Hacked!

~ Margaret Lucke ~ Leave a comment
Banner showing author Margaret Lucke and some of her books

By Margaret Lucke

Connections with friends and family, facts at your fingertips, movies, puzzles, games (I’m looking at you, New York Times Spelling Bee). The internet, email, and other forms of modern technology have many benefits to offer. Maybe even AI does, though the jury is still out on that one, if you ask me.

But there are downsides too, and I experienced one of those the other day when my professional author email address got hacked.

The first hint of the disaster came a week ago Friday in the form of a phone call from a friend—I’ll call her Grace—who is on the mailing list for my newsletter. She said, “I got an email from you about needing money from a workshop. I responded to it saying I’d be happy to contribute, but the next message asked me to send the money directly to ‘him’ via Venmo. The him made me suspicious, so I thought I’d check. Was this request really from you?”

 Well, it most certainly was not from me. I asked Grace to forward the email exchange to me, which she did.

Turned out the request for money was tacked onto a brief exchange of emails we had when she sent a compliment in response to my August 2024 email, using the pro address. The new (fake) message, sent on June 6, 2026, said: “Could you please email me back when you receive this.” So she did, replying with a one-line message along the lines of “Sure, what’s up?”

That triggered a long, plaintive, tear-jerk of a message that said, in part: “I’m in a really tight spot with the Writers Workshop & Fundraiser I’ve been pouring my heart into” and “I wouldn’t reach out like this if it weren’t truly urgent. The full payment has to be made before Monday, or I risk losing the space and with it, months of preparation, energy, and resources I’ve already invested” and “If you’re able to support me in any way, it would mean more than I can express. This project is deeply personal to me, and I’m doing everything I can to keep it from slipping away at the last moment.”

None of which is true.

After my conversation with Grace, I started hearing from others who had received similar emails that purported to be from me. One friend reported that after she responded to the “Could you please email me back when you receive this” message, she received a request in my name that she support a political candidate whom she knows I oppose.

It was time to take action.

I tried to log into my pro email account, which is attached to my website. My password wouldn’t work. When I tried to change it, I was asked to enter an authentication code that I never received. So I initiated an online chat with the provider of my website and pro email address. I went around and around with an AI bot, which kept suggesting I try generic solutions, none of which helped. Finally I convinced the bot that I needed to deal with a real human being. With that person’s help I was able to set a new password and new two-factor authentication.

Hopefully the problem is now resolved. What I’ve lost is a lot of time, all of the emails that were in my now-empty inbox and sent file, and perhaps some goodwill.

I sent out an emergency email to my newsletter list, just in case, warning my subscribers about the hack. But for the newsletter I use a mailing service. Those individuals’ addresses weren’t in my pro email records except for the few who had gotten in touch with me that way.  

One little suspicious thing: I had spent the previous Sunday at the Bay Area Book Festival, signing and schmoozing at the Bay Area Romance Writers booth. I pleased to collect three new subscribers for my newsletter and I had pleasant chats with everyone who signed up. Later, when I sent them my standard welcome email, I included a new tagline that I hadn’t used before. Interestingly, that tagline was used on the spam emails sent in my name. I’m not quite sure what to make of that.

The whole experience has left me shaken. And frustrated. And angry. And confused.

So if anyone reading this post receives an email from me that makes a plea for money or asks you to support a politician—or even one that just says: “Could you please email me back when you receive this”—please let me know it happened so I can figure out the next steps I need to take. Your next step is to not respond and put it in your trash or your junk/spam folder. And please be cautious. The scamsters are out there and they want your funds badly enough to steal them.  

Travel for Fun and Location

~ janispattersonmysteries ~ 2 Comments

by Janis Patterson

Ah, the beginning of summer! The white hot skies, the unexpected rains, the siren call of pools and lakes… for some. For me summer means travel. (If I were to be honest I’d have to say that’s true of all seasons, but this is summer, so let’s leave it at that.) Travel is one of my greatest pleasures, and it influences me greatly.


And, being a writer, that means my writing is influenced as well. Back in my days of trad-publishing-only whenever I wanted to take a trip (I was much younger, single and fancy-free) and could afford it, off I went. Of course I kept every receipt and expense so the trip could be claimed as a business tax deduction. (One of the nicest things about being a writer is that with just a little creativity just about everything except your morning cereal can be claimed as a business tax deduction.) Then when I returned home just to legitimize my expenses I would write about 50 pages and a synopsis (which in those antique days we called a proposal) and send it to my editor. Silly practice, which accounted for me having to write a couple of books I really didn’t want to!


A location can be as compelling a character in your book as any human… sometimes more so, so you have to be accurate in describing it. And if you aren’t, believe me, there are lots of people out there who will take great delight in correcting you.


