by Susan Van Kirk | May 22, 2014 | Blog, Susan Van Kirk
Mom, college counselor, teacher, zookeeper, police deteciveIn the mid-1980s, when I was teaching high school English, I formed a friendship with a remarkable woman who had four daughters. I used to think of her girls as Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, except...
by Susan Van Kirk | Apr 15, 2014 | Blog, small towns, Susan Van Kirk
Following the interview with our local Police Chief, I next went to the fire department. I use a lot of book research in my mysteries, but talking with experts is really helpful in getting the details right.I interviewed Chief John Cratty in 2011 when he was the Fire...
by Susan Van Kirk | Apr 3, 2014 | Blog, Susan Van Kirk
I’m taking a brief break from interviewing my expert sources today to add a review of a great thriller I just finished called Cabin Fever. I was honored to receive an Advanced Reader Copy of Jim’s book which is coming out April 8, 2014. I would strongly...
by Susan Van Kirk | Mar 25, 2014 | Blog, interviews, Susan Van Kirk
While writing my mystery, Three May Keep a Secret, I enlisted the help of several experts who could teach me about dead bodies, guns, autopsies, and murder investigations. In all my years of living in Monmouth, Illinois (pop. 10,000), I’ve only talked once,...
by Susan Van Kirk | Mar 10, 2014 | Blog, Susan Van Kirk
My first mystery, Three May Keep a Secret, is coming out this November from Five Star Publishing. Notice the word “first” in that sentence. Over the past two years, I have had many “firsts” in writing this mystery. One of those was getting up...
by Susan Van Kirk | Mar 3, 2014 | Blog, interviews, Sisters in Crime, Susan Van Kirk
It’s hard to believe that three weeks ago I was sitting in The Sugar Bowl in Old Town Scottsdale having lunch with Annette Mahon, enjoying the blue Arizona skies, and loving the mid-seventies temperatures. Annette is the author of five quilting mysteries about...
by Susan Van Kirk | Dec 4, 2013 | Blog, Susan Van Kirk
It’s been four years since I set out to see crime writer Michael Connelly at the Poisoned Pen Bookstore in Scottsdale. The creator of Harry Bosch and Mickey Haller, Connelly has generally launched his new books from here. Since he’s written twenty-six...
by Susan Van Kirk | Nov 11, 2013 | Blog, Susan Van Kirk
National Geographic Channel recently aired the first of several documentaries and movies about November 22, 1963. I’d like to say that date seems like yesterday, but in actuality it seems like long ago. At the time I was seventeen, a junior in high school,...
by Susan Van Kirk | Oct 9, 2013 | Blog, Susan Van Kirk
After my sojourn across the pond, it’s back to the McCullough House, a Victorian home that will be an 1893 setting in my second mystery. We’ve explored the public rooms downstairs. Now it’s time to take the broad staircase to the second and third...
by Susan Van Kirk | Sep 21, 2013 | Blog, Susan Van Kirk
I’m taking a little time off from 19th century Victorian architecture and furnishings to write about a recent trip to Europe, but be advised that even a trip back into history has an effect on my thoughts about past, present, and plots. Sixteen of us went on a...
