Watch Your Language!

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Often times when we are on the cell phone or having a conversation in a public place, we become oblivious to others within listening range.  At a restaurant, I was helping a fellow author friend plot her novel. She had reached a stagmire in the plot, basically dug a whole for her protagonist that she couldn’t climb out of.  It involved a murder. As we brainstormed the crime, I  glanced over her shoulder to the next booth where an elderly woman appeared wide-eyed and nervous. She quickly glanced way when our gazes locked.  Sensing her angst, I slipped out of…

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Watch what you research!

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Watch what you research! by Mary L. Hamilton My husband, Wayne, doesn’t quite know what to make of my turn to the dark side as I write mystery/suspense stories. But when I was trying to figure out a good place to hide a body in our area, he arranged a meeting with a man he knows who has worked as a police officer in our area off and on for thirty years. For thirty minutes, this friend and I discussed ways and locations for disposing of dead bodies, while Wayne listened and wondered what had happened to his sweet, innocent…

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Tips from the Pros: Twila Belk

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Almost six years ago, I had the privilege of meeting the wonderful Twila Belk and her partner in crime, Cecil Murphey, at the International Christian Retail Show (ICRS) in Orlando. Since then, I've come to count both Twila and Cec as good friends. That's why I'm delighted to introduce Cec's much-maligned sidekick to you today. Not only does Twila serve as Cec's manager, protector, and as Cec would say, "mother," but she is a talented speaker, writer, and the “GottaTellSomebody Gal.”  She was also brave enough to invite me to teach at my first writer's conference in 2009. So without…

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