by Susan Van Kirk | Feb 28, 2018 | Blog, mysteries, writing
I read the first Charles Lenox mystery, A Beautiful Blue Death, in 2007. Browsing through the new library books, I plucked it from the shelf, read it too quickly, and enjoyed it immensely. Charles Finch, the author, has now written thirteen books in the series, and I...
by Susan Van Kirk | Aug 4, 2013 | Blog, mysteries, Susan Van Kirk
Part of my second mystery, Marry in Haste, will take place in a large Victorian home in 1893. I lived in such a house when I first moved to Monmouth, Illinois in the 1960s. In my last post I discussed the history of the W.W. McCullough house, and now I’m...
by Susan Van Kirk | Nov 14, 2012 | Blog, mysteries, Susan Van Kirk
One of my former students, who is an intelligent and voracious reader, asked me this question when I announced on Facebook that I’d like to hear questions about writing. I have a couple of...
by Susan Van Kirk | Jun 15, 2012 | Blog, mysteries, Susan Van Kirk
Do you recognize these famous first lines from novels?”It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” “It was a pleasure to...
by Susan Van Kirk | Mar 20, 2012 | Blog, mysteries, small towns
I have lived in a small town [population 9,900] for a little over forty years. I’m used to people saying, “Oh, you’re from Illinois? What part of Chicago?” Despite this geographical impairment in peoples’ minds, a...
