The Writers in Residence

A “February Is Love” Group Post

By Linda O. Johnston

Many people have something special to remember about Valentine’s Day. I certainly do. It was the day I got engaged to my wonderful husband—more than four decades ago now.

We still lived in Pittsburgh then, and my first Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Panda—Pandaemonium—celebrated with us. We even let him lick the dry exterior of the champagne bottle. Guess it must have smelled interesting, though, of course, we didn’t give him a drink.

We got married in May and have been celebrating ever since, here in Los Angeles now, along with whichever Cavaliers are with us each year. This year, it’s Cari and Lexie.

Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone!

By Rosemary Lord

It’s wonderful, marvelous – this outward show of love, with images of celebrations, hearts and flowers, love songs…

But more intriguing for me as a writer is the silent love that stays hidden. The oft-unrequited love, the unspoken love. The secret love. The love that tugs at the heartstrings.

Whether it’s the quiet, shy love where the individual feels inadequate to express feelings about their heart’s desire. Not wanting to risk rejection, they stay silent. Or the cautious person afraid of getting ridiculed by revealing where their heart wants to go. The feelings of unworthiness or inadequacy to receive their heart’s desire. The secret love that someone dreams of from afar.

And it’s not just a love of another person. It’s the love and passion for dreams yet to be realized.

It’s the passion for a seemingly unattainable goal, project, or career. Those loves so often stay hidden. The offer or demonstration of love that is held back for fear of being laughed at or worse, being ignored.

It’s the unwritten love stories that stay locked away in a writer’s head for fear of rejection – or just unsure of a perfect ending. The love stories that will never see the light of day.

How many amazing, intriguing tales of love and passion remain hidden and lost to the world?

Those are the love stories that I want to read and want to write.

By Gayle Bartos-Pool

STOP! in the Name of Love, Searching for Love, You Can’t Hurry Love, April Love, When I Fall in Love, When a Man Loves a Woman, Love Is a Many Splendored Thing, All You Need Is Love, Dream Lover, Can’t Help Falling in Love, I Just Called to Say I Love You, How Deep Is Your Love, Love Me Tender, Love Will Keep Us Together, Love Me or Leave Me, I Will Always Love You…

So many ways to search for love… until it finds you because it so often does in the most interesting places. Then you want to hold onto it… if you can, and you do because, as that last song title says: I Will Always Love You.

Richard and I had a couple of songs we liked, both from singer Randy Travis. We even went to one of his concerts. The songs: Forever and Ever, Amen, and Look Heart, No Hands. And there’s that other one that still brings tears to my eyes: I Will Always Love You…And it always will because Love Is a Many Splendored Thing. Ain’t Love great…

By Jill Amadio

My Dearest Valentine,

Here it is, another year, and I dislike you more than ever. Ever since you rejected my submission, the third in my mystery series, I have awoken with bitterness in my heart towards you.

Do you ever consider how your rejections affect authors who are begging for acceptance and publication?

Do you realize the amount of royalties that were envisioned, only to have that dream turn into a nightmare? I was thinking of sending you a big bouquet of dead flowers, but then I thought about the cost of mailing them.

Always looking forward to next year!

jill

By Miko Johnston

The journey of love takes place over a lifetime. The early yearning for it. The sweet innocence of that first infatuation. The intensity of true requited love. The joy and peace that come from loving someone and having their love over the years. The sweetness of togetherness and the sorrow of loss. Music has always captured those emotions so well. A very partial and personal list:

“How Will I Know?”

“I Believe (When I Fall in Love it will be Forever)”

“Can’t Help Falling in Love”

“At Last”

“I Got You Babe”

“My Guy”

“Only You”

“Unchained Melody”

“God Only Knows”

“In My Life”

“Maybe I’m Amazed”

“I Don’t Want to Spoil the Party”

“The Tracks of my Tears”

“How Can You Mend a Broken Heart”

“All In Love is Fair”

“I Will Always Love You”

For me, love has always held hands with music.

By Jackie Houchin

For about 22,630 days, I have felt loved in one way or another. This is approximately how long I have been married to my one and only husband. (62 years on February 1st) Of course, I felt loved in the months of engagement before that, too.

