AND THEN THERE WERE TWO: SHADOWS OF FRENCHMEN by Michael Rigg

 

It’s been quite a year.

My debut novel, Voices of the Elysian Fields, released in May 2025. I participated in new author programs at Malice Domestic, Thriller Fest, Killer Nashville, and Bouchercon 2025. And the novel received nominations for an Agatha at Malice Domestic 2026 and an Anthony at Bouchercon 2026.

Wow—and Whew! Time to take a breath? Not a chance.

Cinco de Mayo is my new favorite holiday. Shadows of Frenchmen, my second novel, released as an eBook on May 5^th (2026) and in paperback about two weeks later. Both versions are available on Amazon.com (Shadows of Frenchmen: A Jonathan Gray, M.D. Mystery: Rigg, Michael: 9798898202354: Amazon.com: Books) and other online retailers. Here’s a synopsis:

On a frosty Sunday morning in February, Dr. Jonathan Gray, Coroner of Orleans Parish, faces a gruesome sight. A dead man splayed against the circular steel and cut-glass blocks of the city's AIDS memorial in Washington Square Park has strange symbols carved into his forehead and chest. A coded note-a cipher-has been placed under one hand. The body mutilation and note are hallmarks of a serial killer dubbed by the news media as the "Mardi Gras Sweeper," because he strikes during Carnival season and leaves coded manifestos taunting police and giving hints about his next victim.

Hoping to avoid a panic during the city's most profitable season, Mayor Max Jamerson asks Gray to investigate the murder "on the sly," without formal assistance from the New Orleans Police Department. Time is of the essence as Gray races to figure out the cipher and track down the Sweeper in order to prevent additional killings-and save Mardi Gras.

Here are a few snippets from endorsements for Shadows of Frenchmen:

“…A chilling, razor-sharp mystery set against the explosive energy of Mardi Gras…  Dr. Jonathan Gray is a hero you won’t forget—and the Mardi Gras Sweeper is a nightmare you won’t escape.”

—Kathleen Antrim, Bestselling Author, President-Outliers Writing University 

“Michael Rigg does it again, with another thrilling mystery that you won’t be able to put down … Shadows of Frenchmen takes readers into the darkest corners of New Orleans’ lush settings and spooky cemeteries as Gray and his colleagues hunt for a possible serial killer, all against the backdrop of raucous Mardi Gras celebrations…”  

—Ellen Byron, USA Today Bestselling & Agatha Award Winning Author

“… Dr. Jonathan Gray is the new Kay Scarpetta…”  

—John DeDakis, Former CNN editor, writing coach, and author of the Lark Chadwick mystery-suspense-thriller series, at johndedakis.com.

 “Great action from the get-go! Atmosphere, characters, and all the right ingredients. A great read by Michael Rigg!”

—Heather Graham, New York Times Bestselling Author

“Featuring smart and complex characters, Shadows of Frenchmen pulses with energy, taking the reader on a breathless chase for a serial killer terrorizing the city in the days leading up to a city-wide Mardi Gras celebration...”  

—K.L. Murphy, Author of the Detective Callie Forde Mysteries, The Great Forgotten, and the award-nominated Her Sister's Death

“…Shadows of Frenchmen has it all—taunting coded notes from a serial killer, seemingly resurrected from the dead, bodies with mysterious carvings stacking up all over New Orleans, and a race-against-time urgency as pulse-pounding as an episode of 24...”  

—Christi Keating Sumich, author of the Old New Orleans Bookshop Mysteries

“…A propulsive thriller set against the backdrop of Mardi Gras season, Shadows of Frenchmen takes the reader on an unrelentingly tense exploration of the sinister underbelly of the Crescent City’s carefree façade...”

—Norman Woolworth, Author of The Lafitte Affair and The Bolden Cylinder, Books 1 and 2 in the Bruneau Abellard Novel series

And you can check out the book trailer at: SHADOWS OF FRENCHMEN | Book Trailer | New Orleans Mardi Gras Mystery.

Please spread the news about Shadows of Frenchmen far and wide. Check out the book trailer and, if you like the description, download an eBook or purchase the paperback today. I hope I’ll earn a five-star review!

