Ladies are presented in alphabetical order.
Lady
A Bit About Each
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Pamela Beason
Although humans always commit the crimes, my mysteries are filled with animals. My Sam Westin wilderness mysteries always include wildlife as well as Sam’s cat at home. Gorillas romp through my Neema Mysteries. In my Race with Danger trilogy, the teenage runner encounters exotic wildlife as she competes in extreme races around the world. I am a hiker/kayaker/ snowshoer/scuba diver, and my world will always include animals, both wild and tame.
Pamela blogs on the 3rd Thursday.
D. Z. Church
D. Z. Church has lived in the Eastern, Mid-Western and Western United States. Writing wherever she was, gathering characters, finding joy in foul weather, and wondering why she only managed one month living in the Deep South. Along the way, she discovered that people aren’t always as they seem and that their stories are best served in a whopping good tale. The kind people like to read with a little history, some foul weather, and an absorbing plot laced with adventure, romance, and suspense.
D. Z. blogs on the 4th Thursday.
Janet Dawson
Janet Dawson’s life of crime began with her long-running series featuring Oakland PI Jeri Howard, whose latest case is The Things We Keep. Janet stepped back in time to the 1950s and climbed aboard the historic train known as the California Zephyr, where her sleuthing Zephyrette Jill McLeod assists passengers and solves crimes. Jill’s latest adventure is Death Above the Line. Janet also writes about geriatric care manager Kay Dexter, who advocates for her elderly clients in The Sacrificial Daughter. Janet has written numerous short stories. She lives in Alameda, California.
Janet blogs on the 1st Monday.
Heather Haven
Heather Haven was born in Sarasota, Florida, when alligators still roamed the streets, and there was nary a condo in sight. During her checkered but diverse writing career, she has written newspaper columns, ad copy, theatrical plays, comedy acts, and has had 18 novels published and counting. The latest, Bewitched, Bothered, and Beheaded, book 10 of the award-winning Alvarez Family Murder Mysteries and winner of the Readers’ Favorite Bronze Medal 2024, was released last April.
Heather blogs on the 1st Thursday.
Paty Jager
Paty Jager is the award-winning author of the Shandra Higheagle Mysteries, Gabriel Hawke Novels, and the Spotted Pony Casino Mysteries. All her work has Western or Native American elements in them, along with hints of humor and engaging characters. Paty and her husband raise alfalfa hay in rural eastern Oregon. Riding horses and battling rattlesnakes, she not only writes the Western lifestyle; she lives it.
Paty blogs on the 2nd Monday.
Kimila Kay
Kimila Kay lives in Donald, Oregon, with her husband, Randy, and feisty black cat, Halle.
She is currently strolling the beaches of Cabo … in her head … working on the fourth novel in her cross-cultural series, Mexico Mayhem. The series includes Peril in Paradise, Malice in Mazatlán, and Vanished in Vallarta.
Kimila’s heart project, The Stoneybrook Mysteries, honors her autistic son, Derrick, who left this world far too soon. The series, set in a fictional Oregon town, includes Redneck Ranch, Five Golden Rings, Whispering Willows, and Willow’s Woods.
Kimila blogs on the 4th Monday.
Margaret Lucke
Margaret Lucke flings words around in the San Francisco Bay Area. She writes tales of love, ghosts, and murder, sometimes all three in one book. Her novels include House of Desire, House of Whispers, Snow Angel, and the Anthony Award-nominated “A Relative Stranger,” and she is the editor of Sisters in Crime NorCal’s first anthology, Fault Lines. A teacher of fiction writing classes, Margaret has also published how-to books on writing craft. She is a former president of the Northern California chapter of Mystery Writers of America.
Margaret blogs on the 2nd Saturday.
donalee Moulton
donalee Moulton’s first mystery, Hung Out to Die, murderously appeared in 2023. Conflagration! was published in 2024. It won the Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence in Mystery/Suspense (Historical Fiction). Her stories have appeared in Cold Canadian Crime and numerous other anthologies. “Troubled Water” was shortlisted for a 2024 Derringer Award and a 2024 Award of Excellence. donalee is also an award-winning freelance journalist and author of The Thong Principle: Saying What You Mean and Meaning What You Say. She lives in Halifax, happily surrounded by family, friends, pets, and words of all shapes, sizes, and syllables.
donalee blogs on the 3rd Monday.
Susan Oleksiw
At an early age, Susan couldn’t decide what to do with her life, so she started trying out characters to be. This got out of hand, and she’s now chasing people in books, trying to kill troublesome neighbors or obnoxious relatives. She finds suitable weapons everywhere—on farms, at the beach, in foreign hotels—but fortunately, her amateur sleuths are good friends with the local police, and all ends well—for her.
Susan blogs on the 4th Saturday.
Janis Patterson
Janis Patterson/Janis Susan May/Janis Susan Patterson/J. S. May/ J. S. M. Patterson is a 7th-generation Texan and a 3rd-generation wordsmith who writes in mystery, romance, children’s, horror and non-fiction/scholarly. (She admits she bores easily!) Once an actress and a singer, Janis has also been editor-in-chief of two multi-magazine publishing groups, as well as many other things, including an enthusiastic amateur Egyptologist. Janis’ husband even proposed in a moonlit garden near the Pyramids of Giza. Janis and her husband live in Texas with an assortment of rescued fur babies.
Janis blogs on the 2nd Thursday.