Love isn’t always romantic. Sometimes it’s simply sustaining, especially in times of trouble. Sometimes love is felt when you are sick in bed, and a warm bowl of soup is brought to you. Or when you are exhausted…. and the long list of household chores gets finished without a word from you.

I feel loved when I come up with “brilliant” (I think) ideas, and my husband (who might roll his eyes a bit) sets about to accomplish them to the best of his ability.

Yes… I am definitely LOVED, and I feel it every day.

Could I Be An Accomplice?

By Jill Amadio

I am currently editing a book for a client. He has written and published two previous books in his series of life as a Liverpool bank robber who manages to escape prison, flee to America, and be hired by top movie stars as a posh English butler.

All well and good and a fascinating in-depth glimpse into not only his own surprising story but also personal, little-known facts about his famous employers. They included Clint Eastwood, Marlon Brando, and others.

Hired as a waiter and swiftly promoted to a butler with forged credentials that led to his being hired on the QE2 liner sailing from Southampton to New York, his career took an unexpected turn when passenger Elizabeth Taylor advised him to pursue a job with Hollywood celebrities.

The book I am editing describes several crimes he committed as a bank robber in England, but also a crime aboard the QE2 cruise liner, in which he stole Queen Elizabeth II’s Jubilee jewelry that was on display in the ship’s shopping arcade.

A monster hurricane hit the liner in the middle of the North Atlantic, tossing the ship around like a toy, causing damage on all decks, and smashing the glass on the cabinet displaying the British royal family’s diamonds. He had planned the theft differently, but this fortunate moment laid the jewels at his feet.

He was not caught and managed to sell the jewels in New York through a friendly fence whom he’d known since childhood in the UK.

Question: Could I be considered an accomplice by editing his book and keeping quiet about its contents before publication?

Surely, a bonanza of a marketing tool?

I certainly came on the scene merely as an editor and proofreader well after the fact. I had nothing to do with the actual theft, fascinated as I am by its surprisingly fortuitous assistance by a perfectly timed hurricane.

In none of the 17 biographies and memoirs I ghostwrote did a client confess to such an incident. I have no idea whether the statute of limitations has run out on this project, but the possibility does give me pause.

Many crooks have written books about their misdeeds. Truman Capote’s “In Cold Blood” chronicles a famous case, especially when he took the side of one of the two criminals, and books by the Mafia come to mind, as well as the many Michael Connelly mysteries derived from real criminal cases in and around Los Angeles.

So, I believe I am safe from prosecution, especially since my name is nowhere on or in the book, which reminded me that my ghostwriting clients rarely added a brief ‘Thank You’ to their Acknowledgements page. I dream of a client adding, “And thanks to Jill Amadio for writing my book for me.”

I am often asked which of my ghostwriting projects was my favorite. Hands down, it was about a 1912 trial of a student expelled from the University of Chicago for accusing her housemates of theft.

All of which brings to mind another pet peeve – that most writers fail to read passages aloud that may be garbled. Recording them on a tape recorder or your cell phone and playing them back can reveal whether they sound normal, forced, or a mess.

For this editing project, I asked the writer to simplify a particular paragraph and read it aloud. It came back worse than ever. Obviously, he had not followed orders! Another client quit halfway through, saying it was “too hard.”

“But I’m doing all the work!” I said. No matter. He still quit.

Happily, I am enjoying this current editing project despite my grumbling. I am learning new facts about how a criminal operates on both sides of the pond, always helpful for one’s own mysteries.

(photo by Oleg Gapeenko)

Snail Mail and Literary Correspondence

It was a shock. How could they?

I’m talking about Denmark’s announcement to discontinue its PostNord postal service as of January 1, 2026 (after 400 years of continual service) and to remove all its 1,500 letterboxes.

Think of that! No friendly postmen. No possibility of letters from family. Or Christmas greetings. Or bills and solicitations. (Well, I wouldn’t miss those!)

Maybe not having snail mail wouldn’t bother you. (Tell me how you feel in a comment.)

