Author: Tracey S. Phillips

Avanti Centrae is the author of the VanOps thriller series. You can find out more about her by visiting her website here, or by clicking here, read her last post here, and buy her books here. "What if a terrorist uses my thriller’s plotline to attack the United States?" I had that stop-you-in-your-tracks thought after a mock interview with my media coach. He'd been prepping me for upcoming radio shows and asked, "Is the truth in your novel scarier than the fiction?" I answered, “Yes.” My debut thriller, VANOPS: THE LOST POWER, deals with Russians who want to get their…

Tracey S. Phillips is the founder of the Blackbirds and is the author of Best Kept Secrets and the Mina Green romanitc suspense series, under the name Karissa Knight. You can find out more about her on her website, www.traceysphillips.com, or by clicking here, see her last post here, and buy her books here. I’m a firm believer that stories written from experience hold more verity and authenticity than stories written from the imagination. “Write what you know,” is a mantra heard all across the writing guru blogs. I’ve had experiences—haven’t we all? –that I tie into the threads of…

Jacqueline Vick is the author of the Frankie Chandler Pet Psychic mystery series and the Harlow Brothers mystery series. You can find out more about her on her website, www.jacquelinevick.com, or by clicking here. See her last post here, and buy her books here. Writers. Readers. Moms and Dads. Singletons. We’re all in the same boat when it comes to sorting priorities, meeting the needs of loved ones and bosses (even if that boss is a toddler or a terrier), and finding time to regenerate bodies and brain cells. Fiction authors have additional hurdles. My daily duties include writing, naturally.…

Avanti Centrae is the author of the VanOps thriller series. You can find out more about her on her website: www.avanticentrae.com, or by clicking here, read her last post here, and see her books here. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to know what’s going to happen? Whether your love interest will call, if you’ll get that raise, or ---- what the United States would do after you invade one of Taiwan’s outlying islands? Avanti Centrae After penning the first two books in the VanOps series, The Lost Power and Solstice Shadows, I wanted to tell a…

Tracey S. Phillips is not only the founder and leader of the Blackbird Writers, she is the author of Best Kept Secrets, and a series of romantic suspense novels under the name Karissa Knight. You can find out more about her on her website, www.traceysphillips.com, or by clicking here, read her last post here, and buy her books here and here. A Picture is Worth 1000 Words. Or is it? Best Kept Secrets by Tracey S. Phillips The winding narrow road that led to Nana’s cottage was tree-lined on the lake side, farmland on the other. Lush greenery and sprouting…

Jacqueline Vick is the author of the Harlow Brothers series and the Frankie Chandler Pet Psychic series of cozy mysteries. You can find out more about her on her website, www.jacquelinevick.com, or by clicking here, read her last post here, and buy her books here. When I first came to Los Angeles, I was privileged to take a screenwriting course with Danny Simon, the older brother of Neil Simon. Danny spent his writing career in television and had wisdom galore on how to keep your scripts clean. One of his rules was to “cut the orange juice” from the dialogue.…

While readers get excited and turn pages for plot, they fall in love with characters. And when they’ve done that, they review, recommend, and commit to your next novel.

Donna Rewolinski is the author of the Novice Mystery series. You can find out more about her on her website www.donnarewolinski.com, or by clicking here, read her last post here, and buy her books here. What’s in a name? Everything to an author. We spend a great deal of time crafting a character’s name and their attributes. Are they male or female? Hair color, eye color, height, weight, past profession, current profession, and so on.  But there is so much more. Authors draw their characters on previous experiences with people or people they’d like to meet. They may choose one…

Tracey S. Phillips is the founder of the Blackbird Writers, as well as the author of Thriller Best Kept Secrets. You can find out more about her on her website, www.traceysphillips.com, or by clicking here, read her last post here, and find her books here, and here. Sixteen years after Fay Ramsey was murdered, Morgan Jewell is still obsessed with finding the killer of her high-school best friend. They were supposed to move into the Indiana University dorms together. They were supposed to enjoy the best years of their young adult lives together. Morgan lead the search party right to…

John Hoda is the author of the Marcia O'Shea police/FBI procedural series, and the new Gwendolyn Strong cozy mystery series. You can find out more about him on his website at www.johnhoda.com, or by clicking here, and see his books here. This is his debut post. I’ve been an investigator for over forty-six years. I still have two open files on my desk, even though my son and a part-timer do all the heavy lifting for Hoda Investigations, LLC these days. This year marks my twenty-fifth anniversary owning my own PI business. During all this time and in college, I…