All the news that’s fit to print

~ donaleeMoulton ~ 4 Comments

By donalee Moulton

            Writers are always looking to get the word out about their latest book. Readers are always looking for information about their favorite authors and looking to discover new favorites. Media plays a key role in getting information into everyone’s hands.

Newsworthy: Media Relations Without The Spin

            As a freelance journalist and a communications director, I’ve spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to make stories appealing to reporters. Now I find myself doing the same thing as a mystery writer. In part, that’s why a friend and I wrote Newsworthy: Media Relations Without the Spin (Business Expert Press). I thought I’d share some of what we discuss with you.

We talk about news as if it’s one thing. Did you hear the news? According to the news …. It was in the news. News isn’t one thing. It’s many things. In particular, it is two things: hard and soft.

Hard news is often what draws us in and keeps us reading, listening, and watching. You’ll find it on the front page, at the start of a newscast, and at the top of the hour. Hard news is big news: controversy and crisis. It is immediate, and it is important. It’s often called “breaking news.”

Soft news does not send us scrambling. It is the intersection between information and entertainment. It is not usually immediate—you can learn about the signs of stroke or how to make an easy apple pie without apples at any point in time—and it is increasingly about personalities, famous and otherwise.

Many companies have carved a niche in the soft news market. Dove, for example, is known for its “Real Beauty” campaign, which uses social media and other media platforms to promote body positivity and self-acceptance, going beyond traditional product marketing. Airbnb, Inc., uses social media and its blog to share stories about travel, local culture, and the experiences its platform facilitates, reinforcing its brand values and creating a sense of community.

To understand the distinction between hard and soft news, take a look at these headlines: 

Hard news:
20% Increase in Leafy Green Consumption Among Teens

Soft news:
Why Spinach Smoothies Are Suddenly Cool — Even for Picky Eaters

Hard news:
School Board Introduces Weight Limits for Student Backpacks

Soft news:
The Weirdest Things Teachers Have Found in Student Backpacks

Topics and timeliness are only two of the features that serve to classify news as hard or soft. How the story is told also differs. Hard news almost invariably starts up front with the “headline” then provides the details to flesh out the headline. Soft news has more options; it can be more creative and more flexible in its structure and content.

Kinda like a good mystery.

Love Is in the Air – and on the Page

~ Margaret Lucke ~ 4 Comments

By Margaret Lucke

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Today is the day when everyone’s mind—and heart—turns to thoughts of romance and love. We give people cards with heart designs to tell them we love them. Some lucky people receive roses and chocolates too.

And many people, whether they have personal sweethearts or not, pick up a romance novel to read. Of course, readers do that every day. My fingers are crossed that they might pick up one of mine.

Wait, you say, aren’t you a mystery writer? Yep. Always have been (I wrote my first short story featuring a private detective at age eleven). Always will be, or so I hope.

So, you might wonder, what am I doing as a member of the Bay Area Romance Writers?

I wondered that too when I first joined the organization. But the publisher of my my first Claire Scanlan Haunted House novel, House of Whispers, was billing the book as a paranormal romantic suspense, and I decided I should find out what that word romantic really meant. The book has a strong romance subplot. Maybe its potential audience extended beyond mystery fans. There are lots of romance readers—maybe one or two of them would enjoy a good love story with ghosts and murder mixed in. I hoped the group would help me figure out how to reach them.

Fact: In the year before House of Whispers came out, 74.8 million people had read at least one romance novel.

Those numbers sounded promising. So I sent in my dues and went to my first meeting not knowing what to expect. Dreamy-eyed writers wearing pink and sipping from china teacups with their baby fingers raised? Not on your life. These women were meeting in a brew-pub. For breakfast. Nowadays they meet mostly on Zoom, but what hasn’t changed is that they are a savvy, supportive, career-focused group. And they sell lots of books.

Fact: Romance fiction racks up $1.44 billion (that’s with a b) in annual sales. Mystery fiction brings in $728 million—just over half as much.

Sales of romance novels have shown a significant steady increase over the past five years. Being in love, it seems, is a more popular fantasy than being involved in a murder.

Fact: There are 39 subgenres and 127 tropes to be found within the romance genre.

I found those numbers on internet sites devoted to the genre. Of course, different sources provide different lists with different numbers, but the point is that the genre can accommodate almost any kind of story—including mystery.