And yes, yes. I know about email! I use it. But it’s not thick envelopes, colorful stamps, and paper “delight” in your hand.

Anyway…

This news made me aware of a writing phenomenon that has begun in earnest this year. If you are on Facebook at all, you will have noticed. It is the many opportunities we have to sign up for story-letters: snail-mail fiction divvied out twice a month for a fee.

A while ago, I interviewed the creator of “Letters from Afar,” Shawnee Mills. She researches (and sometimes visits) places around the world. Her fictional character tells readers about them in letters. She sends field notes, a map showing its location on the globe, and a “find me” game where she hides objects in her hand-painted illustrations. The Afar article.

Shortly after the “Afar” letters, I signed up for the “Flower letters,” where an actual story – romantic/adventure/mystery – was told through correspondence (and inserts and artifacts).

But now. Wow! In a short time, I discovered a baker’s dozen opportunities for you to receive bi-weekly story letters via snail mail. I’ve listed some. You can find them on Facebook by typing the titles into the search bar.

The Moonlit Letters – a cozy mystery where a young woman inherits her grandma’s cottage on Ocracoke Island and discovers/solves a mystery. Postcards, recipes, and a map are included.
The Lost Letters Society – four choices of historical-fiction war correspondence, most including romance. Authentic-looking letters.
Letters by Lanternlight – a choice of three small town cozy whodunnits (all include a cat)
Storyville Letters – mystery, romance, adventure. Two choices: one is from the 1920’s, the other is 1874, Victorian London. The creator of these is a filmmaker, so they are bound to be atmospheric.
P.S. (PostScript) Letters – These are original historical fiction, in “the imagined voice” of women you may know. Not biographies, just private, human letters. You will read letters by Emily Dickinson, Jane Austin, Helen Keller, Amelia Earhart, Eleanor Roosevelt, etc.
Letter Joy – letters for history buffs. Produced by the same people that create the PS Letters. You’ll read everyday correspondence from authors like Fyodor Dostoevsky, Arthur Conan Doyle, Mark Twain, etc.
Epistolary – “Letters, Lattes, and Lies,” a cozy mystery told in letters of observations and evidence by a retired librarian, to a reclusive homicide detective.
The Heart Letters – a more serious “novel” told in letters. The creator calls this 24-letter series “therapy through storytelling.” It is designed as “a gift experience for women navigating transition, healing, heartbreak, empty nest, divorce, or loss.”
The Romantasy Letters – Bold, daring, fiery, spicy, romantic fantasy with passion, intrigue, and magic. (Not my cup of tea.)
The Titanic Letters – Passengers tell their secrets in correspondence. “An illicit affair and a gripping mystery.” The creator rates the letters PG-13.
The Asylum Letters – psychological suspense set in the Danvers Asylum in 1926: a secret correspondence between a female inmate with amnesia and a new doctor. By the creator of #10, rated PG-13.
The Salem Letters – correspondence by an herbalist held in prison for the witch trials. Dark mystery/romance. Rated PG-13.
Scaremail – a “terrifying, unfolding horror saga told through personal correspondence between characters. (The ocre envelopes are splotched with black dripping stuff! EEEEKKK!)

And there are more of these letter-stories available, like: The Max Letters, Writings from the Wild (animals), and The Cozy Letter Club (a farmyard mystery) for kids. (There are also fictional Pen Pal stories to interact with.)

Most of the serialized stories span 12 months of biweekly letters and cost $99-$149. It’s a bit expensive, but it’s fun to find them in your mailbox!

There is a series I didn’t mention above, because it was only available briefly. It is Mysteries in the Mail, written by mystery writer Sara Rossett. I signed up for the series and have received 3 letters so far. It’s different in that the “letters” seem like chapters in a cozy mystery book written in 1st-person POV. There are some lovely hand-drawn, colored illustrations among the text, but no other inserts.

Have YOU ever done or thought of writing and mailing serialized fiction? It would mean some creativity, a bit of postage, and of course a mailing list – but some of YOU have that already. What do you say?

Now is the time to jump on the bandwagon, especially if you have something unique. Any of the writers on this Writers in Residence blog could do what Sara Rossett has done.

