Author: Elizabeth Spann Craig

Lately, I’ve gotten a few emails asking me the best way to launch a blog.

I think there must be a lot of different ways to do it and I’m not sure mine is the best approach. In fact, my blog had been launched for about five months before I decided to try and accelerate growth in number of readers.

Here’s what I did:

First of all, I joined Dani’s Blog Book Tour, which is a free class run through Yahoo Groups. You may not have the time for this (and she’s just started a brand new class…a week ago, I think), but I think her site and the sites she links to are very helpful: http://blogbooktours.blogspot.com/

My blog design is roughly laid out in a style that she had recommended. One important part of blogs is a follower function–it helps people feel they belong to your blog and it’s a spot for them to regularly visit. I have the Google follower widget on there (easy enough to install) and the Networked Blogs (Facebook) follower widget (harder to install, but still doable.)

The next thing I did was to visit blogs of other authors. I located many of those authors from the blogrolls of high-volume writing blogs I’d found online–places with lots of hits each day. I was looking for blogs to follow that posted regularly (usually at least 1-3 days a week), had loyal followers, and focused on topics that were important to writers or readers. When the blogs posted updates, I’d read them and comment.

After a while, I had a lot of regular commenters and also a lot of online friends. It does get time consuming to visit everyone. What I decided to do was to add all the blogs I followed to a Google Reader via RSS feeds. Then I organized my friends’ feeds by days of the week: I have a MWF folder and a T/Th folder, etc. With this method, I hoped I could ensure I visited everyone at least once or twice a week and keep up my online friendships.

If you’re not on Facebook, I’d have to recommend that you look at joining up. You can set up a feed from your blog to your Facebook profile page–I do get lots of readers through Networked Blogs. How do you find writers on Facebook? Try going to the Facebook page of one of the writers whose blog you follow. Then go to their friends page and start following their friends. Nearly all of my friends on Facebook are writers (I’m on Facebook at Elizabeth Spann Craig Author).

In addition, I’d recommend tweeting your posts–with catchy headlines. It’s better not to over-promote on Twitter—you can keep from doing that by tweeting especially good posts of your blogging friends, too. It’s all about sharing content on Twitter.

If you only post a couple of days a week, I’d try to post that fact in the sidebar: Posting Schedule: Tuesdays and Thursdays…please pop by! That way people know when to expect a new post from you.

I’d also recommend doing a few guest posts and link back to your own blog…after you get your feet wet and get the blog up and running for a while.

Do y’all have any tips for blog launching or reader-building?

Yes, I’m on the road again—virtually. Got to love blog touring—and it’s so easy on my minivan! :) Today I’m also at the Write Chic blog, with the top 5 writing tools and why they make my list. Hope you’ll catch up with me tomorrow at Terry’s Place where I’m covering “Working Around Absent Muses—Tips for Completing Your Manuscript.”

Here are writing links that I’ve posted to Twitter for the past week. If you’re looking for a particular topic, just plug in your keyword into the search box at the top left-hand corner of the blog (on the black header right above my blog name…next to the Blogger symbol…the small search window is next to the magnifying glass) and the roundup with your subject will come up. To narrow your search down on the page, do a CTRL+F, type your subject, and hit enter.

Don’t forget to revise your characters too: http://bit.ly/4wP2Rc @p2p_editor

12 Secrets to Selling More Books at Events: http://dld.bz/kxf6

How To Make Money on Ebooks (JA Konrath): http://dld.bz/kWgy

Enter the werewolf: http://dld.bz/kxeA @TeresaFrohock

The Second Book Conundrum: Selling It, Writing It, Publishing It: http://dld.bz/kWgp @pubperspectives

Ask a Lawyer: Should Co-Authors Have a Contract With Each Other? http://dld.bz/kxe7 @GalleyCat

The Power of Weather in Your Story: http://dld.bz/kxdU @RoniGriffin

Notes from the underground: A fresh breed of literary magazines (Independent): http://dld.bz/kWfW @TheIndyArts

Do I have a story? http://dld.bz/kxdS

How to read a publishing contract (15): http://dld.bz/kxbg

5 Things to Celebrate About Finishing Your First Draft: http://dld.bz/kWfH @VictoriaMixon

Touring in a virtual world: http://dld.bz/kxbc @blogbooktours

Writing: accents and voices: http://dld.bz/kWfu @ClarissaDraper

A nice roundup of links for writers: http://dld.bz/kWHm @4kidlit

Bending the rules of dialect: http://dld.bz/kxaY

Blog commenters with bad manners: http://dld.bz/kWDS

Are your characters falling through gaps in your writing? http://bit.ly/5PHCz3 @p2p_editor

