Category Archives: mystery
Mystery Writing Workshop with Cindy Brown May 21st2021
Cindy Brown is the author of some wonderfully titles mysteries, Macdeath, The Sound of Murder, Oliver Twisted, Ivy Get Your Gun, The Phantom of Oz, Killalot, … She’s been writing professionally for 20 years, starting with playwriting (hence her interest in the relationship between plot and dramatic structure), then screenwriting, and then… She fell in love with mysteries as a child – loved Nancy Drew, was introduced to John D MacDonald, and finally started reading Sue Grafton and decided she wanted to write like her, especially as her books are set on the West Coast! So… here’s how she led us in understanding more about genre, character and plot.
Continue reading Mystery Writing Workshop with Cindy Brown May 21st2021Writers Mill Minutes 202103
Members from around the world and from around Cedar Mill met together for Cindy Brown’s mystery writing workshop in March, and Sheila did her best to take good minutes for those who couldn’t make it. Apologies to those who had problems with the email link – in general, if a link doesn’t work, you need to cut the whole link – or, as one member put it, the whole set of gobbledygook letters and numbers – and paste it into your browser. Judy has kindly offered to field requests for help if anyone has problems with the link at future meetings, thus freeing Sheila to continue to take minutes, so please remember: If you can’t cut and paste the whole link, email Judy for assistance!
Mystery Workshop with Cindy Brown July 19th 2020
Mystery Workshop with Cindy Brown
Writing Character-Based Mysteries
Cindy Brown
cindybrownwriter.com
info@cindybrownwriter.com
Books: Macdeath, The Sound of Murder, Oliver Twisted, Ivy Get Your Gun, The Phantom of Oz, Killalot, Murder Most Theatrical (Anthology – August 2020)
Continue reading Mystery Workshop with Cindy Brown July 19th 2020Writers’ Mill minutes July 19th 2020
25 people attended the Writers’ Mill Zoom meeting this month, and enjoyed a very informative, inspirational and encouraging talk from Cindy Brown, author of the Ivy Meadows mysteries. Cindy’s handout can be downloaded from https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Mysteries-handout-from-Cindy-Brown.docx and I’ll include the edited version with notes from our session at the end of this email.
Continue reading Writers’ Mill minutes July 19th 2020Writers’ Mill Minutes 20190721
Thanks to Ria for leading July’s meeting and taking these excellent minutes. Wish I hadn’t missed the meeting!
Writers’ Mill Minutes, July 2019
The meeting came to order timely at 1:00pm. In attendance were two guest speakers, Mollie Hunt and Jason Brick. Both came early to the conference room to set up displays of their books and brand, and meet and greet our writers as they arrived. Continue reading Writers’ Mill Minutes 20190721
Writing, Marketing and Publishing a Mystery: Mollie Hunt July 2019
Mollie Hunt is an accomplished writer and has been showered with accolades, which include: For Cat’s Paw (third in her mystery series featuring Lynley Cannon) finalist for the 2016 Mystery & Mayhem Book Award; fifth in the series, Cat Café won the World’s Best Cat Litter-Ary Award in 2019. Mollie is a member of the Oregon Writers’ Colony, Sisters in Crime, Willamette Writers, the Cat Writers’ Association, and NIWA. She is a native Oregonian and lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband and several cats. Like her Cozy Cat Mystery heroine, Lynley Cannon, she volunteers at a cat shelter.
Part 1: Writing a Mystery
First decide whether or not you are going to write a stand-alone mystery or a series. Questions you need to ask yourself: Continue reading Writing, Marketing and Publishing a Mystery: Mollie Hunt July 2019