Author: Maggie King

Maggie King is the author of the Hazel Rose Book Group mysteries. Her short stories appear in the Virginia is for Mysteries series, 50 Shades of Cabernet, Deadly Southern Charm, Death by Cupcake, Murder by the Glass, First Comes Love, Then Comes Murder, and Crime in the Old Dominion. Maggie is a member of International Thriller Writers, Short Mystery Fiction Society, and is a founding member of Sisters in Crime Central Virginia. She serves Sisters in Crime on the national level as a member of the Social Media team. Maggie graduated from Rochester Institute of Technology with a B.S. degree in Business Administration, and has worked as a software developer, customer service supervisor, and retail sales manager. She lives in Richmond, Virginia with her husband, Glen, and Olive the cat.

Second Time Around: The Joys of Re-Reading

by Maggie King

Do you re-read your favorite books? If so, which ones have you turned to again and again? If you don’t re-read, what is your reason? Do you think your time is better spent discovering something new? Perhaps no story has moved you enough for a second go around (I can’t imagine such a thing!).

I find much to learn about writing from my favorite books. If a story is good enough to re-read, there has to be a reason. And discovering the reason can only enhance my own craft.

I’ve read, and re-read, countless books throughout my life, but for now I’ll pare the number down to a few selected titles.

I went on a classics binge in the early nineties and revisited some favorites from my high school English classes. I found a new appreciation the second time around for Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Pride and Prejudice, and A Separate Peace.

Willa Cather was a new-to-me author in the nineties and Song of the Lark may be her standout title. I was delighted to read it again years later for a book group. The same book group selected Michael Cunningham’s The Hours, paired with Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, and I found nuances that had gone unnoticed on my first reading of both books (another good reason to join a book group … uncovering those nuances).

How many times have I read If Morning Ever Comes? Four? Five? This is Anne Tyler’s debut novel, published in 1964 when she was only twenty-two. Read the New York Times review here.

I know I’ve read Marjorie Morningstar by Herman Wouk three times. Despite the perhaps outdated message and unsettling ending, I love Marjorie Morningstar. Veteran author Herman Wouk somehow delivers a feminist and non-feminist message at the same time. Sometimes you just can’t explain why a story moves you.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith is the tale of the joys and sorrows of a poor girl of Irish descent growing up in Brooklyn in the earlier part of the century. It was well worth it to flip through the pages a second time.

As a child, I couldn’t get enough of Nancy Drew and probably left the books in tatters.

Then there are my “teachers,” the authors who helped me to become a mystery writer: Thank you to Agatha Christie, Gillian Roberts, and Joan Smith. More tattered pages from countless readings. In 2014, as I was about to release my debut mystery, Murder at the Book Group (re-released as Death Turns the Page), I posted my appreciation for Ms. Roberts and Ms. Smith here.

Now what shall I re-read next? It won’t be War and Peace! In contemporary parlance, I just don’t have the bandwidth.

Note: I previously posted this article on another blog that, unfortunately, was discontinued.

Reading For Writers

By Maggie King

“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.” – Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

Some writers disagree with Mr. King’s reading advice. They fear that by reading they’ll be influenced by other author’s voices, thus compromising their writing. Mr. King has this to say about that choice:

“You may find yourself adopting a style you find particularly exciting, and there’s nothing wrong with that. When I read Ray Bradbury as a kid, I wrote like Ray Bradbury — everything green and wondrous and seen through a lens smeared with the grease of nostalgia. When I read James M. Cain, everything I wrote came out clipped and stripped and hardboiled. When I read Lovecraft, my prose became luxurious and Byzantine.”

Whether you agree or disagree with this renowned author’s view, you can’t deny his success.

Stephen King has more advice on the subject of reading in this article from VPM. His bottom line: “If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.”

Joyce Carol Oates, another prolific and respected writer, also encourages writers to read. I took a Masterclass course she taught and will never forget her suggesting that we read Ulysses! “If you read Ulysses by James Joyce, for example, chances are your vocabulary will improve (or, if nothing else, you’ll want your vocabulary to improve). Your work won’t necessarily come out sounding like his, but your process will be informed and elevated by him.”

More than once, I tried reading Ulysses and never made it past the first chapter. Ulysses was penned in the stream of consciousness style, a technique used to look inside a character’s mind and examine their every thought, action, and motivation. Other authors who used this style are Virginia Woolf, William Faulkner, and Toni Morrison. It is not a style that appeals to me, but I did enjoy Mrs. Dalloway. Perhaps I found the thoughts and actions Virginia Woolf gave her main character especially interesting.