Top 10 pubs in literature (Guardian): http://dld.bz/kWfr

Children’s Book Writing – Getting Your Feet Wet http://dld.bz/kxa5

The Success of Paranormals: Why is the Genre Taking a Big Bite of Publishing Sales? http://dld.bz/kWff

The Artist as a Brand, a Company, a Salesman: http://dld.bz/kxay

What’s with steampunk? http://dld.bz/kWjM @intlifemag

If you’ve found a publisher while agent-free, should you still continue to look for an agent? Yes. http://dld.bz/kWdq

Cowgirl Up! The Courage to Lose Control: http://dld.bz/kwZY

A Secret Black Belt Technique for Writing Knock-out Posts: http://dld.bz/kwZW

An Artist Who Meditates Is Simply An Artist Who Avoids: Why Good Writing Doesn’t Come From Peace: http://dld.bz/kwZA @litdrift

7 Ways to Stay Motivated in Tough Times: http://dld.bz/kV9u @camillelaguire

Making Writing Easy: Practical Tools: http://dld.bz/kwZ8

Nailing your character: http://dld.bz/krxH

Worldbuilding, part 5–where it all comes together: http://dld.bz/kTuV @Tessasblurb via @clarissadraper

Worldbuilding, part 4: where you learn to speak your own language: http://dld.bz/kTuF @Tessasblurb via @clarissadraper

Worldbuilding, part 3–your world’s history: http://dld.bz/kTtW @Tessasblurb via @ClarissaDraper

Recovering from Rejection: http://dld.bz/krx2 @MuseInks

Worldbuilding, part 2–research: http://dld.bz/kTsJ @Tessasblurb via @ClarissaDraper

Freelance Writing Help – When You’re Between Assignments: http://dld.bz/kmzS

Worldbuilding, part 1– your big idea: http://dld.bz/kTrU @Tessasblurb

Worldbuilding, part 1– research: http://dld.bz/kTrU @Tessasblurb

What You Need To Know About Marketing With Content: http://dld.bz/krxt

Using parallelism to make your writing more memorable: http://dld.bz/krwY @danielckoontz

Amazon Sales Obsession: http://dld.bz/kmzP

Do you have all the pieces in place to complete a book? http://dld.bz/kmzz @TheNewAuthor

What to do with your blog during the slow summer season: http://dld.bz/kmzq

The 70 Percent Solution? (Kindle royalties): http://dld.bz/kmzk

Capturing ideas without suffocating the creative process: http://dld.bz/kmze @jammer0501

Beware of Book Publishing Spam: http://dld.bz/kmyV @victoriastrauss

Critique group rules to follow: http://dld.bz/kmyE

4 Proven Steps to Facebook Page Success: http://dld.bz/kjm7

The 10 Most Important Parts of a Proposal: http://dld.bz/kjm6

ARM your characters for confrontation: http://dld.bz/kjkV @juliemusil

Writing a murder mystery? 13 things to remember, from ElizabethSCraig: http://dld.bz/kNNB @RoniGriffin

Anonymous Blogging 101: a Quick and Dirty Primer: http://dld.bz/kjkG

Shared Vision–on Head-Hopping: http://dld.bz/kN5j @AuthorGuy

The Difference Between Sales and Fans: http://dld.bz/kjkR

What are the benefits and risks for a Christian writer who wants to tackle a non-heroic main character? http://dld.bz/kjm8

20 Quick Tips For Better Time Management: http://dld.bz/krx4

Myst. Lov. Kitchen: 5 Ways to Use Your Grilling Leftovers by Cleo Coyle http://bit.ly/aRclMc @kristadavis

How to Handle a Telephone Interview: http://dld.bz/kjkJ

How *NOT* To Lose Control Of Your Facebook Fan Page: http://dld.bz/kjkc

Kindle sales and the 70% Option: http://dld.bz/kjhY

Writing a Picture Book Query: http://dld.bz/kjhR @gracefuldoe

Backstory: how to tell whether it’s helping or hindering your writing. Tips from @writeabook: http://bit.ly/bJLhzl RT@inkyelbows

