Truth vs. Reality?

In her essay in yesterday's New York Times Book Review, Karen E. Bender talks about how writers transform the messy chaos of life into story. As I read the essay, I thought about a short story I wrote—“The Lie,” published in the first Murder New York Style—that introduced me to the pleasure and pain of time travel, and the odd power we acquire when we reshape the past.

Read more and join the conversation at Women of Mystery today.

Hard Questions, No Answers.

.
The Newtown massacre; Malala Yousufzai, shot in the head by the Taliban for advocating education for girls; the death of the young Indian woman gang raped and beaten on a bus in New Delhi.

The news, which has become unbearable, forces me to consider the following question: Do we, as writers of crime fiction, reflect the violence in the world community, or do we contribute to it? You're welcome to join the conversation at Women of Mystery today.