Author of the Kate Hamilton Mystery Series

What I Love About Writing Fiction, Part I: Creating a World

April 20, 2020 Connie Berry Fiction, Setting, Writing

Novelist Alice Hoffman said once, “Place matters to me. Invented place matters more.” Creating a world is one of the joys of writing fiction.

Save the Old Ladies

March 6, 2020 Connie Berry Fiction, Photographs

No, not those old ladies…as far as I know we’re fine. What I’m talking about are the lovely old houses of the past–especially the “grand old ladies” of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

I've been thinking lately about what I need to write. I need my computer, obviously. If I had to write everything out longhand, I'd never have finished my first manuscript. Then there are my books. Is that all I need? Not quite.

All I Need

March 5, 2020 Connie Berry Fiction, Writing

One of my husband’s favorite scenes in Steve Martin’s movie The Jerk takes place in the office of an extravagant[…]

Do You Really Want To Know?

March 4, 2020 Connie Berry Photographs, Writing

Research. Sometimes you learn things you don’t want to know.

Tell It Like It Is

March 3, 2020 Connie Berry Fiction, Writing

Who remembers Aaron Neville’s song “Tell It Like It Is?” Most of us can probably sing it–at least the first line.

Am I In Your Book?

March 2, 2020 Connie Berry Fiction, Writing

One of the questions mystery writers are frequently asked by friends and relatives is, “Am I in your book?” Our answer is usually something like “No, but if you make me mad, I might kill you off!” A more truthful answer would be “You are–or at least a part of you is.”

An Interview with Carol Pouliot

January 17, 2020 Connie Berry Fiction, Writing

Is Time strictly linear, or can it be bent or twisted? The answer is well beyond my mental capacities, but the idea of time travel has always fascinated me. Today I have the distinct pleasure of interviewing Carol Pouliot, author of the Blackwell & Watson Time-Travel Mysteries featuring 1930s Detective Sergeant Steven Blackwell and present-day journalist and researcher Olivia Watson. Steven and Olivia share the same house in a small New York town—eighty years apart!

What’s Your Passion?

January 16, 2020 Connie Berry Photographs

People love hobbies. Some can be pretty bizarre—clipping and dying dogs to look like wild animals; collecting back scratchers or Ronald McDonald memorabilia; extreme ironing (I’m not making this up); doing cow impressions; playing dead.

My Top Ten Favorite Books of 2019

January 15, 2020 Connie Berry Fiction

For those who read, write, and love crime fiction, one of the best traditions of any new year is the listing of favorite books published by critics, reviewers, and bloggers on social media. This year I was honored to find both my novels (A Dream of Death and A Legacy of Murder) on several lists. Thank you!

I’ve decided to join the party (albeit a bit late) and nominate my top ten favorite books of 2019. As a self-confessed Anglophile, I make no apologies for the fact that all but one take place in England. Here they are in alphabetical order…

The Cemetery of Lost Words

January 14, 2020 Connie Berry Uncategorized, Writing

My favorite line in J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan describes Captain Hook: “The man is not wholly evil—he has a thesaurus in his cabin.” I love that. Words are important. They convey meaning and create an intellectual and emotional response. Since we know words can hurt or heal, we should be certain ours are understood.

Some words are imprecise, flabby, and liable to misinterpretation. Other words nail the intended thought with such clarity and precision that the mind of the hearer or reader is enlightened and enlarged. I admire people—even Captain Hooks—who know interesting and beautiful words and use them with skill and artistry. That’s the job of the writer, after all.