by Judy Penz Sheluk | Mar 4, 2023 | Behind the Story, One Writer's Journey
I was working on my latest book, Before There Were Skeletons, and having one of my “Agatha Christie Days”—and by that I don’t mean channeling my inner Miss Marple, but rather attempting to follow Dame Agatha’s sage advice, which is “to write even when you don’t want...
by Judy Penz Sheluk | Feb 25, 2023 | Behind the Scenes, Let's Talk About Writing
For authors making the query rounds in the hopes of landing a publisher or an agent, much is made of being able to categorize the genre and sub-genre of your book. Defining an entire series is equally, if not more, important, if for no other reason than to inform the...
by Judy Penz Sheluk | Feb 18, 2023 | Let's Talk About Writing, One Writer's Journey
Several years back I had the pleasure of attending an event that featured Giles Blunt, author of the much-lauded Detective John Cardinal mystery series (if you haven’t read him, or watched the TV series, Cardinal, based on his novels, you must). At one point in the...
by Judy Penz Sheluk | Feb 11, 2023 | Behind the Story, One Writer's Journey
With Valentine’s Day just a few days off, I remembered this post, which originally appeared on Debra Goldstein’s website on October 31, 2022. The timing of it had amused me, because I’ve never been much of a Halloween person. Even as a kid, I dreaded the...
by Judy Penz Sheluk | Feb 4, 2023 | Behind the Story, One Writer's Journey
The title came first. Before There Were Skeletons, a nod to Skeletons in the Attic, book 1 in my Marketville Mystery series. In book 1, Calamity (Callie) Barnstable, my protagonist, 36 at the time, inherits a house in Marketville from her father, who has died in an...