PROMPTS TO INSPIRE YOU, PART SIX, by Max Jason Peterson

Among many favorite memories of my father, one is the writing sessions we had together. These were quiet, companionable times when we’d both sit with paper and pen or pencil (Dad often wrote with a red mechanical pencil I gave him as a child; I knew how important writing was to Dad, and I already wanted to be a writer myself). Sometimes we chose comfortable folding chairs in the back yard on a sunny morning. Others we might sit at the kitchen table with coffee, and maybe music, especially jazz; or at Grandma’s picnic table in the downstairs patio when we visited Colorado. Our shared love of writing meant that even if we didn’t sit in the same room, knowing the other one was writing inspired us. Many times on our family lake reunions (back to my childhood home in upstate New York) Dad might sit sequestered on the sunporch, while I sat outside on the hill: both of us gazing at the lake, writing, feeling the inspiration flow.

Max and Rocco

So perhaps there’s a reason I love Sisters in Crime’s ongoing Zoom write ins (worth the price of membership alone: generally around 13 or so available per week, except during January and November, when there are at least five write ins every day). Or prompt-based inspiration sessions, like the ones hosted by Keuka Writes (the writing group affiliated with my childhood home, and the literary journal of the Finger Lakes, Bluff & Vine, where I’m proud to say both Dad’s and my works have appeared). Or hosting such inspiration sessions myself, for Max’s Writers Café (free, ages 18+, online via Zoom, hosted by Hampton Public Library: I lead five or six sessions each fall and spring, which require individual registration via Eventbrite; here’s the overall collection where you can find all events).

The purpose of my inspiration sessions is simply to help fellow creatives get started on something new. It can be refreshing to let yourself dream up something unexpected from a prompt; and something about writing with a time limit, especially in the company of others, with an idea you didn’t expect, can help overcome that “stuck” feeling. So I wrote these with the intention of inspiring some new rough drafts. Don’t expect them to be perfect!

For each numbered concept below: read the prompt first, then set a timer for ten minutes and start writing. Stop when the timer ends. Though you’re writing on your own, obeying the timer should still help train your brain to take the prompt seriously and get down to business. (For me, this can help circumvent how daunting it can be to get started.) You might be surprised by how much comes to you that you didn’t expect! And I hope that some of these rough drafts will intrigue you enough to polish and/or continue them later.

Ready? Begin.

Stress and Gratitude: Think about a situation that your character finds so stressful or painful that it is causing them deep anguish or worry. Imagine a moment in which gratitude for anything or anyone in their life brings them peace or an ability to carry on (including experiencing a moment of beauty, or a phone call from a loved one). How do they get to this place of appreciation or gratitude? How does it change things for them, even if just internally? Alternative: Explore the point of view of a character such as a supervillain who might feel gratitude for things that cause stress to others.

Long or Sleepless Nights: Long nights might be good or bad, maybe even both. Does your character enjoy sleeping a lot, or do they stay up late or lose sleep at night? Is it a choice they make, something they enjoy, or feel some drive to do? Or do they feel they have no choice but to stay up, or maybe have insomnia, can’t stop worrying, or fear what will happen when they close their eyes? How do they feel about fall and winter’s longer nights? Alternative: Delve into your character’s dark night of the soul.

From Farm to City: Your character might be literally driving produce from the family farm to a city market, or metaphorically “fresh off the farm,” entering a new job or school, or a new city or home. Does this new environment feel overwhelming, or simply different? Have they always “longed for the city,” or do they have regrets in “leaving the farm behind”? What brings them joy or heartache about their circumstances? Alternative: Wax poetic about farm life, gardening, or working the earth; or celebrate city life or community events (including those on a farm).

Seeing beyond the Ordinary. Imagine a person who works in any of the arts or sciences. Write about someone real or imaginary who invents technology or creates/participates in art (of any form). Your character might live in any time, past, present, or future; they might live by their imagination, live in a world of dreams, or experience visions in a spiritual, chemical, or science fiction/fantasy context. What goes into making things that touch other hearts or change lives (for good or ill)? What are the costs of this creative or dedicated life? Alternative: Imagine what your own ideal creative life might look like, and what steps you might take to get there.

If you’d like more prompts, here are some earlier installments in this series:

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Part Five

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Max Gardner (he/they) is a fiction writer & award-winning poet published under a variety of bylines, including Max Jason Peterson and Adele Gardner. A poetry collection, Halloween Hearts, is available from Jackanapes Press, while over 500 stories, poems, art, and articles appear in Analog, Clarkesworld, Strange Horizons, PodCastle, Daily Science Fiction, and more. Gardner serves as literary executor for father and mentor Delbert R. Gardner; Muse Mansion, a collection of poems by both father and firstborn, will be released soon by San Francisco Bay Press. 

MEMOIR WRITING by Judy Fowler

With the rollback of the Voting Rights Act this month and a wave of restrictive policies targeting certain American voters, I recalled a lesson from a Wesleyan professor on how to write an effective piece of memoir.