One of the mantras writers learn early is Research Research Research. This is doubly true when describing a setting. You have to be accurate, but also relatable, and you don’t dare let your descriptions grow so detailed that they clog the action. People don’t like great indigestible lumps of info dump. When I travel I take copious notes and photographs as well as picking up brochures and other information. When I can’t resist it I also buy books, which accounts for a large portion of my overweight baggage fees.


On the other hand, you have to be delicate about how much information you put in your story. While I recommend knowing as much as you can, that does not mean you have to put in everything you know. For example, suppose you are writing about a famed craft/art show. You don’t need to put down the square footage, or the miles of paths, or the opening hours… UNLESS any or all of these are clues or some other kind of vital information. Even if they are, be a little bit subtle about it. There’s nothing more annoying than a fact surrounded in neon that blinks “Here’s a clue – here’s a clue.” Let the reader take the sleuthing journey with you. Make them work just a little – don’t spoon feed them the clues in an obvious way.


But facts aren’t the only metrics or even usefulness of locations. There’s so much more than can evoke reactions in your readers. Sight is often the primary reference point, but smell and sound can convey so many levels of feeling. Use them to create exactly the reaction you want. What does the character hear? Traffic? Cowbells and mountain breezes? Rock music? What does the air feel like? Dry? Humid? Soft? What smells are there? Green growing things? Car exhaust? The smell of broiling meat from the food court? The only thing is, whatever you’re putting in your story has to be (reasonably) available in the actual location.


But this is so simple, I can hear you saying. How can you write about a place and not mention all that? Hate to tell you, but far too many writers do exactly that. Don’t be one of them. Take your reader with you and show the location as it is. Show it as you saw it. It’s almost as good as going again.

Titles: How does an author choose them?

~ patyjag ~ 8 Comments

In case you couldn’t guess by the title of this post, I’m having trouble figuring out a title. Not for the book I’m writing but the next one in the series. Yes, when I know what the book is going to be about, I start trying different titles to see what fits the story and how to make it fit with the series.

I didn’t have any trouble with titles for my Shadra Higheagle series, they came from the story I was telling: Double Duplicity, Tarnished Remains, Deadly Aim, Murderous Secrets, Killer Descent, Reservation Revenge, Yuletide Slaying, Fatal Fall, Haunting Corpse, Artful Murder, Dangerous Dance, Homicide Hideaway, Toxic Trigger-point, Abstract Casualty, Capricious Demise, Vanishing Dream, Christmas Chaos.

As you can see, they were all two-word titles with some reference to murder or mystery.

Then I have the Gabriel Hawke novels. I wanted these to have animals in the title because he is a Fish and Wildlife State Trooper, and I wanted them to sound like the title of an Indigenous story. Murder of Ravens, Mouse Trail Ends, Rattlesnake Brother, Chattering Blue Jay, Fox Goes Hunting, Turkey’s Fiery Demise, Stolen Butterfly, Churlish Badger, Owl’s Silent Strike, Bear Stalker, Damning Firefly, Cougar’s Cache, Wolverine Instincts, Wolf Moon, Captured Hummingbird.

Sometimes it is hard to decide which animal to use in the title. Some stories have the animal in it, and some, I allude to the animal. Then, coming up with other words for the title can take a bit of time. As Heather said in her last post, finding the perfect word is sometimes a struggle.

When I began plotting the Spotted Pony Casino Mysteries, I decided to use gambling terms as the titles. Poker Face, House Edge, Double Down, The Squeeze, The Pinch, Down and Dirty, Crapshoot, Full House.

I have the list of gambling terms and when I decide the plot of the story, I go down the list and figure out which term best fits. Which makes coming up with a title much easier.

But now, I have the Cuddle Farm Mysteries, which I am trying to keep on the lighter side, more cozy than the Shandra Higheagle series. The first book’s title, Merry Merry Merry Murder, came from a Christmas song. As you can guess, the story was set during the Christmas holiday. This second book is set in a century-old opera house during the rehearsal of a local play. I’ve come up with the title, Monologued to Death. It shows there is a murder and with the cover of the old opera house I have been frequenting and Monologued, the reader should figure out the death happens in the opera house. It doesn’t have the same wording as the first book, but with the Cuddle Farm logo across the top, the same font in the titles, and a similar look, I’m hoping it will work to make them look like a series.

My problem? Book three is a bit darker than the first two. It has to be the third book to make the secondary plot work right. I’m struggling with the title of that book, because I don’t want it to be too dark, and all the titles I come up with have been overused as titles.

It has to do with an evil that has been lurking within a character for decades. And the body that is dug up and upsets the world of my main character. Here are what I have so far:

Fiendish Folly – feels like a cozy, but it also feels too cutesy for the storyline.

Wicked Ways – has about 8 other books with that title, and it sounds morel like a witch is involved.

Evil Never Sleeps – This one has been used many times.

The Water Knows – again it has been used multiple times.

Haunting Memory – Used a lot.

Hints of Evil – This one I like, but not sure it fits with the series feel.

