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 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 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 “Guppy” means the “great unpublished” in the past history of the chapter, but...
by Susan Van Kirk | Apr 8, 2022 | Blog, mysteries, reading, writing, writing novels
This summer on June 7, Level Best Books will be launching two books on the same day. One is The Navigator’s Daughter by Nancy Cole Silverman, and the other is my first Art Center Mystery, Death in a Pale Hue. At first glance, Nancy and I are so different. She...
by Susan Van Kirk | Feb 11, 2022 | mysteries, mystery, reading, small towns, Susan Van Kirk, suspense
“In the heartless cruelty of my sixth-grade year, I sat behind Ned Fisher in English class, joining in the snickers of my friends. Ned had ears that stuck out from his head like Dumbo the elephant, and he probably wished he could fly away. Now, decades later, I...
by Susan Van Kirk | Nov 3, 2021 | Blog, mysteries, reading, writing novels
A huge welcome to my friend, Heather Weidner, who writes a wonderful series about one of the most beautiful settings in the world–the Blue Ridge Mountains. Anyone for glamping? Guest Post by Heather Weidner, Author of the Jules Keene Glamping Mysteries and the...
