Susan Van Kirk
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I Like My Cozies Soft Boiled by Nancy Cole Silverman

by Susan Van Kirk | Jun 3, 2024 | Blog, fiction, mysteries, suspense

I grew up in a newsroom. By that, I mean that by the time I was in high school, my safe place became the newspaper office. The room dedicated to putting out the weekly paper, the school’s annual, and the hangout for what today would probably be called the uncool...

Inspiration for “Sins Revealed” by Lynn-Steven Johanson

by Susan Van Kirk | Mar 25, 2024 | Blog, fiction, mysteries, small towns, suspense, writing

Today, I’m featuring another Level Best Book author, Lynn-Steven Johanson, who lives only forty minutes away from me in the heart of the country–downstate Illinois. It’s all yours, Lynn…. People often ask writers where their inspiration comes...

Reeling Them In: Using Red Herrings in Mysteries by Daphne Silver

by Susan Van Kirk | Mar 18, 2024 | Blog, mystery, suspense, writing

Today, I’m hosting fellow Level Best Book author, Daphne Silver, on my website blog. Take it away, Daphne… There are so many things I love about cozy mysteries: quirky characters, charming locales, and taking a virtual escape. However, the thing I love...

Channeling the Inner Sleuth by DonnaRae Menard

by Susan Van Kirk | Mar 11, 2024 | Blog, mysteries, suspense, writing novels

It doesn’t matter where I’m speaking, about what, or to which group, eventually someone wants to know where the stories come from. I really want to say that’s a tough question, but I find inspiration in the darndest places. Mostly because I can’t keep my nose out of...

How Elizabeth Catherine became Liza (and acquired a cat, an elderly neighbor and a voice in her head.)

by Susan Van Kirk | Feb 26, 2024 | Blog, mystery, suspense, writing novels

Today I’ve invited Linda Norlander to my website to talk about her mystery writing. All writing careers are not alike, and Linda’s is pretty funny! Take it away, Linda…  Back when I was in my mid-thirties, I created a character I named Elizabeth...

The Circle of …a Mystery Series by Susan Van Kirk

by Susan Van Kirk | Oct 17, 2023 | Blog, mysteries, small towns, suspense

Twelve years ago, when I began writing my Endurance Mysteries, I was just starting to write novels, and I continued the series as I thought of new directions. Not knowing that there was such a thing as a character arc or series arc, I continued that series as new...

Rumors of Her Death by Josh Donellan

by Susan Van Kirk | Oct 9, 2023 | Blog, fiction, suspense, writing

Whenever I tell someone I’m a writer, the question I’m most commonly asked is: ‘Where do you get your ideas from?’ The question supposes that ideas are phantasmal, evanescent creatures that can be plucked from the aether with the correct combination of lures and...

Flawed Characters or Flawed Writing? by Ivanka Fear

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...

Why I Use Remote Viewing in Crime Fiction by Katherine Ramsland

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...

Besides Being an Author, I’m a Wedding Planner! by Mary P. Karnes

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...
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