From Lone Star Lawless: “When Cheese Is Love”

Posted by M. K. Waller * In November, Austin Mystery Writers, my critique group, published its second crime fiction anthology, LONE STAR LAWLESS. Today I’m sharing an excerpt from my story, “When Cheese Is Love.” To set the scene: English teacher Tabitha Baynes has come to Fonda de Paz, the best Tex-Mex restaurant in Central

Writing as Business: An Epiphany

Posted by M. K. Waller ***** Writing is a business. That’s what experienced writers tell the wannabes. For a long time, I thought business applied to action alone: Write every day, attend classes, network, become familiar with various routes to publication, learn the market, read submission guidelines, stay in good physical shape, and on and

WHAT DID I BRING HOME?

  Since all three people in my writers group attended the Left Coast Crime Conference in Hawaii this past March, I asked this question during one of our meetings: What did you get out of the conference? (In a recent blog, here’s what Sarah M. Chen said.) I mentioned in an earlier post that I

Keep the Promises You Make to Yourself

Some promises take longer to keep than others but promises you make to yourself are important. Promises for me come in different forms. Goals I set for myself every year. Daily, weekly, or monthly promises I’ll make. They’re easy to off handedly say, “I’ll read more this week.” Or “I’ll watch what I eat.” Even

Smile, Write, and Breathe

by Sarah M. Chen The past couple weeks have been a roller coaster of emotions for me. But what’s been helping me stay on track is to think positive. I’m probably the last person people would expect to say this. I tend to see the glass as half empty. Friends and family call me “the

Equal Pay, Equal Lines

     by Travis Richardson   Happy Equal Pay Day! Today is equal pay day in America. That means that from April 12 going forward, women will make the same amount as men for the rest of the year. The previous four months and 11 days women have been essentially working for free compared to their

Word Count

 by Travis Richardson This morning I submitted a 4991 word manuscript to an open call for a mystery/crime anthology set in a specific regional area. I’m not sure what my chances of getting in are since (1) open calls are often highly competitive, (2) judging is subjective and (3) my work skews toward darker subjects

My Split Book Personality

by Sarah M. Chen A couple posts back, I discussed the personality type that I most identified with: the extroverted introvert. Now I’m going to discuss another conflicting aspect of my personality—my book personality. If anyone asked what type of books I liked to read, I’d automatically say crime fiction and the darker the better.

Fiction That Hurts

by Travis Richardson When writing a short story, besides telling a compelling plot, it is often good to have a character change, differentiating who they were at the beginning to who they became by the end of the story. In crime fiction, this could mean a breathing character on page one ends of up dead

Branding? by Travis

 This blog by Travis Richardson Hello Writing Wranglers and Warriors community. Thank you for letting me contribute to your site. I’m relatively a new author. Not new in that I’ve just started writing, but that my first story was published in 2012. I write primarily crime fiction and have found a supportive community of cohorts