I was surprised to learn how many types of books fall under the romance umbrella. It turns out that two of my favorite novels, Pride and Prejudice and Gone with the Wind, are romances. Books you might think of as mysteries, thrillers, suspense novels, science fiction, fantasy, paranormal are in fact romances. Okay, maybe not GWTW. Spoiler alert: This book falls short of the romance definition in its final pages.

Romance Writers of America has two criteria that a novel must meet to be considered a romance. First, a love story must be central to the plot—two people fall in love and must struggle to make their relationship work. Second, there must be an HEA ending—romance writer shorthand for Happily Ever After. Or at least an HFN—Happy For Now. Either way, the story must conclude on an emotionally satisfying and optimistic note.

But wait—even if a novel doesn’t fit that definition, it may still count as a romance. One of the official subgenres on RWA’s website (www.rwa.org) l is “novels with strong romantic elements”—books in which a romance plays a part even though major aspects of the story take the plot beyond the traditional romance boundaries.

So as long as one of your characters is romantically involved with another, or wants to be, then you too may have a romance novel on your hands. Perhaps Gone With the Wind fits after all. And the list of mysteries that qualify is very, very long.

“Romance fiction is smart, fresh and diverse … Romance novels may have any tone or style, be set in any place or time, and have varying levels of sensuality–ranging from sweet to extremely hot … Whether you enjoy contemporary dialogue, historical settings, mystery, thrillers or any number of other themes, there’s a romance novel waiting for you!” —From the RWA website

I’ll always be a mystery writer. But maybe I’ll get an HEA as an author if I let in a little romance.

I hope that today, Valentine’s Day, you’ll let in a little romance too—hopefully in real life but definitely between the covers of a good book.

Tempus Is A-Fugitin

~ janispattersonmysteries ~ 5 Comments

by Janis Patterson

My late father was not only a professional wordsmith (journalism, teacher, editor, advertising agent, writer) but he was a man who absolutely loved words. He would play with words with the joy of a child playing with toys. As I grew up he passed his love of words and language to me, so much so that with his nimble mind we came very close to creating our own language – much to my mother’s disgust.

And that is how the rather somber and stoic Latin warning “Tempus Fugit” (time passes) was ‘Daddy-ized’ into the warmer and much more lighthearted “tempus is a-fugitin’”.

So what does this cuddly little anecdote have to do with writing? Not much – yet still everything.

As writers words are our tools. Without words we are mute and pretty much useless. I am waiting with grim anticipation for someone to write a novel using nothing but emojis. Hopefully, though, that is not an immediate worry. At least, I hope so.

While there are other ways of communicating, some faster, some purely physical or emotional, some kind of untranslatable, words are and always have been the most dependable… when used properly. Part of the beauty of words is their fluidity on the seas of nuance. Often how a simple word is used either alone or in conjunction with other words can change the meaning in subtle or sometimes not so subtle ways. Also, the time period in which the word is used and even the social class of the speaker can affect the meaning.

Words are the main tool for defining our characters. Unless there is a darn good reason in the story for it, a duchess should not speak the same – word choice, inflections, nuance – as a dockworker. (Properly used, though, such language disparities can be a heck of a good clue, if that’s what your story needs.)

Also, word choice is one of your main weapons in the ongoing fight between show and tell. Now I am the first to say that properly used ‘tell’ is a viable tool in your writer’s workbox – I mean, who wants a step-by-step recitation of your hero’s morning routine before he leaves for work when it adds nothing to the story and the action can be covered in a simple sentence or two. Almost any writing shibboleth can be an asset if used properly.

And that is the word! Properly. Like good dishes, the sharp and the forbidden and unusual can be interesting if used properly. Imagine salsa made with nothing but jalapenos and a splash of water. The idea is horrifying, just as horrifying as would be salsa made with no hot peppers at all. The ideal is balance – each ingredient playing its part to create a harmonious whole.

But… always remember it begins with the words. So you must make friends with words. Play with words. Enjoy words. Don’t be afraid of making up a new word… if you do it understandably and (dare I say it?) properly.

So – your assignment is, go learn six new words this week. The best way is to take a print dictionary, then open to a page at random and with your eyes closed stab somewhere on the page. There’s your word. What does it mean? How does it feel in your mouth? What does it remind you of? Does it evoke any thoughts or memories or fantasies. Play with it as a fascinated child would with a new toy. Enjoy it. Make it yours.