But Ms. Oates is focused on James Joyce’s vocabulary, not his writing style. I didn’t get far enough in Ulysses to enhance my vocabulary. And she only offers this author as an example. She suggests studying the ways many writers compose their sentences, how they structure their stories, and how they handle dialogue.

As for James Joyce, I suggest reading The Dubliners, a fine collection of his short stories. They are not written in the stream of consciousness style. I took this on my trip to Ireland many years ago.

Masterclass offers courses on a variety of subjects. For writers, I highly recommend Joyce Carol Oates’s class on short story writing (I think her course works for novels as well). Here’s the link.

Many, if not most, writers read widely. Over the years, I’ve read classics, short stories, literary fiction, non-fiction, plays, bios, romance, and, of course, crime fiction. What I read is high-brow, low-brow, and everything between. Recent favorites are Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali, Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books by Kirsten Miller, Miss Marple, The Complete Short Stories by Agatha Christie, and Betty Hechtman’s series of crochet mysteries.

Writers, do you read widely? What are you reading now? What are your thoughts on the stream of consciousness style?

I Could Do This: My First Writing Effort

By Maggie King

As a devotee of Nancy Drew, I wrote mysteries in grade school. In high school I poured my considerable adolescent angst into bad poetry. After that, the only writing I did for many years was journaling. During the last year I lived in Los Angeles, three of my co-workers took creative writing and screenwriting courses at UCLA Extension. I read their work and was impressed by their talent. I also thought “I could do this.” I belonged to a mystery book group (it was the model for the Murder on Tour group in Murder at the Book Group) and felt confident that I could turn out a mystery. When I moved to Virginia in 1996 the first thing I did was to register for a writing course at the University of Virginia. Two women, Margaret and Tristan, taught the course and were extremely encouraging and supportive of their students.

Despite the subtitle of this post, “My First Writing Effort,” my actual first writing efforts (the ones inspired by Nancy Drew) have vanished. But in that class at UVA I started a story I called Death Comes Knocking. When I submitted it, I received a lot of helpful feedback from the teachers and students. Here it is (I haven’t changed a word. Honest!):

Deanna unlocked the door of the motel room, flipping the light switch as she entered. She threw her purse down on the chair, sat on the edge of the lumpy bed, stood up, started pacing. Waiting. Clearly agitated. She no longer noticed the holes in the carpet, the cigarette burns on the formica nightstands as well as on the foam-filled vinyl chair cushions, or the steady drip of the shower.

She had been meeting her lover in the sleazy rooms of Marty’s Hideaway many times over the past year, but this time was different. This time they would talk about the future of their relationship, if indeed there was one.

The last time they met, Deanna had hit him with the news that she was pregnant. He didn’t have much to say, in fact he had lapsed into silence for an hour, a silence she wasn’t able to break. Then he said he needed time to think, that he would call her. He was distant.

He didn’t call for several days. Deanna was sure he was going to bolt, that this was the end for them. After a period of fretting, obsessing, and barely functioning, she started to accept his desertion. But then he did call, said he wanted to see her, he’d done a lot of reflecting, “agonizing” was how he put it, about their situation. He had seemed rather excited on the phone, not like his usual subdued self. They arranged a time to meet at “their” place.

So here she was, at Marty’s Hideaway, waiting for him, for his decision. She vaguely resented that he controlled the relationship, but didn’t feel up to addressing that issue now. She knew she couldn’t express her needs, like marriage, family, living happily ever after, etc. she paced some more, drank water from a plastic cup, felt almost desperate enough to peruse the inevitable Gideon bible, a blasphemous joke in this place where the clientele paid by the hour.

She jumped when she heard the knock. As she ran to open the door, she put on a big smile, and tried to pretend that she wasn’t nervous. She was greeted by an enormous bouquet of red roses, so enormous that it totally obscured the face of its presenter. What a nice surprise!—he wasn’t given to relationship niceties like flowers, and this arrangement must have cost him a fortune. So maybe he had decided to take the plunge, and make a commitment to her after all—maybe things were looking up.

Then the bouquet fell to the floor, the beautiful floral arrangement strewn over the ugly, threadbare carpet. Deanna bent down to pick them up, but stopped, startled, uncomprehending at what she saw before her. And she would never be able to reveal what she did see in that moment just before her world went black.