An Agent on the Latest Trends in Query Letters and Sample Pages: http://dld.bz/kjhP

Ten of the best pianos in literature (Guardian): http://dld.bz/kjhH

Helpful link roundup for memoir writers: http://dld.bz/kjhE @jesakalong

Make the Most Out of Social Media: http://dld.bz/kjhA

Villains are heroes, too: http://bit.ly/8PHCq5 @p2p_editor

Publishing — Learning at the Bookstore: http://dld.bz/kjh9

Procrastinate? Me? 12 things *some* writers might do to put off writing: http://dld.bz/kHeM @elspethwrites

How authors can participate in marketing, even when they don’t like selling: http://dld.bz/kjh2 @JodyHedlund

Busted!—Stephenie Meyer caught doing something right: http://dld.bz/kjhf

Words reveal their power when given voice: http://dld.bz/kjgq (Guardian)

Words and phrases that might come in handy for your book’s courtroom scene: http://dld.bz/kjgn @AngelaAckerman

9 tips for attending writing conferences: http://dld.bz/kFUC @authorterryo

The writer in the mirror: http://dld.bz/kjfS

Creating a casting book for your characters: http://dld.bz/kjfM @sherrinda

Fish and chips, grits, bratwurst: How writing abt. regional foods adds color to our books: http://dld.bz/kEKu

The YA balancing act: http://dld.bz/kjfJ

An author’s plan for social media: http://dld.bz/kjhb @hopeclark

Jealousy and writing: http://dld.bz/kjgF

50 Things to Love about Life That Are Free: http://dld.bz/kjeU via @merylkevans

Myst. Lov. Kitchen: Bacon-Wrapped, Cream Cheese-Stuffed, Jalapenos http://bit.ly/bWZ2Ko @kristadavis

Why one writer chose to self-publish: http://dld.bz/kaN7

Proofreading your way to error-free blog posts: http://dld.bz/kaM3

Three Paths To a Story: http://dld.bz/kjfy

Memorable introductions: http://dld.bz/kaM4

An editor on paragraphs: http://dld.bz/kaMM

20 Questions to Ask a Hero: http://dld.bz/kjft @PauloCamposInk

Benefits of reading: http://dld.bz/kjfr

How to Write Your Novel’s Hook: http://dld.bz/kjfm

One blog’s top 10 posts (nice selection): http://dld.bz/kaK3

Inbound Marketing Rocks! Now what? http://dld.bz/kjfb

57 Power Words for Writing Brilliant Headlines: http://dld.bz/kje3 via @merylkevans

Why short is sweet for readers: http://dld.bz/kjdV

Five New Tools for the Writer: http://dld.bz/kaKk

Two ways William Sleator sabotaged the characters in “The Last Universe”: http://bit.ly/aStxBu @p2p_editor

Who buys books, and why? http://dld.bz/kaKd

6 top TV talk show interview mistakes: http://dld.bz/kaJB

Shakespeare on Twitter? Which social medium would authors from the past have embraced? http://dld.bz/k8MB

Writing Series for Immediacy: Life-Arcs and Props: http://dld.bz/kaJ8

There are days when writing is a joy. Then…there are “mug days”: http://dld.bz/k8KB @elspethwrites

The No. 1 Most Important Factor for Writers Considering the Self-Pub Option: http://dld.bz/kaJ6

Tracking ideas online while writing your book: http://dld.bz/kaJZ

It’s Not the Length of Your Book, it’s What You Do With It: http://dld.bz/kaJW

Tips on writing backstory: http://dld.bz/kaJ3

Struggles along the writer’s path: http://dld.bz/kaH8

Networking Tips for Conferences: http://dld.bz/kaH3

To Kill a Mockingbird: the backlash (Guardian): http://dld.bz/kaHv

Google Voice for Writers: http://dld.bz/kaHq

The ups and downs of prologues: http://dld.bz/kaHk

6 Tips on How to Build a Platform and Sell Books: http://dld.bz/kaGT

Collaboration: How to Bring Back that Brand New Blog Feeling Again: http://dld.bz/kaGN

Slashing the fluff in your manuscript: http://dld.bz/kaG7

Blogging Outside the Box: Approaching Your Blog with Creative Spirit: http://dld.bz/jXYq