It won’t happen immediately, but as you play as well as work with words your writing will change, become richer, deeper, more … more everything. You own the words. Use them in all their multi-faceted glory.

Now – go grab a word and begin! Never forget that tempus is a-fugitin!

Transitioning

~ patyjag ~ 12 Comments

Life has chapters, just like books.

Right now I’m transitioning from rural life to town life. We purchased the house in town the fall of 2024 because we were putting our farm up for sale and wanted to know where we would be going when it sold. That chapter was exciting and full of wistfulness of finding the right home.

We did. I love the view from all of my windows. We are isolated enough that we aren’t looking into any neighbors’ windows and we have a gorgeous view of the Eagle Cap Mountains that I write about in my Gabriel Hawke books and the Elkhorns which will be referred to in my Cuddle Farm Mystery series. Out the dining room window we see a couple of rooftops and a hill my hubby knows elk are going to come over when there is a bad winter. 😉

Eagle Caps from my living room window.

It’s an older house so there has been painting, fixing, and soon a remodel because the kitchen and dining room are too small. But first I will be moved into the house by April 1st. That’s when we are to be off of our farm. Hubby will stay on helping the dairy that he’s been managing hay fields for the last twelve years. Just for this summer to help the person taking over. He’ll stay there in a mobile home on the hay ranch and come help make out new place the way we want on long weekends.

I’m excited about a smaller house to clean, I can run to the store whenever I want, not make a list when I run out of things and have to wait until someone goes to town. I’m excited for the things I can attend without having an hour drive to and from the event. I’m also close to all the areas I write about in my mystery series. That is a real plus. I hope to get to more Native American events and culture a few more connections.

Hiking a wash in Hurricane, UT.

This is not the last chapter in my life but it is certainly one of the most looked forward to. I’ll continue to write, but we also hope to do a bit more traveling around the U.S.

We spent a week last month in southern Utah, hiking in parks and enjoying the weather and scenery. We plan to do that for a couple weeks every winter to get out of the longer, colder (usually) winters than we are used to.

I’m excited to see how the changes, might enhance my stories by living so much closer and being able to do even more trips to locations. I’m only an hour and a half away from the Umatilla Indian Reservation the location of my Spotted Pony Casino Mystery series.

Right now, I’m trying to get all the rooms ready to put the furniture that will fit in and try to keep up with writing on my current book, Captured Hummingbird, book 15 in the Gabriel Hawke novels.

As a reader can you tell when a writer knows the area they are writing about?

Writers, do you like to see places first hand if you write about real places?

Guest Blogger ~ CB Wilson

~ patyjag ~ 5 Comments

Beyond the Teacup: Cozy Mystery in the Modern World

Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve always been the one asking, “What if?” What if the rules could bend just a little? What if the story ventured further than expected? What if a cozy mystery—beloved for its comfort and familiarity—could also genuinely surprise you?

My relationship with mystery began early and rebelliously. I was the kid who read her first Nancy Drew book, then promptly rewrote the ending. Not because I disliked the story, but because I craved something sharper, deeper, perhaps a touch more dangerous. Nancy opened the door to mystery, but Agatha Christie sealed my fate. Once I discovered intricate puzzles, layered motives, and the quiet brilliance of intelligent women navigating hostile worlds, my reading preferences were forever transformed.

That tension between comfort and risk? That’s exactly why cozy mystery resonates so powerfully. At its heart, cozy mystery has always rested on a solid foundation: an amateur sleuth; a close-knit setting; quirky, memorable characters; and a crime that disturbs but doesn’t overwhelm everyday life. Readers seek that familiarity, that sense of place, and the reassurance that justice will ultimately prevail. But here’s what excites me: cozy mystery is evolving.

Today’s cozy readers welcome more complexity. They want adventure that challenges their protagonists. They appreciate emotional depth that reflects genuine human experiences. They enjoy romance that feels real to the characters rather than formulaic. Most importantly, they’re drawn to strong female protagonists who think critically, adapt resourcefully, and sometimes make mistakes while holding their ground.

When I created The Gem Hunters Mysteries, I deliberately chose to push beyond the traditional cozy framework while honoring its essentials. My protagonist isn’t a baker or bookstore owner who stumbles into crime—she’s a diamond investigator whose job is to recover stolen gems. She operates in a world where money, power, and obsession collide, where the stakes carry genuine weight. She’s smart, she’s tough, and she’s navigating a dangerous, high-stakes environment typically reserved for thrillers while maintaining the heart and accessibility that cozy readers cherish.

For me, this isn’t about breaking the rules. It’s about expanding them.

Diamonds, much like mysteries themselves, are inherently layered. They carry history, symbolism, and powerful motives. They inspire obsession, loyalty, betrayal, and sometimes murder. Using gemstones as the driving force behind a cozy mystery allows me to explore global intrigue, family secrets, and personal risk while keeping the focus squarely on character development, relationships, and puzzle-solving.

The response? Readers have enthusiastically embraced this expanded vision. What I’ve learned about the genre is thatcozy mystery isn’t fragile. It doesn’t collapse when you introduce international travel, genuine danger, or a heroine carrying emotional scars. Instead, the genre shines brighter when writers trust both the framework and their readers enough to ask challenging questions. What if the amateur sleuth brings professional expertise to her investigations? What if the small-town setting connects to a much larger, more complex world? What if comfort doesn’t require predictability?

I still love the classics, and I honor the genre’s roots every time I write. But I also firmly believe cozy mystery has room to grow, stretch, and reflect the realities of modern women—women who simultaneously juggle careers, relationships, fears, courage, and insatiable curiosity. While the cozy mystery genre has always celebrated intelligence, community, and justice, I’m discovering that it can also celebrate ambition, expertise, and courage in the face of genuine danger. These additions don’t diminish what makes cozies special. They enhance it.

So yes, perhaps it’s simply who I am: the explorer, the one who rewrites endings, the one who views cozy mystery not as a restrictive box but as an invitation. After all, isn’t that where the real mystery begins? In the space between what is and what could be? In the questions we dare to ask and the boundaries we’re brave enough to test?

The beauty of cozy mysteries is that they welcome us home while encouraging us to venture a little further each time. That balance—between the familiar and the unexpected—is exactly what keeps readers turning pages and writers like me pushing the envelope.

And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Every diamond has a story… but some are worth killing for.

When Sunset Peak’s legendary Peak Diamond disappears during the town’s glittering centennial gala, Taylor Hunter knows one thing: this was no ordinary theft. As a renowned “Diamond Detective” and reluctant heir to a family legacy of jewel thieves, Taylor has solved high-profile cases around the globe—but this time, it’s personal.

The stakes spiral when a perfect replica of the diamond is found, a notorious diamond broker turns up dead, and her twin sister Hope’s fingerprints are discovered at the crime scene. With Sunset Peak’s future—and her sister’s freedom—on the line, Taylor must partner with the one man she swore she’d never trust: Police Chief Rocky Rockman, her ex-husband’s dangerously charming best friend.

Armed with her expertise, her sharp instincts, and Glimmer, her diamond-sniffing dachshund, Taylor races to unravel a tangled web of stolen gems, buried secrets, and hidden betrayals stretching far beyond her small Arizona town. But someone is willing to kill to keep the truth buried—and if Taylor’s not careful, she could be their next target.

Perfect for fans of Janet Evanovich, Ellery Adams, and Jenn McKinlay, The Fire Diamond is a fast-paced cozy adventure mystery where family secrets cut deep, small-town gossip hides deadly truths, and every diamond comes with a price.

BUY links:

Amazon: https://mybook.to/TheFireDiamond

Barnes & Noble:https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-fire-diamond-cheryl-wilson/1148442601

Apple: https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-fire-diamond/id6753361681

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-fire-diamond

Award-winning author, CB Wilson, writes two beloved cozy mystery series: the Gem Hunters Mysteries—beginning with The Fire Diamond—and the Barkview Mysteries, set in the dog-friendliest town in America. A GIA-trained gemologist and lifelong dog lover, she fills her books with sparkling clues, warm humor, and unforgettable canine sidekicks. She lives in Arizona, where she writes stories rich with diamonds, danger, laughter, and loyal dogs.

Facebook page: www.facebook.com/cbwilsonauthor

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/137800079

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/c-b-wilson

Instagram: www.instagram.com@cbwilsonauthor

Linktree. https://linktr.ee/cbwilsonauthor

YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1HfOVqN7aBccTW70_wlL0w

tikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@author.cb.wilson