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 18, 2023 | Blog, fiction, writing, writing novels
Liz Milliron is a Level Best Books author who writes the Laurel Highlands Mysteries set in southwest Pennsylvania. Featuring a Pennsylvania State Trooper and a Fayette County public defender, the series is up to the sixth book, which comes out on September 19....
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 | 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 | 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 | 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 16, 2021 | Blog, mysteries, Susan Van Kirk, suspense, writing
Last year, Harlequin Worldwide Mystery republished my first Endurance mystery, Three May Keep a Secret, in July as a mass market paperback. These books are smaller than your usual paperback, and they easily slip into a purse or tote bag. I was so excited to see the...
by Susan Van Kirk | Jan 4, 2021 | Blog, mystery, reading, writing
(The True Story of New York City’s Greatest Female Detective and the 1917 Missing Girl Case that Captivated a Nation) by Brad Ricca [St. Martin’s Griffin Books 2016] I loved the history in Brad Ricca’s book about Grace Humiston, a lawyer and advocate for the voiceless...