The Cost of Writing: http://dld.bz/jXYk

58 Habits That Will Help You Succeed: http://dld.bz/jXYg

Has Horror Been Eclipsed? http://dld.bz/jXYf

Freelance Writing Rights Part 2: http://dld.bz/jXYb

TWAP: Twitter Writer Acronym Primer: http://dld.bz/jXXS @MuseInks

Writing Action: http://dld.bz/jXXR

4 Ways Social Media Is Changing Your Relationships: http://dld.bz/jXWW

The Full-Time SF Novelist: Probably Not as Endangered as You Think: http://dld.bz/jXWs

The 7 Essential Steps to Creating Your Blog Content Masterpiece: http://dld.bz/jXSE

“10 Things My Creative Writing MFA Taught Me NOT To Do” (Writer’s Digest): http://dld.bz/jXSq

7 Tools to Automate Your Social Media Management: http://dld.bz/kxgA

Secrets To Successfully Marketing Fiction: http://dld.bz/jXSh

The Joy of Unread Books: http://dld.bz/jXSf

Supersize Your Kindle! http://dld.bz/kxgS

An agent on the unsympathetic protagonist: http://dld.bz/jXRW

WS Merwin is America’s new poet laureate – at 82 (Guardian): http://dld.bz/kxgQ

Why Lee Siegel is wrong to declare the novel dead (Guardian): http://dld.bz/kxgK

On setting goals: http://dld.bz/jXRP

Surviving the deadline crunch: http://dld.bz/jA8Y

The Sound of Prose – Part I: http://dld.bz/jHrZ

Creating character portraits: http://dld.bz/jHrY

‘I Didn’t Think It Would Happen to Me’: WordPress Security: http://dld.bz/jHr8

What Writers Do: http://dld.bz/jHrk

Create a Custom List of Tweets with TwitBlend: http://dld.bz/jHqn

The Anatomy of a Query Letter: http://dld.bz/jHp2 @chrstinef

Word of mouth–the overlooked marketing strategy: http://dld.bz/kvzd

Writing for Children: Boys vs. Girls: http://dld.bz/jHpp

An agent explains what happens when an agency can’t sell your book: http://dld.bz/jHpc

Creating high stakes in your novel: http://dld.bz/jHca

Shakespeare’s typos? Historical and modern writing bloopers: http://dld.bz/kuAU

Color Wheel Characters: http://dld.bz/ku3W @wendypmiller

201 Ways to Arouse Your Creativity: http://dld.bz/jHbP

Resource roundup–curing writer’s block: http://dld.bz/jHb2

How stress can add a layer of tension to crime novels: http://dld.bz/ktMS @mkinberg

Queries–really not that complicated: http://dld.bz/jFff

Creating tension: http://dld.bz/jFeY

An agent on what to title your book: http://dld.bz/jFeN

How to Make Money With Your Author Blog: http://dld.bz/jFeF

One author’s autographing policy (if you’re looking to develop one): http://dld.bz/jFeX

Taking honesty to a new level (in your writing): http://dld.bz/jFe7

Twitter: How to Unfollow All Followers At Once: http://dld.bz/jFez

Revision Ain’t For Sissies Part 1 – The Art of the Opening Scene: http://dld.bz/jFen

Show Don’t Tell, And Other Myths: http://dld.bz/jFej

Creating a blog signature: http://dld.bz/krxn @ClarissaDraper

How NOT to Query: A Guide: http://dld.bz/jFdY

Discover 10 Ways Images Improve Your Marketing Content: http://dld.bz/jFdC

The Case Against Reading Fees: http://dld.bz/jFd6

Writing eBooks – 10 Tips to Make eBook Writing Easier: http://dld.bz/jFdz

Tough tomes: are challenging books worth the effort? (Guardian): http://dld.bz/jFdq

5 ways to put more ‘soul’ into your writing: http://dld.bz/jFcZ

Twitter: Save Time Deleting All DMs with DM Deleter: http://dld.bz/jFcW

Advantages and disadvantages of using a pen name: http://dld.bz/jFcN

Independence Day: 15 Feisty Small Presses And The Books You’re Going To Want From Them (Huff Post): http://dld.bz/kjec

Freelance Writing Rights: http://dld.bz/jFcx

2 important things you need in order to become published, and the part luck plays in them: http://dld.bz/jFcw

