The Role of Pets in Cozy Mysteries. This month, we’re welcoming fellow sleuth and pet lover Author Stacy Wilder! We’ve interviewed Stacy Wilder in the past and made some of her mouth-watering recipes, too. So, we knew when we picked…
Crafting Gripping Narratives: Who, What, Where, When, Why, & How Part Three In Parts One & Two, we’ve explored the critical elements of storytelling:Who—The Eye, When—The Clock, and How—The Blueprint. Now it’s time to set the stage with the writer’s…
Crafting Gripping Narratives: Who, What, Where, When, Why, & How Part 2 Part Two: When & How In Part One, we explored WHO—The Eye, the lens through which a narrative is told. Now we turn to the next two pillars…
Crafting Gripping Narratives: Who, What, Where, When, Why, & How. Part One At the heart of every investigation lie six vital questions: Who, What, Where, When, Why, & How. Detectives chase them to crack cases. But for writers, here’s the…
Mystery Review Crew’s Word of the Year (2025 WOTY) Each year, the hunt is on for the one word that reflects the vibe of the last twelve months—a summary, a snapshot of what shaped human behavior. The single term that…
Untangling the Mystery of Book Ownership—What Every Author Needs to Know After all the hours, seemingly endless writing, editing, more revisions, self-doubt, hair-tearing frustration, and the anguish of publication, the moment has arrived. You finally hold it—your book. This is…
How to Stay Motivated When Writing Feels Like an Uphill Battle — sound familiar? This month, the MRC Crew is welcoming cozy mystery author Cindy McDonald (aka C.S. McDonald), who’s stopping by with some much-needed encouragement for all of us…
This week on the Mystery Review Crew, we’re diving into the art of writing in the third-person limited point of view—a narrative technique we believe is every writer’s secret weapon. Third-person limited not only enables authors to explore a character’s…
If you’ve ever dived into the world of romance books or stumbled across a BookTok recommendation, you’ve probably heard the term “spicy” thrown around. But what exactly does it mean? And what is this spicy book rating system readers and…
From Monotony to Mastery: The Art of Avoiding Repetitive Words in Fiction. A Mystery Review Crew Spotlight on Writing with a Thesaurus. Have you ever perused the pages of a book in a bookstore and then set it aside? Or…