Two of the professor’s tips helped our submissions hit harder, especially when no personal expertise or famous name provided a rationale for reading us or giving us a million likes. The suggestions? Have the other characters speak, at least once—their lines of dialogue can be proximate and not word-for-word exact. Secondly, blend into the writing some public event—something that had made the papers around the time of the memoir’s setting—to ground the reader in history, especially if the memoirist themself is not a well-known personality.

Here’s my example:

I was three years old when, on May 17, 1954, Brown v. Board of Education made integrated education in America the law of the land.

Some states did their best to pretend they hadn’t heard the news.

I lived in a Long Island community whose school board was paid to set up one model integrated classroom a few years later. By random assignment, I began first grade in that classroom. Looking back now, I see why our class met in a classroom at a Jewish temple far from the comprehensive elementary school in town. Although the synagogue was elegantly nestled into some tree-filled acreage, the temple was also located near a series of dilapidated streets in the downtown area.

During class hours, we learned what every first grader did. We went outdoors for recess, where I read books on the sidewalk while more active girls jumped rope. We pledged allegiance to the flag, practiced the box step in pairs, and helped each other learn math. 

By 1959, American class photos were taken in color. When I brought mine home, my older brother—himself the product of white-only classrooms for nine years longer than I’d been alive—mocked me for “being in love with” the black boy who had been posed by height next to me. To be accused of being in love was the insult I took away; it was years later that I understood that the well-dressed, smiling second grader named Sammy who stood next to me was, to my brother, the joke.

In third grade, my classmates and I were folded back into the elementary school. Right away, we experienced a change. All white boys, even the ones we’d had to help over and over again to multiply or to sound out words, got assigned seats in the front four rows of class. Behind them were the white girls. Our black classmates were assigned to seats in the last row. On the playground, the black girls’ Double Dutch tournaments were gradually elbowed over to the far end of the field, until they went on as if held in a foreign country. Close to the school were the cemented-in equipment and the running games organized by white kids. We waved to former classmates as we passed each other in the hall, until our assimilation into the new place was completed. A day came when I was standing at the far end of the playground, saying goodbye to a new (white) friend who had to go home early. 

A former classmate called out to me from the sandy field to ask if I’d turn ropes for her jumping game, as they were down one turner. I did an adequate job until it was my turn to jump. Again, I was more of a reader than a jumper.

“Just jump in,” my old classmate encouraged, but I hesitated, and when the ropes stopped turning abruptly, my hesitant entry resulted in me crying on the ground. I’d broken my arm.

I cried. My old classmate came rushing to me and cried with me. It felt good that she’d come to my side.

Hearing that someone was hurt, the teacher assigned to monitor the playground that day rushed towards us.

“What did you do?” she shouted at my old classmate. That teacher, all sympathy toward me, helped me stand and then circled my waist with her arm as she led me to the nurse’s office.  

My old classmate and I only had time to look at each other briefly before the teacher escorted me away. In that look, we admitted to each other that our new teachers had little we wanted to learn from them.

As the anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education comes around this May, I share this bit of history, especially with those kids who started school when I did, when integrated education lit the way to an America that has turned back to something as disappointing and confusing as my brother’s jarring reaction to that class photo. We went to the Moon more easily than we repaired inequality. And now we’ve gone again toward the Moon, without once shaking our fists at the rocket ship, and shouting, “What have you done to us?”

 

  

 

A TRIBUTE TO MOTHERS By Sheryl Jordan

 

On Mother’s Day, we pause to honor the women whose love has shaped our lives—mothers, grandmothers, stepmothers, adoptive mothers, and every mother-figure who has cared, guided, and stood strong.

A mother’s love is often quiet and constant—heard in the early-morning check-ins, felt in the extra plate of food, and seen in the way she shows up again and again, even when she is tired. It is the kind of love that makes a house feel like home and a hard day feel survivable.

Mothers teach us long before we understand the lesson: how to be brave without being loud, how to care without keeping score, how to keep going when life demands more than we thought we had. Their sacrifices don’t always look like grand gestures; more often, they look like patience, persistence, prayer, and the steady work of loving a family well.

Mother's Day, we say thank you—for the hugs that healed, the words that guided, the boundaries that protected, and the hope that never let go. Thank you for the strength you carried, the kindness you modeled, and the love you gave in a thousand ordinary moments that turned out to be extraordinary.

To every mother: may you feel celebrated, valued, and deeply loved today—and may the care you’ve poured into others return to you in peace, joy, and gratitude. Happy Mother’s Day.