Plan, Central Question, Central Action (part 3): http://dld.bz/jFcq

50 Procrastination Techniques for Aspiring Writers: http://dld.bz/jFcj

Lessons learned while walking in an agent’s shoes: http://dld.bz/jFcf

Does branding make sense? http://dld.bz/jFbB

Writing Your Hero’s Death: http://dld.bz/jFbs

Is There Anything Wrong with Emotion? Learning to be less-sensitive: http://dld.bz/jFbQ

Using beta readers? Tips for writer and reader: http://dld.bz/jFbk

Mini-Conflicts Help Characters Stand Out: http://dld.bz/jEPd

Author’s Book Title Inadvertantly Becomes Facebook Fan Page Phenom @GalleyCat: http://dld.bz/kjdH

The Pros and Cons of Four Major Blogging Platforms: http://dld.bz/jENU

Literary Scandal: The Agent Who Disappeared (Daily Beast): http://dld.bz/kjgE

The Hero’s Journey Part 12 – Return with the Elixir: http://dld.bz/kjnx @JustusRStone

Out-of-Style Style: http://dld.bz/jENS

Literary storm rages as critic Lee Siegel pronounces the American novel dead: http://dld.bz/kjgA

Nice roundup of this week’s tweets for writers: http://dld.bz/kjnv @4KidLit

“Web site” vs. “website”: http://dld.bz/jEN8

Celebrities Poking Fun at Celebrity Books (ABC News): http://dld.bz/kjg8

15-Year-Old Writer Counts 6.5 Million Reads: http://dld.bz/kjev @GalleyCat

Kevin Muldoon10 Beautiful Blogger Templates – Part 2: http://dld.bz/jENn

How to pick the right point of view for your novel: http://bit.ly/pTumh @p2p_editor

Dealing with the deadline crunch: http://dld.bz/jA8Y

Why perfectionism is for losers: http://dld.bz/jyNK

Are Children’s Publishers Destroying Rainforests? http://dld.bz/jyNa

I Got Your Writer’s Block Right Here: http://dld.bz/jy5h

Tips for being an Olympic quality blogger: http://dld.bz/jy4W

Why your characters shouldn’t have all that money, and how to take it away from them: http://bit.ly/dzVmkO @p2p_editor

Little truths one writer has learned: http://dld.bz/jy4T

An agent answers, “What exactly is YA?” : http://dld.bz/jy4M

Which idea should I write first? Some tips for narrowing it down: http://dld.bz/kfwF

How setting is important to your story: http://dld.bz/jy36

Point of View Demystified: http://dld.bz/jy3r

The importance of beta readers for beginning writers: http://dld.bz/kfwA

Blog Reading and Sharing: Power Tips for Google Reader: http://dld.bz/jyzn

Should stories be soapboxes? http://dld.bz/jyzm

Using Microsoft Word Versus PowerPoint for Ebook Creation: http://dld.bz/jyzh

You’re never too old to start writing (Guardian): http://dld.bz/jvRP

Children’s picture books and plot: http://dld.bz/jvRw

Be sure to check out an agent’s submission requirements online: http://dld.bz/jyyV

Grammar Guide: Problem Pronouns – Who, That, Which: http://dld.bz/jvRv

Build a Setting that Pulls Its Own Weight (and then some): http://dld.bz/jvRq

Changes rules of punctuation: http://dld.bz/jtvy

Unplug to nourish your creativity: http://dld.bz/jvRn

The paperback book massacre: http://is.gd/cj6rW @S0BeUrself

Seven Powerful Ways To Find New Readers For Your Blog: http://dld.bz/jtvg

The Benefits of Mentoring: A Tribute to Mentors: http://dld.bz/jtvW

Professionalism as a writer: http://dld.bz/jtvV

Why You’re Not Going to Make It as a Writer, in 8 Parts: http://dld.bz/jtvR @VictoriaMixon

The iPad: Not the Writing Tool I’d Hoped For: http://dld.bz/jtvP

The 12 Best Books of Summer (Daily Beast): http://dld.bz/jtvD

4th of July mysteries: http://dld.bz/kaMt @JanetRudolph

How To: Change Your Twitter Name Without Losing Followers: http://dld.bz/jtuS

Ten of the best beaches in literature (Guardian): http://dld.bz/jtuN

A writer looks into submitting to big publishers vs small publishers: http://dld.bz/jtuK