And, who knows when the US Postal Service may discontinue!!! Yikes!

But… if you don’t want to go through all the rigamarole of sending out prescribed letters, you can always do what these authors have done. Write your story in a series of letters. It’s called an Epistolary Novel.

Lee Smith did it with “Fair and Tender Ladies.” Helen Hanff did it with “84, Charing Cross Road.” Annie Barrows wrote “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.” And one more by Virginia Even, the new, highly touted “The Correspondent.” Go for it, girls! (And guys.)

Me? I’ve written (and illustrated) several serialized letter stories in the past. They are fun. I wrote mysteries for each of my three elementary-aged granddaughters via letters in snail mail.

I also wrote a series of twelve letter-stories for the same-age kids at our church, about life in Africa. (These were actually email story-letters.)

If I can do it, so can you. Why not give it a try… while you still have time…. AND MAILBOXES!!!

My Reading Life: Finding Comfort in Uncomfortable Times

By Maggie King

Do you ever need a respite from the news of the world? Or maybe a respite from personal concerns? In recent months I’ve found solace in what I call “comfort” reading. I stumbled across Jen’s Reading Life on YouTube. Jen describes herself as “A 50+ Booktuber sharing my love for timeless literature, cozy mysteries, British women’s fiction, and comfort reads that warm the soul.”

Exactly what I needed. On Jen’s recommendation, I enjoyed Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim, Miss Buncle’s Book by D.E. Stevenson, Spam Tomorrow by Verily Anderson, and 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff. Jen describes each book she reviews as “lovely and charming” (Jen herself is lovely and charming!).

The following may, or may not, be on Jen’s lists–she has a lot of lists.

For cozy mysteries, I’ve discovered Betty Hechtman’s crochet series.

The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning by Margareta Magnusson focuses on decluttering–during your lifetime. It is an ongoing activity in my house.

The satirical Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books by Kirsten Miller addresses today’s controversial issues, but in a highly entertaining way.

I loved Bonnie Schroeder’s Write My Name on the Sky. Bonnie was featured guest for my holiday newsletter.

I tried to read Christmas stories, but couldn’t find one that held my interest. Exception was “The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding” by Agatha Christie. The Killer Wore Cranberry is a Thanksgiving-themed mystery anthology featuring a variety of tales.

I still return to the “dark side.” e–llegal treasures by C.V. Alba and The Pilgrim by Thomas A. Burns, Jr. are hard-boiled tales that offer little in the way of comfort but much in the way of great stories. They do have happy endings, so there’s that.

If you’re in need of some comfort reading, I suggest visiting Jen’s Reading Life, and reading Tolstoy Therapy’s article “16 of the most wholesome comfort reads for a hug from a book.”

An added benefit: all this comfort reading is making writing more comfortable for me!

Tell us what you’re reading and recommending. Let’s keep those TBT lists toppling over!

Always Ask Yourself – A 3 Part Series

By Gayle Bartos-Pool

The writing class I teach might be based on Aristotle’s Sage Words from his classic work, The Poetics, but I do add my own thoughts. The main one is a simple reminder. I hand out a 5 x 5 inch card that reads:

Always Ask Yourself:

Does it Advance the story?

Does it Enhance the story?

Is it Redundant?

The first point is actually something new writers don’t see until it’s pointed out by their editor or their friends or writing group that gets a chance to read an early draft of the story. It might be the result of the writer trying to beef up the number of pages in the book so it looks like a novel and not a short story. Actually, several good short stories can be published in a collection if the writer has a bunch of those shorter works. Nothing wrong with that. I’ve published several myself.

But if the writer wants to turn out a novel, those sections that just take up space don’t help the story. In fact, they slow it down because the reader starts wondering what is the point of the book if it’s full of stuff that doesn’t add anything to the plot except pages.

Whether it’s a mystery, thriller, adventure or romance novel be sure to have each section add something important to the story. Every Murder: She Wrote episode has a part in the beginning where characters are introduced but there is always that one thing that happens or is said or is pointed out in those first ten minutes of the show that points to the killer. Good ol’ Jessica Fletcher doesn’t recognize it then because the murder hasn’t happened, but she sees the light in those last few minutes of the show when she puts all those earlier pieces together. But the clue was there.

