Shelley Marsh writes contemporary fiction and mystery with lots of humor and a dash of romance. Her work is designed to entertain and transport readers to lush Florida settings. Shelley lives in coastal North Florida with her spouse and two sons. When she’s not snooping in other people’s houses at estate sales, she’s scavenging the…
Settings Inspo
I live in coastal North Florida, and when I want to boost the atmosphere in one of my scenes, I take a walk. While writing my novel set in a nature preserve threatened by big development, I often wrote outside or on location. I set up my laptop on a picnic table at the Guana…
The Critique Group: A Writer’s Best Friend
I’ve been meeting with a small group of writer friends for four years now. Actually, we refer to each other as “writer fam.” There are so many benefits to forming relationships with other writers, and the best (in my opinion) is the emotional support they can provide. Other writers understand the process of writing and…
Want to use song lyrics in your manuscript? Here’s a work-around.
Many aspiring writers want to know whether or not they can use song lyrics in their manuscripts. Why do so many writers want to include lyrics in their writing? I think it’s because using lyrics is like taking a shortcut. The song conveys a feeling the writer wishes to convey. They want readers to pick…
“Dying to Live Here” selected as finalist for the Claymore Award
My manuscript, “Dying to Live Here,” made the top twenty for the Claymore Award for the first fifty pages of an unpublished manuscript. Killer Nashville announced the top 20 finalists for the Claymore Award, a prize for emerging authors, on July 29, 2021. The winner of the Claymore Award is announced at the Killer Nashville…
The Challenges of Amateur Sleuths
Never Invite Jessica Fletcher to a Party Amateur sleuths are a core feature of cozy mysteries. This poses a huge hurdle for the writer (and the suspension of disbelief for a reader). Why the heck do all these average folks decide to solve a murder? Murder, She Wrote is the epitome of this. How many…
Review of Snowflake Pro for Novel Planning
Snowflake Pro is a writing tool that was created by Randy Ingermanson, author of How to Write a Novel Using the Snowflake Method. It is free to download with the purchase of his book. I’ve been using this tool for my latest project, and I like it so much I thought I’d take the time…
Pinning Down the Butterfly
In her essay titled “A Practical Memoir about Writing and Life,” Ann Patchett compares the creative process to pinning a butterfly specimen into a collection that will be mounted on the wall and displayed. I love this metaphor for creative writing. It all starts with a beautiful idea. Then, you attempt to put the idea…
Using a “Kill Your Darlings” Document
When I’m writing and/or editing (I know, I’m not supposed to be doing those two things at once, but I never did like following directions), it can be difficult to cut out that less-than-perfect sentence, paragraph, or quip. I’d like to share my solution for this unique form of separation anxiety. I have a “Kill…
The tool that helped me win Nanowrimo
Nanowrimo, or National Novel Writing Month, is an event in which writers challenge themselves to write an entire novel in one month every November. That’s 1667 words per day. It can be torture, but we’re writers. We like torture. I made a couple of failed attempts at Nanowrimo in 2015 and 2016 before finally succeeding…
Author Shelley Marsh 