Jeff Tanner Interview by Teresa Inge

Meet Jeff Tanner, whose novel The King's Collar will be released by Koehler Books on June 30, 2026.

Jeff holds a PhD in marketing and published fifteen books on sales and marketing, including two bestselling textbooks. He spent his career in higher education, retiring as dean of the Strome College of Business at Old Dominion University. You may recall his daily business program on NPR.

In addition, he has published short stories in several anthologies and written/produced multiple plays. He, his wife, and a four‑pound Maltese named Boo divide their time between grandkids in three states and Virginia’s Eastern Shore. They add a bit of excitement by owning and racing thoroughbreds.

He is a member of Sisters in Crime and its Southeastern Virginia Chapter, Mystery by the Sea.

Tell us about your new novel, The King’s Collar.

I wanted to write a mystery that was part Maltese Falcon, part Indiana Jones. I’ve been surprised at how many readers described The King’s Collar that way without any prompting.

Expelled at Harvard and disowned by his father, Charlie “Bones” Bohannon quickly falls to the underworld’s fringe. Befriended by former sailor Punchy, he begins buying and selling smuggled items. Charlie discovers a statuette in a speakeasy bar, similar to one stolen from his dean, who says return it and graduate. But it vanishes, and the man who took it is found murdered. The dean accuses Charlie, whose ironclad alibi doesn't deflect the pressure to find the statuette.

Through a series of misadventures, Charlie and Punchy become members of the Solomon mob. Solomon demands the missing statuette and its legendary counterpart, the jewel-encrusted King’s Collar. Charlie, Punchy, and bold Beacon Hill socialite Olivia search while dodging rivals for the Collar, one of whom gives Charlie a week or face death.

When Olivia and Punchy are kidnapped, and the Collar is the ransom, Charlie’s time is running out. But finding the Collar is no guarantee that he—or his friends—will survive.

What kind of research did you do for the book? Any strange or odd fact that you uncovered in your research?

Comprehensive! I relied on books, archival websites, and historians’ YouTube videos. I even followed Charlie’s walks through Boston to ensure that I reported the distance and time accurately.

Irish Catholics weren’t permitted in the elite Protestant men’s clubs, so in the book, they meet at the Parker House Hotel. I visited the hotel and learned that my choice was accurate. In fact, Joseph Kennedy proposed to Rose at Table 40, which you can now visit!

Where are your books available for purchase?

The King’s Collar is now available for pre-order on Amazon, and Bookshop.

What are you currently writing?

Dolls, book two in the series, publishes in December. Books three and four I intend to bring out in 2027. I’m currently working on book five.

Anything else you want readers to know about you?

Besides being an avid golfer and skier, I’m also a furniture-maker. I took up the saxophone after a very long hiatus, and I’m loving it!

Jeff Tanner https://www.authorjefftanner.com

WHO RODE WITH YOU, PAUL REVERE? by Yvonne Saxon

“Listen, my children, and you shall hear

Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,

On the eighteenth of April in Seventy-five,

Hardly a man is now alive

Who remembers that famous day and year.”  -from “Paul Revere’s Ride” 

 

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow-1860

THE 1950S KITCHEN: MODERN CONVENIENCE MEETS DOMESTIC IDEAL by Ellen Butler

Ariadne Winter is far too busy clawing her way up the journalism ladder to fuss over perfect meringues. Ambitious, driven, and unapologetically career-minded, she has little patience for the domestic ideals so carefully prescribed for women of the 1950s. Fortunately, she isn’t married—yet. In her world, middle-class wives are expected to surrender their professions for aprons and routines, trading ambition for spotless kitchens and well-fed husbands. Should Ariadne ever yield to the life her mother envisions, she might at least find some consolation in the gleaming promise of modern appliances—those marvels of convenience designed to make domesticity seem less like confinement and more like progress.

BIBLIOTHERAPY AND LOSS by Jeff Tanner, Guest Blogger

[I had another blog post ready to go, but recent events have pushed that aside.]

When I was young, I was the kid who checked out a stack of books from the library as big as I could carry. I read everything – from Encyclopedia Brown to classics like Twain and Dickens, then Agatha Christie to That Was Then, This is Now, Watership Down, and short stories like “Success” and “The Lottery.” I learned so much from books.

But not everything.

THE ART OF STORYTELLING: PART I: THE CONNECTION TO CHARACTER By Penny Hutson

Have you ever wondered what makes readers like some stories more than others or why some stories last for ages and others do not?