Here is the gist of the book if you want to help me with some titles: A child’s body is found when the river that runs through Auburn is diverted to work on drainage culverts. The body turns out to be a boy. The brother of Viola. He had been missing for decades, last seen with his sister, Andi (my main character), and Nina( her sister). The older girls said he was taken by a man in a blue car. Andi doesn’t remember very much about the day because she was only 4 and Nina was 9, Viola 10, and her brother was 6.

A Drawback of Being a Writer by Heather Haven

~ Heather Haven ~ 5 Comments

Being a writer has a lot of perks. One of them is everyone around thinks of you as rather a wizard. There’s something magical about writing to those who don’t. And here you are, making up all this stuff that goes on for chapters and chapters. Then wham! You have a novel, complete sentences and all. Impressive stuff.

There is a drawback, however. Whatever we write, we try to do it to the best of our ability. That works fine for a novel, short story, eulogy, or speech about water rights. When it comes to how many quarts of milk we need or should we have spaghetti or fish for dinner, it’s another matter. Just how eloquent should you be on a grocery list? But we try. How we try. We can’t let our readers down, even if they are only the cats, who in my case, think I’m overrated, anyway.

Speaking of quarts of milk, that reminds me of the writer, Scott Turow. I remember him giving an interview years ago and telling a wonderful story. His wife asked him to write a note to the milkman about cancelling a future delivery. Remember when we had those? People who delivered one thing to your home at no extra monthly cost to you? Now, of course, there is Safeway, Nob Hill, and Walmart delivering the whole kit and kaboodle for a fee. From bathing suits to prescriptions to food.  One Stop Shopping without having to stop and shop. Sometimes the milk is warm, the eggs are cracked, and they’ve thrown in baby wipes which I didn’t order, but nobody’s perfect.

But I digress. Back to Scott Turow, his wife, and the milkman. After an hour, his wife appeared at Turow’s desk and seized the scratched-out paper he labored upon. She sat down and scribbled, hold the milk on Thursday. Thanks. Then she got up and taped it to the front door.

As Mr. Turow was speaking to a room full of writers, his story not only got a big guffaw, but a round of applause. Nobody knows better than we do how the search for the perfect word becomes all encompassing. And how long it takes to find that word matters not. We are writers and that’s our job.

I tell people repeatedly when I give a lecture or speak to a book club, that what we do isn’t smoke and mirrors. It’s like tennis. The more you practice, the better you get. Yes, you have to have a certain amount of talent, but what it really takes is hard work, tenacity, and joy.

Joy is a definite perk. No matter what’s going on in the world out there or in my world at home, when I sit down to write, I am taken to a place I want to be.

Hmmm. In a way, that is magical.

 I can’t read while I write

~ Nancy Lynn Jarvis ~ 5 Comments

Which is a shame because my to-be-read pile is growing every day, filled with intriguing titles, but I’m working on book seven in my PIP Inc. Mysteries series which means no reading until it’s finished. You might wonder why I can’t read when I write. I’m a very undisciplined writer so it’s not like I sit at my computer tapping away all day long. Why, then, can’t I read when I take a break from writing?

I consider my particular writing and reading impairment as the result of being a good realtor for almost twenty-five years. Realtors are taught to mimic clients talking speed, body language especially use of hands, emotions, and language as much as possible. Classes are taught in how to do those things. I dropped out after the first class because I’m a natural mime, always have been. That helped me as a real estate agent and probably has helped in other situations, too, but as a writer it’s a problem for me.

Many cozy mysteries are written in first person. I don’t do that. I write in third person. But if I’m reading a good cozy written in first person, I start to slip into that style of writing which makes a mess of the POV and my manuscript in progress.

There are other distractions, too. Dialogue is a potential problem. After fifty pages of another writer’s dialogue, my characters begin to mimic their phraseology and start to take on their use of language. Mime time again.

My storyline suffers when I read while writing. I do a short psychological profile and background history for most of my characters before they head for their places on my pages. I do use a timeline because I need to know who knew what when or I get lost having, for example, a clue about when a character who had taken her hearing aids out in a noisy restaurant, put them back in (critically important in What Lucy Heard, for example) and why her dinner companion didn’t know she had.

My outlines are a lot more flexible, though. Before starting a book, I know who the killer is, how and why the murder victim was killed, how the story will begin and how it will end, and have characters I want to introduce to move the story forward, but there’s a great deal of flexibility in how all those pieces come together. If I read while writing, the mimic in me invariably spots a clever plot twist in the work I’m reading and wants to incorporate it in what I’m writing, which as you can imagine, makes a mess of my plot. I do wonder if it’s just me or if other writers have the same problems?

Until my book is finished and off to the editor, I’m sorry Nicole, Vinnie, Mary, Robin, Valerie, Claire, Genevive, Richard, and Verlin. Your books will have to wait a bit longer to be read, but I do know how important reviews are so I promise to leave one as soon as I finish reading your book.  It’s the least I can do for keeping you waiting while I write.