So, when you’re writing those scenes in your book make sure the scene is relevant. Maybe it introduces a few characters, one of whom might be the killer in a mystery or the new man in the leading lady’s life. Each subsequent scene or chapter can add a few new details or roadblocks to solving the murder or finding the love of the gal’s life. But a gaggle of gals in a tearoom or a bunch of boys at a neighborhood bar talking about a new dress shop in town or a bargain at the local hardware store might not add anything to the underlying story.

If the ladies talk about a gal in town who seems to frequent a certain divorce lawyer’s office a little too often or the guys mention a neighbor who seems to have come into a little extra money right after a bank robbery, then there’s a reason for the scene. But I have read books where there are scenes that provided nothing to the book at all. Personally, I never make a point of trying to figure out the killer ahead of time in a mystery, but I do like to keep track of the characters so I can make sure the clues were given even if I didn’t figure out “whodunnit” by chapter five. I just like to make sure the plot makes sense and the clues were really there.

I recently read a book by a famous author who writes an equally famous series. Names won’t be mentioned just to be nice, but this particular book had so many characters I needed a scorecard to keep track of them. To top it off, three people had contact with the deceased. One pushed him down a hill and thought they killed him. One actually killed him. One moved the dead body thinking that would protect who he thought did the deed. None of these people knew about the others. I thought yet another person, a woman, had done the deed. She didn’t though she had good reason to bump off the bum. Several others had a motive and might as well have done it since nobody liked the dead guy in the first place. The killer basically got away with it, not that nobody discovered the actual facts, but the killer was mentally challenged and he needed hospital care not a jail cell…

Overall, I was disappointed that the plot was so bloody confusing with way too many suspects and some other stuff packed into the plot that really didn’t add to the story at all. Did they advance the story…No. And they lowered the likability of the main character as well.

In Aristotle’s Poetics he listed the “Five Basic Elements of a Story.” Those Elements are Plot, Character, Dialogue, Setting and the Meaning of the story. I’ve discussed this in previous blog posts. Aristotle wants you to make sure you have some good characters in your story. I added my own requirement to the “character” qualifications. I want there to be at least one character you’d want to invite into your own house. This “famous writer” didn’t have a single character I’d invite over for a beer…Not even the hero.

Others may see the book in an entirely different light and like it. I will still write my books with a bunch of characters that most people would invite into their homes. I want those characters to have values and standards, but with some of the things I see on television I’m afraid a lot of those standards have disappeared. I’ll still craft my heroes with the standards I grew up with. I’ll continue subtly passing them along to readers through my stories because I learned things by reading good books, watching good movies, and a bunch of the old television shows that had those same standards.

As my characters learn things through various encounters at the beginning and the middle of my books they can solve the crime or make it to the destination they are seeking and the readers can enjoy following that journey because I kept advancing the story chapter by chapter because that’s the goal of a writer: Get the reader to the end of the book…and look forward to reading the next one.

So, this is part one of a three part series. See you later for part two. Write On!

Yes, It’s 2026! And…

by Linda O. Johnston

I hadn’t initially realized it, though I was sent the Writers in Residence calendar by our member Jackie Houchin. But this is the first WinR post of this year!

I get to introduce all of you to Writers in Residence 2026 and what our group is up to. Well, at least what I’m up to. Our other members will have to fill you in during their posts.

Me? Well, unsurprisingly, I’m writing. Even more slowly now, thanks to my broken wrist, but I have stories I’m under contract for and others swirling around in my mind. That’s my usual, and I’m working on them.

Plus, I’m having fun with my dogs—and my husband too. For one thing, we have some travel plans, though the dogs will be spending time with some special sitters rather than coming along. I’ll miss them—but will be having fun since some of the trips will involve other family members too.

Did I make any New Year’s resolutions? Only indirectly involving writing and healing and such—nothing exciting.

