by Susan Van Kirk | Sep 25, 2023 | Blog, mysteries, reading, suspense, writing
As a writer, I create characters. Or perhaps, bits of them already exist in my memories and my everyday encounters, and they need me to piece together the puzzle, bringing them to life as new personalities. Although it’s nice to have a mental image of them as flesh...
by Susan Van Kirk | Sep 4, 2023 | Blog, historical fiction, mysteries, reading, writing
Of the many questions my readers and other writers ask me, my favorite is why I gravitate to historical fiction rather than contemporary topics. My questioners seem awed by the amount of research I undertake. They don’t know my secret. For me, writing historical...
by Susan Van Kirk | Aug 28, 2023 | Blog, mysteries, suspense, writing
When I described the method of remote viewing in I Scream Man, the first novel in my “Nut Cracker Investigations” series, readers thought I should call it paranormal. However, remote viewing is not supernatural in the sense of ghosts and vampires. You might be...
by Susan Van Kirk | Aug 21, 2023 | Blog, mysteries, suspense, writing
Hello! I’m Mary Karnes, the author of WEDDING BRIDE AND DOOM, the first in the Wedding Planner Mystery Series which was published August 22, 2023, by Level Best Books. It’s a cozy mystery series about an amateur sleuth who happens to be a wedding planner. This was...
by Susan Van Kirk | Aug 14, 2023 | Blog, mysteries, reading, suspense, writing novels
Today I’m welcoming Arlene Kay, a Level Best Books author, to my blog to talk about her latest mystery and her love affair with bad guys! Welcome, Arlene… Mystery writers populate books with an array of suspects who may or may not be the culprit. Creating...
by Susan Van Kirk | Jun 25, 2023 | Blog, mysteries, publishing, writing, writing novels
I must admit I laughed a lot when I read this post by Amy Young. She, too, is a fellow writer with books published by Level Best Books. Enjoy! When I began writing my second novel, a thriller, I had an idea, some notecards, and maybe most importantly for me, drive. I...
by Susan Van Kirk | Jun 19, 2023 | Blog, mysteries, reading, suspense
I’ve been posting guest writings from my fellow Level Best Books authors for the past few weeks. Here is a new one by DonnaRae Menard, author of Murder in the Village Proper. And here she is… While I was lying on the gurney in the ER contemplating how one...
by Susan Van Kirk | May 22, 2023 | Blog, mysteries, reading, suspense, writing novels
A big welcome to Albert Waitt, a fellow Level Best Book author, who hails from Maine. (And he went to school in my favorite city, Boston.) He’s my guest today, and he’s writing about desires and crime fiction. Take it away… You may be asking...
by Susan Van Kirk | May 1, 2023 | Blog, Kelly Oliver, mysteries, publishing, reading, suspense, writing
I’m so pleased to be visited at my blog this week by Kelly Oliver, a fellow author published by Level Best Books. Since I also read Elizabeth Peters’s books, I loved her take on this. Take it away, Kelly! Last weekend I was on a panel at Malice Domestic...
by Susan Van Kirk | Mar 26, 2023 | Blog, book reviews, mysteries, reading
This winter I’ve read many mysteries. Since I’m president of the Guppy Chapter of Sisters in Crime, I decided to read some books by my fellow guppies. “Guppy” means the “great unpublished” in the past history of the chapter, but...