Monotasking: Focus on One Thing at a Time: http://dld.bz/jtus

Does Twitter Sell Books? Yes, It Does (Huff Post): http://dld.bz/kaNu

5 Reasons Why You Should Respond to Every Comment: http://dld.bz/jrft

20 Questions to Ask About Symbolism and Theme: http://dld.bz/jrfg @PauloCamposInk

On semicolons: http://dld.bz/jrf9

Getting the most out of a rewrite: Tips for authors: http://dld.bz/jrf3

In praise of a writing journal: http://dld.bz/jrfy

Magic in the Society You’ve Created: http://dld.bz/jreG @HarleyDPalmer

How to Create Effective Scenes and Chapters in Your Novel: http://dld.bz/jre9 @melissadonovan

6 Cool Startpages That Can Make You More Productive: http://dld.bz/jrep

Why e-books will never replace real books (Slate): http://dld.bz/jXXs

An editor on the two factors that contribute to successful book sales: http://dld.bz/jXVQ

The Basics of Fiction: http://dld.bz/jrdR

Revision Series – Part 2: Writing with Betas, which is like swimming with dolphins: http://dld.bz/jXSH

The Importance of the First Line: http://dld.bz/jrdN @ljboldyrev

How To Incorporate Twitter Into Your Event: http://dld.bz/jtwp

I’d admit right away that I don’t know how to dress.

I’ve never cared about clothes.  I wear a sort of uniform every day during the summer: a v-neck cotton tee-shirt (I have them in every color), shorts, and flip flops. They’re…comfortable.

Then I have dresses. When I go to book signings or conferences (or church), I wear these very pretty dresses—because it’s either the dresses or the shorts and v-necks! 

I have nothing in-between. Dinner out at a nice restaurant, but not a fancy one? I’ll be there in a dress because I don’t have dressy, casual clothes.

My college roommate came to visit me a couple of days ago. She’s a political fundraiser who lives in Dallas—she has nice clothes.  And not just fancy clothes—nice casual clothes.  So we went out to dinner (yes, I was in my cotton v-neck top and vastly underdressed) and I told her that I didn’t have clothes—and I have a book tour coming up in August. I thought I might be overdressed in my dresses at the bookstores we’re going to.

She immediately said, “Elizabeth, you should go to Nordstrom’s and use their personal shopper.”

Dollar signs started floating in front of my head. “Well, but that sounds expensive…”

“The personal shopper is free. And Nordstrom’s is having their big sale next week.   They are going to know what you look good in. You can give them a budget and they’ll call you whenever something in your size and in your price range comes in.”

Ahh. Outsourcing my shopping.  This I liked.

The reason I bring this up is that recently I’ve talked to a few authors I know who don’t have agents.  They have publishers, though—and a few books on the shelves. They’d unsuccessfully looked for an agent before getting published, then they’d found a publishing house for their book and decided to just not worry about getting an agent.

I have to bite my tongue when they tell me they’ve stopped looking for an agent.

Yes, it’s very hard to find an agent. But, especially, if you’ve got a publisher, you need to have an agent.  I’d keep on looking.

I negotiated one book deal myself, without an agent. I promise that I did much better (and my agent paid for herself) when I kept looking and used an agent to negotiate my next book deal.

By and large (and this doesn’t apply to everyone…but it sure applies to me), writers don’t have brilliant business brains. Many writers are creative thinkers, not negotiators. It’s just not what we’re good at.

If you do get a publisher on your own (like I did a few years ago), keep looking for an agent.  You’ll change your query letter to: “I’m an author, published by XYZ house.”  You’ll still get rejections (I got a ton of them, even post-published). But eventually, you’ll get some bites.

Because we all need to stick with what we’re good at.  And leave the rest to qualified professionals.

Today I’m going to be genre-specific and talk a little about writing mysteries. Mysteries aren’t only my favorite genre to read, they’re my favorite to write, too. Hope you’ll join me on Roni Griffin’s Fiction Groupie blog to learn more about writing mysteries.

It’s the traveling version of Mystery Writing is Murder today!

First up, I’m at the Cozy Chicks blog—a great group of writers who are also friends of mine. Today I’m posting on how writing about food in our books can add local flavor to our novels.

And, if you’re looking for a quick and easy hors d’oeuvre for your next summer gathering, look no further than my bacon-wrapped, cream cheese-stuffed jalapenos at the Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen!