The Black Thumb by Constance and Gwenyth  Little (1941; Doubleday Crime Club)

http://bookshopblog.com/2011/10/23/no-81-the-black-paw-best-100-mysteries-of-all-time/

Last week a publisher said "NO THANKS" to my beloved crime novel, SAYONARA ...

But another Publisher said "YES PLEASE, MORE" to another manuscript.

How did I cope with the shock and tears?

How did I draw up a Plan for Success?

http://www.karentyrrell.com…

Mystery conventions have to be some of the wackiest, most creative and high energy get-togethers around, Comic Con not withstanding (if you can stand a hundred Darth Vadersroaming around).

Years ago, when I was starting out in the mystery field, a small conference called Bare Bones took place in the hills above Escondido in a church camp near the town of Julian. We stayed in cabins, ate…

I sent Sayonara, my crime faction novel and my KILLER synopsis to a Publisher for consideration.

Wish me a mother lode of luck :)) http://www.karentyrrell.com

Inspired by this interesting post over at B.R. Stateham's blog, I came up with my own responses to the "rules" of crime fiction that Joyce wrote about. Here goes:

1. Whoever your killer is, make sure you let your readers meet him or her early on. You don’t want them to pop up out of nowhere late in the story.

My brand…

Konnichiwa! ... I'm announcing: SAYONARA is now in the critical final stages.

  I'm sending SAYONARA to Publishers in #3 weeks time.

I wrote my crime faction novel, basing it on a personal story ... Our Japanese exchange student, Yumi disappeared off the streets of Brisbane, Australia.

http://www.karentyrrell.com…

Maybe this works for you, but I don't see it coming out on top in my book. The ol' Think in the Shower Method gets the job done for me.

"Fingerprints" is looking for the kinds of stories you've told a million times to a million people. Those crazy, messed up stories that skirt the edges of the law. Fingerprints calls it "crime flash non-fiction." You might call it, "That time we were in that gas station and this guy tried to rob the place…

LINK: http://exm.nr/mallory-LA

Today my Spotlight is on a man of many talents. Michael has had a varied career including so many things it makes my head spin, and I'm a busy gal.…

LINK: http://exm.nr/mallory-LA

Today my Spotlight is on a man of many talents. Michael has had a varied career including so many things it makes my head spin, and I'm a busy gal.…

Among the 9 million or so side projects I've got going on, I'm trying to find a home for a piece of flash non-fiction. Not looking for money, but more just a place to publish the damn thing and get it out of my head. The places I've considered and/or submitted to fell into one of these categories:

1) Doesn't do crime flash non-fiction, only literary.

2) Charges a fee for considering the piece.

3) Likes the piece, wants it much…

LINK: http://exm.nr/2011conf-lv

Once again the time is drawing near for the Las Vegas Writers Conference. Unfortunately I won’t be able to attend this year, but that doesn’t stop me from singing its praises and telling everyone about it.

I still credit the first one I attended in 2005 as a career changer. Check out today's EXAMINER SPOTLIGHT. I talk about the conference and what I've gained personally from previous ones.…

See trailer of my interview on the Biography Channel's Crime Stories, episode, "The Love Slave Murders."

 …

Want to kill the action in your crime story? Let the main character announce they’re going to get a search warrant before barging into the killer’s apartment. Audiences hiss and groan. Writers want to slink back into the shadows. They know ‘waiting for paper’ is a real time waster and a fast way to kill your story.…

In my pursuit of all things crime fiction, I came across this video. To the question of whether psychic detectives have any merit, we can say case closed in this instance.

What do you think about psychic detectives? I think they are more lucky than psychic.

James Randi, the host in this video, makes a good point. Why don't psychics pick up images from an item's history prior to the crime? As a knife enthusiast, I enjoy sharpening knives for…

Myself and four of my fellow crime authors, Simon Brett, June Hampson, Graham Hurley, and Peter Lovesey will join experts from the Crime Scene Investigation team and Fingerprinting Bureau of Hampshire Constabulary and experts from the International Centre for Research in Forensic Psychology to discuss crime fiction and fact in a unique event, Crime and the City, Portsmouth CSI on 6 November at the John Pounds Community Centre, Portsmouth as part of Portsmouth…