Just as Robert Ripley's famous series dares us to "Believe It or Not!" I assert that while all good stories contain many of the same elements, to create a riveting tale that readers can't put down, there is one simple yet powerful tool you can use to create such stories. 

Common Elements in a Good Story

First, and foremost, a story must entertain. I don’t mean it can’t be serious or important, nor am I suggesting stories should all be amusing or light-hearted; but a good story is engaging, interesting, or enjoyable to its audience. This may account for the popularity of the traveling troubadours and bards of the Middle Ages. They knew all the popular tales, as well as the noteworthy theses from the universities, the healing power of herbs and simple medicines, and the scandals of the royal court. Many also played one or more instruments and could compose poetry at a moment’s notice. Essentially, they knew what their audience wanted to hear, and they delivered it. 

VOICES OF THE ELYSIAN FIELDS: AGATHA FINALIST by Michael Rigg

Each year, attendees (authors and “fans” a/k/a readers) at the Malice Domestic conference in Bethesda, Maryland vote for nominees in six categories to receive an “Agatha.” According to the conference website:

The Agatha Awards celebrate the TRADITIONAL MYSTERY, best typified by the works of AGATHA CHRISTIE. The genre is loosely defined as mysteries that contain no explicit sex, excessive gore, or gratuitous violence, and would not be classified as "hard-boiled."

​The Agatha Award categories are:

• Best Contemporary Novel
• Best Historical Novel
• Best First Novel
• Best Nonfiction
• Best Short Story
• Best Children's/Young Adult Novel

(For more information about the Agatha Award process, see: Agatha Award Process | Malice Domestic Ltd.)

PROMPTS TO INSPIRE YOU, PART FIVE, by Max Jason Peterson

For our January meeting of Mystery by the Sea – The Southeastern Virginia Chapter of Sisters in Crime, I presented a session of prompts to inspire us all to create new material. I figured others might also enjoy this Micro Mysteries session of Max’s Writers Café. (This is an offshoot of the ongoing series I present for Hampton Public Library. Sessions are for ages 18+ and are free via Zoom, but registration is required for each individual session. I hold sessions each spring and fall; we have more coming up in April 2026).

STROLLING OR SCROLLING By Judy Fowler

It is the first week of March in Jacksonville, Florida, where my mission is underway to find out whether living half an hour from family — rather than ten hours away — enhances the quality of those relationships.

So far, the answer is complicated.

I’m thinking about the backstory to writer Phil Terrana’s essay, “Strolling or Scrolling.” A grandson’s visit brought Phil up close and personal with the kid’s fascination with his cell phone’s superpower. This pinpointed something my sisters and I have quietly stumbled into since I’ve lived a half hour from them. We’re rarely in proximity—without a pre-scheduled drive across a bridge through heavy traffic—at the exact moment when one of us has something to say. We scroll instead.

BLACK HISTORY MONTH by Sheryl Jordan

Origins

The observation of Black history was originally called “Negro History Week” in 1926. Carter G. Woodson, a historian of African American Life and History, established it. The week was chosen to coincide with Abraham Lincoln’s and Frederick Douglass’ birthdays, February 12^, 1809, and February 14, 1818. President Gerald Ford officially recognized February as Black History Month in 1976, and since then, it has been celebrated annually in the United States and Canada.

WHO PUT THE COZY IN MYSTERIES? BY: KIMBERLY R. THORN

Who Put the Cozy in Mysteries?                            By: Kimberly R. Thorn

Some people credit ‘Golden Age’ authors like Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers with writing some of the very first considered cozy mysteries.  Others credit the genre as being more of a modern return to stories like these Golden Age writers wrote.  Ones with the murder not being as deep, dark and bloodthirsty.  Where the writers present the mystery as more of a puzzle for the reader to solve in real time with the sleuth.

What Ingredients Are Needed for a Cozy?

~ Includes an amateur sleuth.  It helps is they at least are considered a suspect at least first, as the actual police or detective do not like our sleuth meddling in their work.

VALENTINES DAY IN VALENTINES, VIRGINIA by Teresa Inge

In the early days of my relationship with AJ—who would later become my husband—he made an annual trek to Valentines, Virginia to mail a Valentine’s Day card to me bearing the distinctive Valentines, Virginia postmark. Back then, I lived in North Carolina while he was in Virginia, making each card a cherished memory.  

Because Virginia is famously known for its “Virginia is for Lovers” slogan, nowhere does the spirit of Valentine’s Day shine brighter than in Valentines, Virginia. As February arrives, this charming small-town transforms into a celebration of romance with a scenic backdrop for the holiday. With its friendly atmosphere and unique traditions, Valentines welcomes both locals and visitors to join in the festivities. 

