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.