By Lisa Black Truth is often stranger than fiction, but sometimes fiction is truth—whether it means to be or not. Any cozy mystery worth its salt has a small town, a bickering couple, eccentric characters, and a great climate. A murder in 2013 checked all these boxes and more, but to the...
BRINGING A CHARACTER TO LIFE
By Alex Kava In honor of National Dog Month, I want to share how one of my characters—a favorite of readers as well as my own—came to life. Grace is a scrappy, sixteen-pound Jack Russell terrier. In my Ryder Creed series, Creed is a former Marine K9 handler who now owns a training facility...
WILLIAM MAZ GOES ROGUE
Romance in Spy Thrillers KJ Howe:Romance and spies, two elements that intersect and create such a dramatic tour de force in suspense. But how do you find the right balance? Ask William Maz, author of The Bucharest Legacy. By William Maz It is no news to readers of spy thrillers, or viewers of...
NOVEMBER ROUNDUP
What we Rogues talked about, researched, and revealed in November… We began November with a rogue Rogue: Chris Goff. After seeing Antarctica in 2019, Chris and her husband scheduled two trips in the following years, one of which was to the Arctic. Each were postponed. After being pent up for two...
MAY ROGUE ROUNDUP
What we Rogues talked about, researched, and revealed in May… May began with a flash—a Rogue Flash, that is. On the second of the month, we announced the winners of the April Rogue Reads Giveaway: Judith from Nebraska and Cindy Bower of Ohio won Fallen Creed and Death of the Black Widow,...
Happily Never After: Q&A with Hannah Mary McKinnon
by Jenny Milchman As a writer, I find it particularly brave when a book doesn't end on a note of justice, when things don't turn out hunky-dory in the end. (Anyone else still worried about that baby in Gone Girl, now a tween and up to who-knows-what?) After all, this is more realistic,...
DO NOVELISTS PREDICT THE FUTURE?
by Karna Small Bodman Many authors say they get ideas “ripped from the headlines” and then do a “what if” to craft a tale. But what if, instead of following headlines, the author actually predicts them? Have you ever read a novel and later discovered that an event, historical reference, attack —...
MY OLD FRIEND, HARRIET THE SPY
by Tracy Clark Recently, I was moving an overstuffed bookcase from one side of my den to the other to make room for a new recumbent bike that I had convinced myself at time of purchase that I would use a lot, and not just as a hook for my jackets, which the elliptical machine next to it had...
ASK THE ROGUES: You’re stuck? Oh, no! Where’s a writer to go?
Where ideas mysteriously appear for eight Rogues.... Gayle Lynds: Some writers march into their kitchen to eat. A lot. Others go outdoors to garden or sit in a favorite lawn chair, morosely swigging Johnny Walker. And then there are those who take showers. Lots of showers. Do showers wash away bad...
SAMANTHA BAILEY GOES ROGUE
K. J. Howe: Canadian superstar Samantha Bailey believes that it takes a village to write a book. In what could be a lonely profession, she instead creates lifelong friendships. Welcome to the Rogues, Samantha! RIDE OR DIE WRITER FRIENDS by Samantha Bailey If you’d told me when I was a teenager,...