But how about you? If you’re a writer, how has your new year started? What writing are you working on or planning? And, writer, reader, or whoever you are, are you planning any trips? If so, using them for research? Yes, I’ll be doing that on my travels. And the first thing in the year is a good time to think about that, including anything besides writing you want to achieve this year.

Are you starting this year in any different manner than in other years? Do you usually plan things, including your writing? If so, do you generally stick to your plans?

Will you have any books published this year? I will, but fewer and later than I most often do.

Will you be reading books? I definitely will, and have some themes in mind to look for. Dogs always work for me, but other topics too, including romance, mystery, and more.

In any case, I hope you all have a wonderful 2026.

Write in the New!

What are YOUR writing plans, ambitions, and hopes for 2026?

Will you finish that book manuscript or begin a new one? Will you submit a short story (or two) to a contest? How about brainstorming a month’s worth of blog posts? Or will you finally write that book review for your favorite author’s new (or almost new) novel? If you’re really stuck, go to one of those online sites that have hundreds of daily, seasonal, or holiday lists of prompts, and free write for 10 minutes several times throughout the day.

Whatever and whenever, in 2026, get to writing! (And I’m talking to myself here too!)

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas

from Gayle Bartos-Pool

The holidays come fast. School gets back in session in September, then it’s Halloween and then Thanksgiving. We all see Christmas decorations pop up in stores along with the ghosts and goblins and before you know it…It’s Christmas.

Do I have a problem with that? No. I start decorating right after I take down the Halloween tree and stocking.

Since I’ve been collecting Christmas decorations, especially Santas, I have a lot to unpack. I’m glad this new house in Ohio has a finished basement so I can keep some of the things out all year.

So, enjoy the season…family, friends, decorations and especially the Reason for the Season. You might celebrate this time of year in a hundred different ways, but we can all take time to wish everyone Peace on Earth, Good Will to All.

A WRITERS’ MERRY HOLIDAY….

By ROSEMARY LORD

Do you ever feel that you’ll never catch up before the year ends?

Meanwhile all around, folks are panicking at not having enough time to complete their yearly goals, year-end deadlines, working to bring in much-needed last-minute, additional income after a slow financial year and wrap up assorted 2025 ventures.

At the same time, people want to make the most of the Holiday Season: Hanukkah, Christmas and New Year’s Eve.

Many are adding travel to their already over-packed timetables, to visit relatives, distant friends, escape to warmer climes as winter weather encroaches – or just a New Year getaway on the schedule.

Some of us are asking ourselves, is this all a bit overwhelming? Have I taken on too much? Have I added too many incidental items to my accomplishment wish-list?

As writers are we pushing ourselves to finish that book before the year end, when we really need to give ourselves more time to investigate the timelines, plotlines, deepen our characters? Are we rushing to complete that article before the January 1^st deadline, just to get it out of the way?

I think that sometimes today, in our busy, rather overwhelming lives, we miss the point of the satisfaction of totally immersing ourselves in the creative pleasure that we’re privileged to do for a living. Just writing. Be it with pencil and pad, or the latest computer programs. Without the cacophony of social media expectations and the fear-of-missing-out, we would calmly (well – not always…) focus on the task at hand. We could focus on what we were writing, even when the deadlines loomed. We did not get distracted by today’s outer craziness. We researched, we wrote, we completed the assignment in a more centered way.

We were at the helm. None of the pressure from outside nudging us to keep posting things on social media or keeping up to date by reading everything on Facebook and Instagram, so we know what everyone and their cousin is doing or thinking. Being sure to read the ‘right’ blogs, attend the ‘right’ events, use the ‘right’ words, keep in touch with the ‘right’ people that may be able to boost our career or our ‘online presence,’ – or not.

What happened to the basic, simple goals we had carefully planned?

Our aim used to be to write an (almost perfect) article, book, novel, investigative report, children’s book. Something we would be fastidious in researching, writing and editing. Maybe running it by our beta-reader friends before sending it off.

But today we seem to have become distracted and overwhelmed by the outside influence of a thousand chattering voices telling us we’re not doing enough. That we should have this ‘online presence’ and become a social media darling so that everyone recognizes our faces and our logo. Everyone should have a distinctive logo, they say. Who is ‘they’?