WHAT ORGANIZING TYPE ARE YOU? by Yvonne Saxon

Beware of online quizzes! There you are, minding your own business, staying out of the cold by surfing the Internet, and there it is in big bold letters “What type of organizer are you?” You’ve heard of personality types, but did you know you have a distinct organizing type? Well, of course you need to know what yours is, don’t you? You’re in luck—I took a deep dive into organizing types so you wouldn’t have to.

Now I thought I already knew mine, but I typed “How to find your organizing type” in the search box anyway. First, I found the quizzes. Numerous sites assured me that I could take their quiz and by understanding my own organizing style get my house in order and it could stay that way! I couldn’t wait, so I dove right in. 

1950s MARKETING CAMPAIGNS AND THE MYTH OF THE HAPPY HOUSEWIFE by Ellen Butler

Ariadne Winter is a career-driven journalist determined to claw her way up the newsroom ladder and land her dream job as an investigative reporter. Accidentally stumbling over a couple of dead bodies should fast-track that ambition—but until she’s granted access to the hard-news, male-dominated “boys’ club,” she’s stuck churning out fluff for Ladies’ Lifestyle Magazine.

During World War II, women proved they could excel at every level of the workforce, including jobs long reserved for men. When the war ended and soldiers returned home, that progress was swiftly reversed. Women were pushed out of their careers and urged to retreat into domesticity—to marry, have babies, and keep house. The glossy marketing campaigns of the 1950s reinforced this message with seductive precision, selling a narrowly defined vision of American happiness. At the heart of that vision stood women—particularly white, middle-class housewives—who were not only the target audience, but the product itself: living advertisements for an idealized domestic bliss.

What’s often overlooked is who was crafting these messages. The vast majority of 1950s advertising copy, strategy, and imagery was created by men. Madison Avenue was a male-dominated world, and its assumptions about women shaped every headline, illustration, and slogan. The result was marketing that didn’t merely reflect sexism—it actively reinforced it.

Writing for Women, Without Women

Advertising agencies of the era employed very few women in creative roles. Men wrote the copy, designed the campaigns, and decided what women wanted, needed, or feared. Housewives were treated less as complex individuals and more as a set of predictable anxieties: keeping husbands happy, maintaining social status, and avoiding domestic failure.

Campaigns routinely spoke to women while simultaneously talking down to them. Instructions were simplified to the point of condescension, and humor often hinged on the assumption that women were scatterbrained, overly emotional, or incapable of understanding technology without male guidance.

Ads for everything from vacuum cleaners to floor wax implied that women were solely responsible for household perfection—and that any flaw reflected a personal shortcoming.

The Language of Control

The underlying misogyny of 1950s marketing was often subtle, wrapped in cheerful illustrations and reassuring tones. Advertisements promised women that buying the right product would make them better wives, better mothers, and more desirable partners. Happiness was framed not as self-fulfillment, but as male approval.

Many ads leaned on thinly veiled threats: a dirty kitchen might drive your husband away, the wrong

coffee might embarrass you in front of guests, outdated appliances might mark you as lazy or incompetent. Even beauty and hygiene campaigns frequently suggested that a woman’s value was contingent on pleasing others—especially men.

In some of the most egregious examples, ads joked about disciplining wives, excused infidelity as a result of poor housekeeping, or portrayed women as childlike figures needing instruction. These weren’t fringe messages—they were mainstream, published in widely circulated magazines and displayed in everyday spaces.

Selling Stability Through Submission

The cultural context matters. After the upheaval of war, American society was eager to reestablish “normalcy.” Marketing played a critical role in pushing women out of wartime jobs and back into the home, reframing domestic labor as both a privilege and a patriotic duty.

Advertising didn’t just sell products; it sold compliance. The ideal woman was cheerful, attractive, efficient, and grateful—fulfilled by service and untroubled by ambition. Any dissatisfaction could be cured, the ads implied, with a new appliance, a better cleaner, or a more obedient smile.

Looking Back With Clearer Eyes

Today, 1950s marketing campaigns are often remembered nostalgically for their illustration style and clever taglines. But beneath the charm lies a system that normalized inequality and codified misogyny into consumer culture.

Examining these campaigns now isn’t about judging the past by modern standards—it’s about understanding how deeply advertising shapes social expectations. The messages written by men in the 1950s didn’t just sell soap and stoves; they sold a limited and damaging vision of womanhood whose effects lingered long after the ads were taken down.

