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Anne Louise Bannon is the author of the Old Los Angeles series, the Operation Quickline series, and the Freddie and Kathy 1920s series. You can find out more about her here, see her books here, and read her last post here. I love the beginning of a new year. There is something about the blank pages of a calendar that fills me with hope. The past two years have been pretty strange, thanks to COVID. But during all that time there have been plenty of ups as well as downs. On the loss side of the ledger, I lost three…

Saralyn Richard's latest book is A Murder of Principal. You can find out more about her here, see her books here, and read her last post here. Here we are, a few days before Christmas, and the world is full of glittering lights and memorable melodies, sweet cookies and good cheer. It’s the time of year when peace on earth, goodwill to mankind, and charitable spirits fill the air. And we, at Blackbird Writers are no different. We’ve been sharing stories and recipes among ourselves. This year we did a Secret Santa trade, where we’ve read and reviewed another blackbird’s…

Avanti Centrae is the author of the VanOps series of thrillers. You can find out more about her here, see her books here, and read her last post here. Beginning with my debut novel, VanOps: The Lost Power, I’ve included an author’s note at the end of each story where I parse fact from fiction, drawing the line between reality and imagination. There are three standalone novels in the VanOps series, and each combines intrigue, history, science, and mystery into a pulse-pounding action thriller. As you can imagine, including history and science into a work of fiction involves a fair…

Tracey S. Phillips is the author of thriller Best Kept Secrets, and the founder of Blackbird Writers. You can find out more about her here, see her book here, and read her last post here. I’m proud to tell you that I’m a failure. Because on the other side of failure, is success. I wasn’t always proud to say it because I didn’t set out to fail. As school children we learned how to read and write while teachers and parents said, “Reach for the stars.” What they never told us was there would be many failures along the way.…

Margaret Mizushima is the author of the Timber Creek K-9 mysteries. You can find out more about her here, see her books here, and read her last post here. There is more than one way to build a fictional character. Throughout the years, I’ve used many different methods: character interviews, character profiles, discovering my characters while I write. But one method I’ve grown to love when character building is through the application of the Enneagram personality typing system. The Enneagram is an ancient Sufi method of establishing personality types and it was brought into modern psychology back in the 1980s…

Marilyn Levinson writes several series, but is best known for her Haunted Library series, which she writes as Allison Brook. You can find out more about her here, see her books here, and read her last post here. 1. I get to write about characters I wish I knew as real people.  Over the course of the series, I get to have my characters resolve problems, grow and change, and relate to one another. 2. I get to create a pretty picturesque town where I'd love to live, one where most people know and like one another, a town with…

Tim Chapman is the author of A Trace of Gold. You can find out more about him here, see his books here, and read his latest post here. Who Took My Shorts?          I love short stories. I read them. I write them. I listen to them in the car and at the gym. There’s been talk in literary circles of late that short stories are making a comeback. With publishers tossing 600-page door stops at readers and being reluctant to gamble on single-author collections and anthologies it looked for a while like short stories were in decline. Magazines devoted…

Sharon Lynn is the author of multiple short stories. You can find out more about her here, see the anthologies featuring her work here, and read her last post here. Wine gets a lot of attention, both in fiction and life. Who doesn’t like a nice glass of Chardonnay while staring at the fire?  But have you considered whisky lately? I’m thinking of starting a cozy series in the world of my short story Carne Diem. The characters would focus on cocktails instead of wine, and the Main Character would be an expert on whisky. So, naturally, I’ve been doing…

Christine DeSmet is the author of the Fudge Shop Mysteries series and the Mischief in Moonstone Series. You can find out more about her here, see her books here, and read her last post here. I’m an author, and I’m also a professional writing coach with several years’ experience. In working with writers and published authors, my job is often about helping writers see “what’s missing.” That includes the usual things:  what’s missing in characterizations, plotting, setting, suspense, tension, dialogue, movement, hooks for readers, and much more. One simple thing I’ve found missing—even among my professional author friends in groups…