I wish I still had the critique comments from the teachers and the students. It’s not great writing, but, after all, it’s a first effort. I’ve toyed with the idea of doing something with it, perhaps a short story.

It was many years before I published any of my work, but to date my credits include three novels and numerous short stories.

The important lesson for me and one I will pass on to aspiring writers: look at the title and the first paragraph of this post where I told myself “I could do this.” Well, I am doing this. But it took that first effort.

Originally published as “How It All Started: My First Writing Effort” in the Novelspaces blog, June 22, 2018

Cats in Mysteries

by Maggie King

Want to make a good mystery even better? Add a cat.

Seriously.

Many mystery series feature feline companions. The most famous one is The Cat Who … series, created by the late Lilian Jackson Braun. The stories feature reporter Jim Qwilleran and his Siamese cats, Kao K’o-Kung (Koko for short) and Yum Yum. Koko has a “sixth sense” that gives him stellar powers of detection.

Shirley Rousseau Murphy also anthropomorphizes her feline detective, Joe Grey, P.I. I was on an Alaskan cruise a few years back and borrowed Cat Pay the Devil from the ship’s library. I had to return the book when the cruise ended but purchased a copy as soon as I got home. It’s a truly charming series.
Midnight Louie is the late Carole Nelson Douglas’s feline super sleuth. Rita Mae Brown’s Mrs. Murphy even speaks. I loved Jennifer J. Chow’s Sassy Cat Mystery Series, and was sad when she didn’t continue it.

Some cats leave the detecting to their human companions. Lydia Adamson, Susan Wittig Albert, Linda Palmer, Gillian Roberts, and Rosemary Stevens are just a few of the authors who feature cats as “window dressing.” Often literally, as cats like to perch on window ledges, watching the world go by.

Just as my Olive stole my heart, she also stole the heart of Hazel Rose, the title sleuth in my Hazel Rose Book Group series. Shammy, Daisy, and Morris, now enjoying eternity together across the rainbow bridge, live on in my series. They don’t detect (Olive hunts down mice and voles, but shies away from killers).

I haven’t forgotten our canine friends–Linda wouldn’t forgive me if i did! The Robbins Library in Arlington, Massachusetts features an impressive list of mysteries with pets, cats AND dogs.

The cats of my life. Top: Marie, Shammy, Daisy; Bottom: Olive, Morris

Originally published in 2018 on the now defunct Pets, Paws, and Claws blog.

Why I Love Book Events

By Maggie King

I love in-person book events. I love connecting with readers. I love signing my books and adding names to my mailing list. I love the benefits: new readers, learning of future book-related opportunities, networking with other authors (and we’re readers as well.)

“Hawking” my books at the Powhatan Library Authors Roundup

I learn much from the people I meet at these events. An author shared her enthusiasm for an AI tool she used to successfully create sales copy. A reader recommended Le Ventre de Paris by Emile Zola for its vivid descriptive passages of the tastes and smells of a central market in 19^th century Paris. The book made it to my TBR list and I hope to get to it this year. I like hearing what readers like to read, and what they don’t.

Even if I don’t sell a lot of books on a given day, I still might make valuable connections. And word of mouth is definitely at work: one person tells someone about me and my books, that someone tells yet another someone, and so on.

Many festivals include author talks and panel discussions (perhaps a topic for another post), readings (can be tiresome for the audience), and, of course, book signings.

Attending an in-person author event lets me meet writers and readers I’ve only met online. I no longer travel, so my options for events are limited to ones that are local or a short drive from my home. Fortunately, bookish gatherings abound in Virginia, home to many authors. In 2025, I participated in five book events. I have four scheduled for this year and expect to add a few. My favorites are the Chesterfield County Local Author Book Fair, the Hanover Book Festival, and the Powhatan Library Authors Roundup.

Tell us about your experiences with book events, whether as an author or reader.

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!

The Business of Busyness

Most of us might name December as the busiest time of year. For me, it’s November, and this year the month is especially chock full of activity. My November actually kicked off on October 20, the first day of Early Voting in Virginia. I worked at an EV site for four ten-hour days, helping voters navigate the democratic process. Last year, I worked at the polls on Election Day itself, an experience I described in this post.

The November Marathon, a Sisters in Crime initiative, helps writers build a daily or monthly writing habit over the course of thirty days. The marathon replaces NaNoWriMo, which SinC sponsored for many years. I serve on SinC’s Social Media Team as manager for the LinkedIN account and post daily in November about the marathon as well as about other events to promote the organization.