Yes, I appreciate that is today’s way to sell more of our books, our articles, get more advertising revenue. But I can’t help thinking that, if it’s the money you’re after and if your goal is to become a millionaire and get a million ‘clicks,’– there are a lot easier ways to do that than through the writing world.

When we started out, it was our writing that we wanted people to read, enjoy, appreciate, even applaud. Somewhere along the road that seems to have gotten lost.

Originally, we each felt we had something to say. A voice to be heard and enjoyed. But then some got caught up in the rush of outside influences, instead of listening to that calm, still voice inside our writers’ brain.

Some of us got too busy listening to everything and anything and lost our way, then found ourselves thinking, ‘Is this how I really want to spend my life?’

And this is a wonderful time, over these festive holidays, to calmly step back and remember what we came in for. Where is our time best spent? Rushing around following the crowd? Or finding our way back to our original writing goals?

So, as we have our overfill of eggnog in the next couple of weeks, let’s take a deep breath and quietly plan for a wonderful year ahead of writing what WE want to write, in the way WE want to write it. Dust off our writing dreams – and tell Santa Claus what we really want for Christmas…

Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year to all of you writers and readers out there.

2025 – A YEAR IN REVIEW

by Miko Johnston

The end of December. A good time to review what’s transpired throughout the year, including all the information and revelations that came from our WInRs in 2025.

WInRs may be women of a certain age, but we keep up with the times, as evidenced by several posts – including Jill’s – on AI. I expect this subject will be revisited as the technology progresses … or perhaps takes over?

When Gayle posted Characters: Real and Imagined, I could relate to her reflections on using famous people in our writing. As the author of a historical fiction series, I had to include actual people to balance the historical with the fiction. Her tips on incorporating the famous with the fictitious will help all writers.

Maggie’s Get Those Details Right! also struck a chord with me. I’d had to research locations in Prague during Covid, which meant canceling my planned in-person trip. I learned the limits of Google Maps firsthand when certain information I got from it turned out wrong. Fortunately, other ways to research locations exist (see this post).

Being an author means you never have to retire, a point made by Linda’s post, Retirement? Even if we stop writing for publication, we can continue to pen (or type) notes, keep a diary or journal, or log our family history for future generations.

Jackie’s piece on Mystery Books to TV Series inspired me in a reverse way. I selected a few series I’d enjoyed watching and bought the books, one of which I’m reading now.

Readers of this blog know I love to travel and often do, another reason I always enjoy the journey I take whenever I read one of Rosemary’s posts. London’s World of Words and Stories not only brought me back to a city I hadn’t been to in many years but reminded me how much travel has inspired and informed me about life outside my bubble, not only as a writer but as a human being.

Possibly the most controversial post this past year came from me. In A Contrarian View of Cozies I explained why I won’t read the sub-genre. Some of the responses softened my opinion. A little. Interestingly, when I wrote about cliches in mysteries in an earlier post, I never expected life to imitate art. After the recent jewel heist at the Louvre, a photo of policemen standing guard at the facility included a very dapper man, which raised questions as to who he was:

Photo by Thibault Camus/AP

According to one pundit*: “Never gonna crack it with a detective who wears an actual fedora unironically. To solve it, we need an unshaven, overweight, washed-out detective who’s in the middle of a divorce. A functioning alcoholic who the rest of the department hates.” I couldn’t have said it better myself. Turns out he had nothing to do with the investigation, but it proved my point.

Our purpose at The Writers in Residence is to entertain, inform, and encourage our readers. If you follow this blog, or recently found it, have we achieved our goal? Did any posts help or influence you as a writer?

*Melissa Chen, a tech executive based in London, wrote this in an X post that has been viewed more than five million times.

Miko Johnston, a founding member of The Writers in Residence, is the author of the historical fiction series, “A Petal in the Wind”, as well as a contributor to several anthologies, including the recently released “Whidbey Island: An Insider’s Guide”. Miko lives in Washington (the big one) with her rocket scientist husband. Contact her at mikojohnstonauthor@gmail.com