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
The Writers in Residence 
Writers-in-Residence is wrapping up the year with a post by Miriam Johnston (who writes as Miko Johnston). She highlights various posts by other members of the group and herself that talk about, what else, writing. We each have tried to give some helpful hints about this writing thing we love so much. We hope it helps fellow writers. Keep on putting those words and ideas on paper. We want folks to read a lot more because that’s how we learn and also how, as readers, we see the world, because each reader interprets those words differently. We learn, grow, laugh, and maybe even cry as the characters in those books take us on a journey. So read more and enjoy the trip. Read On!
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Thanks Gayle. I’ve done these posts for many years and have always enjoyed reviewing the wealth of wisdom and experience I find here every week. I can share the great information gathered from my co-WInRs and remind them – and myself – of how this community of writers encourages us to, as you always say, write on.
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Really enjoyed this post, Miko, and seeing how you pay attention to, and sometimes enjoy, what the rest of us have written! Maybe I should write something really offbeat one of these days and watch how you react to it.
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I’d love that, Linda, and I bet so would the readers.
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I love your year-end round-up, Miko. It’s a good reminder of all the things we have covered from our various points of the country. It brings us back together, sometimes reminding us of where we all started together – some of us in the Burbank library – sharing our work as we progressed with our literary careers. It’s a great journey that will carry us on to new ideas, new discoveries – and wonderful friendships across the miles.
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So true, Rosemary. The holiday season has taken on more meaning as the years pass. A time of love and connection, as well as remembering – those we have and those we’ve lost. And yes, we all started with little more than a concept or a partial manuscript and a dream of publication, and look at us now!
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Miko, thanks for sharing some memorable posts. I appreciate Thais group’s dedication to helping writers grow and achieve.
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As do I, Maggie. I’ve learned so much from our members and I’m thrilled we can share our knowledge with other writers.
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