As for writing, I’m working on a short story that’s due in early January. That’s coming right up! I have three signing events this month: the Hanover Book Expo happened on November 8; the Local Author Book Fair, put on by the Chesterfield County Library, is scheduled for November 15; and on November 22, members of the Sisters in Crime Central Virginia chapter will meet at Book People, a local Richmond bookstore. I’m looking forward to discussing our recently-published anthology, Crime in the Old Dominion. I love being around readers and writers—we learn so much from each other.

In early November, I enjoyed a Jim Brickman concert and a tour of the Hollywood Cemetery. As a side note, President James Monroe is buried there. On October 23 (just nine days before my tour) his daughter, Eliza Monroe Hay, was reinterred with her family at Hollywood Cemetery after nearly two centuries in an unmarked grave in France.

This is all in addition to the normal busyness of my everyday life: the gym, grocery shopping, walks to admire the fall colors, get-togethers with friends and family, medical appointments. Thanksgiving looms, of course. And we all know how life has a way of “altering” our plans.

It’s all material for our writing.

In contrast, December is relatively quiet in my world. Key word is relatively. I get to enjoy the holiday season with a modicum of fuss and bustle. We’ll see if that holds true this year.

How about you? Is there a particular time of year that’s busiest for you?

Free Write Your Way Out of Writer’s Block

By Maggie King

Writer’s block. Many writers suffer from this condition. I used to scoff at the very idea of writer’s block, regarding it as another way for writers to procrastinate. But the creative slowdown I’ve experienced for several months has humbled me.

I’m not blocked for ideas, I have them by the dozen. The problem lies in creating a story, one people would actually want to read. My writing skills have gone on hiatus.

My solution: free writing. According to Matt Ellis in his post in Grammarly.com, “How Freewriting Can Boost Your Creativity,” freewriting is a technique in which the author writes their thoughts quickly and continuously, without worrying about form, style, or even grammar.

Mr. Ellis extols the benefits of this practice: “The benefits of free writing revolve around organization, brainstorming, and inspiration, as well as beating writer’s block and relieving certain anxieties. Just getting anything written, even if it is imperfect, can jump-start creativity.”

Author Natalie Goldberg also encourages free writing, or “first thoughts” in her parlance. In this excerpt from her classic Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within she explains how to write first thoughts (#6 is a tough one!):

Keep your hand moving. Don’t pause to read what you’ve just written.
That’s stalling and trying to get control of what you’re saying.
Don’t cross out. That is editing as you write. Even if you write something
you didn’t mean to write, leave it.
Don’t worry about spelling, punctuation, grammar. Don’t even care about
staying in the margins and lines on the page.
Lose control.
Don’t think. Don’t get logical.
Go for the jugular. If something comes up in your writing that is scary or
naked, dive right into it. It probably has lots of energy.

Sometimes I write from a prompt (maybe not technically free writing, but who’s nitpicking?); at other times I simply write whatever comes forth. I set a timer on my smart watch for thirty minutes and go, without stopping. At first I went for ten minute sprints, but soon found that half an hour worked best. My thoughts and words flow. When the timer goes off, I pause, then go for another thirty minutes. At that point my hand needs a rest!

My free writing is turning into a memoir. Nothing organized or even chronological—whatever occurs to me ends up on the page. What occurs are often experiences from my past: family, people I’ve known, jobs held, schools attended, challenges faced. I’ve devoted pages and pages to my summers spent with relatives in a rural part of upstate New York.

It’s been an enlightening process, especially as I discover how my perspectives have changed over the years. Frankly, there are memories I’d like to keep buried, but I’ve found it liberating to get them down on paper (See #6 of Natalie Goldberg’s list above).

Since I started this process in July, I now look forward to writing each day. I can’t yet report much creative writing activity, but last week I was invited to submit a short story to an anthology. I have a great idea for a story (remember, I have no dearth of ideas) and now feel up to the challenge of actually writing it.

And now, please excuse me … it’s time to free write!

Handmade Software, Inc. Image Alchemy v1.14

A Writer Wastes Nothing

by Maggie King

“A writer wastes nothing.” This saying is attributed to F. Scott Fitzgerald. The renowned writer mined his college years to create his debut novel, the autobiographical This Side of Paradise.

I recently attended an outdoor event in a local park and feel inspired to write about it—in fiction form.