The pastel colors may fade, but the lessons remain worth examining.

----------------

Ellen Butler writes the Ariadne Winter Mysteries. From celebrity weddings to Irish castles, danger follows stylish sleuth Ariadne Winter. In 1950s glamour and shadow, she uncovers secrets, scandals, and murder. Perfect for Agatha Christie fans, the Ariadne Winter Mystery Series blends sharp wit, atmospheric settings, and intrigue in unforgettable tales where every clue could be her last.  Find out more about the Ariadne Winter Series: https://amzn.to/4caggc1

USING GENEALOGY TO CREATE CHARACTERS - Part 1 By Guest Blogger Allie Marie

Hello, I’m Allie Marie and I’m new to the Sand in Our Shorts blog team. I look forward to adding my thoughts alongside other contributing members of Mystery by the Sea, my chapter of Sisters in Crime. I’d originally planned to write suspense and thrillers, but ancestry research led me toward a different kind of mystery than I’d intended. Most of my novels are historical mysteries with paranormal elements.

Before I begin, however, I have a few questions to ask. Do you write period pieces that require research for character development? Are you an avid genealogist wishing you could turn your family’s story into a book or a novel? Are you creating family sagas that cover generations of descendants but are not sure where to begin? 

I learned (the hard way) there’s an easier method to create fictional or historical characters and families than the way I started. Through a short series of blogs, I hope to offer some of the lessons I learned while writing my genre. 

Let me take you back to how it all started for me. From the age of 10, I was an avid reader of teen sleuth mysteries, with star detectives like Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden, the Hardy Boys, and more. It was then that I developed one of my two life dreams. The first was to become a flight attendant—but that’s a whole other life story to tell someday! The second was to become a mystery writer.

Over the years, I devoured more mysteries, graduating to the more famous literary like Sherlock Holmes, Miss Marple, and even a bit of Mickey Spillane and Sam Spade for a little while. Eventually, gothic mysteries with brooding family sagas heavily changed my reading preferences and future writing goals.

In spite of these early influences in my life, I never expected or planned to fight crime and solve mysteries as a real-life police officer myself. Oddly enough, it was my interest in aviation—that other life story I mentioned earlier—that guided me toward a career as a police officer. 

I served for more than twenty years in local law enforcement, and after retirement, participated in several international policing missions over the next fourteen years. Stories of my experiences and adventures literally filled notebooks and journals, promising to provide plenty of material for those suspense and crime novels I wanted to write.  

However, a different kind of investigation process took over my writing plans. I discovered colonial ancestors in my family tree. Not only did genealogy take me down the rabbit hole of family research, it also inspired the fictional characters of my True Colors Series. These historical mysteries include ghosts haunting the modern family, while flashbacks and time travelers take the reader back to the American Revolution—and forced me to create generations of families that impact each other and the entire storyline.

If only I’d known then what I know now! I might not have created a matriarch with a date of birth that would make her a thirteen-year-old mother when I added a new character to the mix. I would have had an easier time following my colonial family as they migrated from New England to Virginia. 

Through my next blogs, I hope to offer a series of posts that help a genealogist researcher who is considering writing their family’s history, whether as a fictionalized version of real life, a non-fiction book of family history, or a family memoir. This topic will also assist authors of historical fiction or period writing as well, to gather new ideas to reflect the past in a written format. Hope you’ll stay on the journey with me!

 

   

BEST WRITING ADVICE (PART FIVE) : OUTLINE IT ALREADY! by Penny Hutson

If you haven’t been able to finish your book by “pantsing” or what’s often called the discovery method, for God’s sake, outline it already!

I saved this topic for last because it was the single most important element that led to the completion of my first book length manuscript. I can’t overstate that. I spent decades trying unsuccessfully without one. Now, I even outline short stories and have two published in separate anthologies and two nonfiction pieces in a third anthology (links below). That can’t be a coincidence.

For an explanation of the difference between outlining (also call plotting,) and “pantsing,” read my article “To Plot or to Pants? That is the Question.” (click link below)

https://sandinourshorts.blogspot.com/2024/07/to-pants-or-to-plot-that-is-question.html

Benefits of Outlining

Outlining has amazing benefits, especially with longer works, but first, let’s recognize that outlining is also writing. It’s simply the writer telling the story only without the scene-by-scene details or specific conversations that make up each chapter. You’re still writing and creating sentences and paragraphs. Give up that it’s hard work, no fun, or limits your creativity. In fact, it can be more fun and freeing to outline because you know you’re only writing a short number of pages. It’s a lot easier to throw out or revise ten or twenty pages than 200 or more. It’s also easier to see major flaws in shorter pieces.

