It transforms illegal acts into perceived necessities.

Of course, human motivation is rarely singular. Greed can mingle with hubris. Rage can be fueled by jealousy. Desperation can coexist with resentment. Real-life crimes—and the most compelling fictional ones—often stem from a volatile mixture of emotions and circumstances.

Mix in a few additives like drug use or revenge and you can have a deadly cocktail of motives. 

And then there is the uncomfortable reality that some individuals act without empathy or remorse. While I am not a psychologist, it’s clear that certain offenders display traits associated with sociopathy or an absence of moral restraint. Whether we label that “evil” or understand it through clinical terms, it reminds us that not every crime fits neatly into a rational framework.

Getting inside the criminal mind means recognizing that, at its core, crime begins with motive. And motive, however dark, is almost always human. And interestingly, often, when a criminal acts, they don’t necessarily see it as a bad thing but more as an imperative.  Something that needs to be done. 

Embracing Human Creativity

 

By Shelley Burbank: This includes an excerpt from my latest PINK DANDELIONS newsletter. 

Dandelion Seeds 

FROM PINK DANDELIONS

With everything going on right now, and in spite of the tasteless, smell-less, sterile poison that is AI’s non-living“breath” seeping into nearly every corner of our human world, I feel something rising in humanity: a desire to turn our backs (some a little, some a lot) on technology and to return, instead, to our humanity. All our messy, emotional, fleshy, smelly, oozy, soaring, dancing, laughing, swirling in circles on the grass, and lifting our faces to feel the rain humanity.

Do you feel it? Do those words grab you by the hand and swing you around? Do they make your heart lift?

Typing them makes me feel happy. I wrote about this creativity era in my journal yesterday, about how I feel as if we are moving into a new phase of life, one that is more connected with actual, living things: people, nature, animals, human-made art and crafts, voices raised in song, feet pounding a rhythmic dance, long hugs, big smiles, and laughing together over a shared experience.

Our new creativity era has begun, I feel it swirling around me, and it brings a feeling of peace and giddiness at the same time. I want to create. I want to share. I want to be in commune with other creators.

I’m dedicating myself to creativity. I’m letting ego and the materialist/capitalist side of the writing life become just a sidenote to the main event. It feels like turning a corner. Here, something whispers to me, is the human-scaled place to dwell.

Read the entire newsletter 

https://open.substack.com/pub/shelleyburbank/p/our-creativity-era-has-just-begun

_____

So, Dear Type M-ers, one way I am dedicating myself to this creativity is letting go of social media. I know I've talked about it a lot, but I've reached my limit of patience with this poisonous, anti-human, dumpster-fire technology. Social media isn't necessary for the writing life, and it's not really all that effective in growing a readership, despite all the hype that it will and that there are no better alternatives. 

I'm calling B.S. on that "common knowledge."

I don't need to outline all the reasons social media is bad for human beings, especially kids, and for society in general. You've heard it all. I've heard it all. I've come to the conclusion that I can't support these platforms anymore, even if it means I'm undermining my writing career. 

But I don't actually believe that anymore. I think there are better ways, especially since the great algorithmic pivot on the platforms around 2019-2020 which severely limits organic reach.

It's a waste of time. It's emotionally and psychologically addictive. It stokes conflict and outrage. 

So, the other day I posted a "this is why I'm taking a 30-day break from social media" reel in Facebook and Instagram. I moved these apps to the "back" page of my phone apps so I don't see them. I turned off push notifications so they don't pop up to tempt me. I'm officially taking a 30-day break, but I'm pretty sure at the end of that time I'm going to abandon my accounts, leave them there as a "calling card" directing people to my website instead, or possibly even delete them altogether. 

I should delete them. Why? Because that's how we take these platforms down. One deleted account at a time. Oh, by the way, some estimates are that 50% of the ad traffic comes from "bots." In other words, when you are paying for an ad and you get charged for an "impression" that impression might be made by a bot, not someone who might actually buy your book. Even accounts are, by some estimates, 10-16% fake. 

It's a zombie apocalypse in there, you just don't realize it yet. 

____

Meanwhile, new mystery novella (137 pages) has launched and is available in both ebook and paperback on KDP/Amazon. I'm really pleased at how it came out, and early reviewers are giving it very high marks and enthusiastic comments. 

Read the description and buy at https://www.amazon.com/Strawberry-Moon-Mystery-Olivia-Novella-ebook/dp/B0GGYX6CJB

Meet Your Next Favorite Female Sleuth. Strawberry Moon Mystery by Shelley Burbank. Olivia Lively, P.I. Mystery Series

• Coastal Maine Setting
• Female Investigator
• Frenemies & Betrayal
• Literary Mystery

Audible Originals

 by Sybil Johnson

In the last few months, I have been listening to a lot of Audible Originals. I got the Audible subscription because I wanted to listen to Mistletoe Murders. And, they had a three month deal I couldn’t pass up. 

Hallmark has a TV series, which I really like, based on the Audible Original series so I was curious how they compared. Both are good. They are their own things, equally enjoyable IMHO. 

That’s how I got started on my Audible journey. 

Audible Originals, or at least the ones I’ve listened to, are stories that are more akin to the radio dramas of the 1930s and 40s, than books. I’ve listened to a lot of those old radio programs and have enjoyed them. All of the AOs I’ve listened to are full cast narrations (multi actors). They rely heavily on dialog and background noises (soundscape) to tell the story. The background noises like horns honking, people talking help orient the listener to where they are so narration like “Ron and Amy were in a bar” isn’t necessary.

So far I’ve listened to all of the Mistletoe Murders plus its spin-off as well as a couple of Agatha Christie stories featuring Hercule Poirot that were adapted for AO. I have enjoyed all of them. I’ve even recognized some voices of actors that I’ve seen on TV shows. 

All of this got me thinking about what it means to write an AO story. Dialog is key. Some of the ones I listened to have some narration here and there, but mostly it’s dialog and background noises that tell the story. I found this 27-minute audio in a blog post on writing for audio that I thought was interesting. 

Worth a listen even if you have no intention of writing for audio. 

Has anyone written something specifically for audio? I’m curious to hear what your thoughts are.