The crowd at this event was large, the air heavy with humidity. Virginia is a steamy place in the summer! I drank little water as I was unsure if facilities were available or even nearby (they weren’t). After standing for over an hour, the crowd started to leave—slowly.

A feeling of lightheadedness came over me and my vision blurred. To say I was frightened was an understatement. I was with friends and the crowd was friendly, so I wasn’t in danger. But the feeling of losing consciousness is scary and uncomfortable under any circumstances.

One of my friends let me lean on her until we came to a tree where I sank to the ground and sat back. People gave me bottles of cold water to drink and press against my wrists. I ate one of my melted protein bars. In no time I felt revived, grateful that I hadn’t passed out. A couple of EMTs showed up and took my vitals (they pronounced them fine!). I opted not to go to the hospital. Dehydration was named the culprit.

One of my friends left to get the car. The EMTs parted the crowd for me, and one of them stayed with me until the car arrived. While we waited, she asked what I did for work.

“I’m a writer, and I’m already planning to use this experience in a story.”

After all, a writer wastes nothing.

As I know how frightening it is to feel on the verge of losing consciousness, I can bring a visceral feeling to the story. My imagination will ratchet up the danger, raise the stakes. Possibly elements of a Hitchcock film I’ve seen is inspiring me as well.

My preliminary idea is based on a series of what ifs:

What if this is a hostile crowd, in addition being a slow moving one?

What if my character, a woman, is alone?

What if the heat and humidity make her feel lightheaded and make her vision blur?

What if she is carrying a quantity of cash and/or jewels that she’s stolen?

What if she is being pursued–by law enforcement? Another criminal? Both?

She must stay conscious and she must evade her pursuer.

Yikes!

A writer wastes nothing.

Has a personal experience ever led you to write about it, especially in fiction form? Tell us about it.

Get Those Details Right!

By Maggie King

Recently Linda Johnston posted about where writers set their stories. I commented that the next day I planned to visit Charlottesville, Virginia for a research trip. I had finished the first draft of a short story set there, and needed to verify setting details.

I live in Richmond, but lived in Charlottesville for many years, and visit occasionally. It’s a cool place to spend a day. Lots of bookstores! So I have a fair picture of the place. But how accurate was my memory? And Charlottesville is a growing, dynamic city—what had recently changed and what hadn’t?

Here are the setting details in my first draft:
The story opens at the Jefferson Madison Regional Library in the downtown area of Charlottesville. As my main character stands on the steps under a columned portico, she turns and sees the Market Street Park, scene of 2017’s Unite the Right rally. I provide some information on that rally, formed to protest the proposed removal of the Robert E. Lee statue.

Once inside the library, the character takes a wide staircase to the lower level and locates a meeting room where a writing group is meeting.

After the meeting, she and a woman she just met leave and walk to Charlottesville’s Historic Downtown Mall. As they approach the Mud House, a trendy coffee shop, they decide it would be a good place to chat.

Later they drive to a semi-country location, the scene of the crime they cooked up while drinking expensive lattes at the Mud House.

Based on my research, some rewriting is in order.

The character standing on the steps gazing at Market Street Park: she could only see a sliver of the park from where she stood. I could have her walk through the park and see the patch of dirt left behind when the Lee statue was removed in 2021. But neither the park nor the statue are important to the story, they only serve to add color to the setting. To use film parlance, this bit is destined for the “cutting room floor.”

The library interior: for all the times I visited this library, apparently I was never in a meeting room. They are located on the top floor, not the bottom, requiring the character to take the elevator (I didn’t check out stairway access). The rooms were in use, but I got a peek of the interiors through the glass doors. As the library is a real place in my story, being accurate with descriptions is important.

The Mud House. It’s a very attractive space with a nice, and pricey, selection of coffee and pastries. But it’s been completely redesigned and not conducive to private conversation. And the conversation my characters have needs to be private. But I can fictionalize a coffee spot, so no problem there.

Then there was the trip to the semi-country, where I once lived. The route, which must be accurate, was pretty much unchanged. I drove past the Earlysville Oak, estimated to be 250 to 300 years old.

My old neighborhood was also unchanged—except for the owners of my previous home not keeping up the grounds. But I digress. I’ll make up the neighborhood based on this one. After all, it’s where the crime takes place, and I don’t want to rile my former neighbors!

I’m grateful I took this trip. It pays to verify aspects of the setting, especially if using real locations. I also took lots of photos, noted sights, sounds, and traffic patterns (lots of traffic!) and made time for those bookstores.

See Linda’s post, “LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION!”