Many successful writers who’ve published books with and without outlines, profess that outlining dramatically reduced their amount of revision. Plus, if you know what’s going into each chapter ahead of time, you don’t have to write everything in order. You can write that juicy romance scene right now, if you’ve got ideas bubbling up for that.  

Once you have a viable story or the major points of each chapter written out in complete sentences (versus a general idea in your head), you can either start writing the book or add to the outline.

Ways to Expand Your Outline

After the initial five-to-ten-page outline of the entire book, some writers will then create a short (2-4 sentence) summary of each chapter with a list of its characters and the chapter’s purpose. Others go even further with one or two sentences about each scene or section within each chapter and it’s purpose. This may seem like a lot of extra or unnecessary work, but I promise it will pay off. It’s much easier to see any flaws in your storyline or book’s overall premise, but most writers admit it’s easier to create a scene or chapter when they know what’s supposed to happen or be discussed ahead of time.

Picking an Outlining Method

I used the Snowflake Outline Method and really liked it, but many other are available in books or online. Pick one and stick with it. Don’t fall into the trap of starting a new method every time you get stuck or think it’s not working for you. Keep going. If you haven’t completed a book without an outline, consider that any outline is better than none. There’s no one right method or only one that works for you. And, you can always try another method with the next book.

I hope you enjoyed the fifth and final installment in my Best Writing Advice series. If you have any comments, questions, or writing advice of your own, I’d love to hear from you.

My next blog (topic to be determined) will post here on “Sand in Our Shorts” March 28. See you then!

Penny Hutson also has two short mystery stories available in the following anthologies:

Costal Crimes 2 : Death Takes A Vacation 

Also available on Amazon and from Wildside Press 

Click here 

A Right Cozy Historical Crime (A Right Cozy Crime Series)

Available on Amazon in Kindle and paperback

Click here

 

HEADIN’ DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE – WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAPE By Michael Rigg

Lagerstroemia indica 
a/k/a crape myrtle

Even though fiction is all about using your imagination and making stuff up, writers still have to be accurate. Next time you write a novel or short story, have your protagonist hesitate long enough to release the safety on her Glock before shooting. You’ll hear about it from your readers. Believe you me, you’ll hear about it.

So, unless you’re already a subject-matter expert, in-depth research is an absolute must. This is true for even relatively unimportant and mundane details. But, be careful. Once you start down the research path on a particular issue, you might find yourself mired in “find-the-facts quicksand,” struggling to get back to writing.

My current work in progress, Shadows of Frenchmen, is set in New Orleans. One of the characters receives a text message asking her to come to a meeting at the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA). Here’s part of the lead-in to the meeting:

She inhaled deeply, then let her breath out slowly as she crossed the street, entered the museum grounds, and traveled along the sidewalk adjacent to Lelong Drive. Ahead stood the museum’s massive, fortress-like main building. In season, crepe myrtles lining each side of the drive showcased a beautiful, yet eerie, combination of green leaves, magenta blossoms, and silvery-gray Spanish moss dangling from the branches. On a chilly midwinter afternoon, the trees seemed bland, uninviting. And under the circumstances, foreboding. 

Nothing particularly worrisome. I’d visited NOMA. I rode the streetcar, exited at the end of the line near Bayou St. John, sauntered down Lelong Drive, and entered the museum. I took pictures of the trees lining the drive. Like I said, in-depth research. Quicksand avoided. Back on the “write” path.

 Ha.

One of my Beta Readers sent me a text with a link to a blog, “Crepe Myrtle or Crape Myrtle? The Real Story Behind the Name.”

Say what? CRAPE myrtle? My feet now mired in the fact-check bog, sinking ever so slowly, I dove down the rabbit hole.

Turns out that most “plant experts” (you know, botanists) say the proper English name for the Lagerstroemia indica is crape myrtle. Yet, there is a substantial portion of the reasonably intelligent populace (including folks at a garden nursery in suburban New Orleans and the people running the NOMA Facebook page) who say it’s CREPE. So, after repeated volleys listing this website and that article on both sides of the issue, what to do to get back on track?

Simple. Ask the ultimate Fact-Checker-in-Chief—my spouse. The answer? It’s CRAPE.

So now comes the next step. What will the Publisher say during the final editing process? Don’t worry. I’ve done the research. I have the source material. I’m ready for whatever crape they throw at me. Or is it whatever crepe they throw at me? Oh, crap.