Got a Mystery up Your Sleeve?

A mystery STORY, that is.  A fictional one. 

One you've written but haven't had published. Or one that's still in your head, waiting to be written. If so, join the crowd. There's a lot of us around these days.

The Internet Age brings great opportunities for mystery writers and mystery-writers-to-be. Here are a few of them:

-- DorothyL and the Short Mystery Fiction Society are listservs that are free and always packed with info for mystery writers and mystery readers. Just about every day I get stuff from them that I can use. When I contribute my own messages, I know they'll be read by mystery lovers who could be interested in my work. A great way to develop a fan base.

-- Kings River Life Magazine is a California online magazine that's eager to publish original mystery fiction. No pay, but terrific publicity. The editor does an excellent job of presenting the stories professionally and using Social Media (especially Twitter) to bring readers to the site. Here's one of the mystery stories I published there:  "For Pete's Sake."  It involves murder, a cover-up, and a very special Army veteran.    

-- I'm on Twitter (@gailfarrelly) and just came across this article in a retweet: "The 100 Best Blogs for the Modern Writer."  Just oozing with information!

-- In Westchester we have fantastic librarians who are eager to support the work of local authors. There's support at the local level and from the unified Westchester Library System (WLS) as well. I'm lucky that my three digital stories published by Untreed Reads have been acquired by the WLS. This has the side effect of bringing attention to my mystery novels in print, which hopefully will also be available in electronic editions later this year.

-- Writer Sandra Seamans has a blog "My Little Corner" that, among other things, provides information on all sorts of markets for mystery stories.

If you have suggestions about resources for mystery writers, please mention them in the comments below. We'd love to know about them!