About Babylon Books and Preparing for a busy August

This time I want to talk about two things, my wonderful publisher Babylon Books and the busy month ahead.

I already told you all about my new book Soul of a Sleuth coming out on August 13, but I haven’t mentioned a major activity I will be involved in on August 30 through September 2—WriterCon 2024. It has been two years since I last attended and presented at WriterCon in Oklahoma City, OK, but I always love the experience. This time I will be giving my talk “Creating Mystery: Posing Questions That Your Readers Want Answered” on Sunday, September 1, 2024 at 11:30 a.m. CDT. Here’s a brief synopsis of my talk:

Creating Mystery: Posing Questions Your Readers Want Answered.

Mystery! The word itself evokes images in a reader’s mind. Multiple genre’s and subgenre’s include the word in their names. Mystery Fiction includes Sensation Mysteries, Quest Mysteries, FairPlay/Traditional Mysteries, Inverted Mysteries, Specialized Knowledge Mysteries (Great Detective, Science of Detection, Police Procedural) , Specialized Setting Mysteries. (Cozy, Gothic, Noir, Macabre, Supernatural, Historical). There are even mysteries that fall into other major fiction genres (Spy, Legal, Medical, Sci-Fi, Humor) and Non-fiction Mysteries. Does your story have to have a murder, a detective, or a Gothic setting to contain mystery? In this talk, I'll briefly review of the history of mystery as a category of fiction, share how I write a mystery, and discuss the importance of posing questions to create mystery in your reader’s minds. I will also discuss the importance of providing answers to posed questions to hold onto your readers. Preview: It’s not just Whodunnit anymore!

I always love WriterCon. It’s a great conference with fantastic speakers. It is also in Oklahoma City the location of my publisher Babylon Books and provides a great opportunity to get together with the other authors (all friends,) who publish through Babylon as well. The second picture on the right shows a bunch of us together with our books at the conference two years ago.

I want to spend a moment talking about Babylon Books and share some of the books they have published. Babylon Books publishes books in multiple genres from legal thrillers, mysteries, and globetrotting adventures to supernatural, fantasy, and non-fiction. I have found them to be an author’s best friend and extremely supportive of starting and established authors. Their editors, publisher, and authors are active participants in the WriterCon conferences, cruises, and classes, which provides a family environment for all involved.

Here is brief list of some of the books they’ve published since 2021 (you’ll see a couple of mine on here) [Click on any title and you’ll be taken to Amazon to learn more about any book, or even to order]:

Justice For All: Daniel Pike Legal Thriller Series (2024)

WILLIAM BERNHARDT Author

Friends Like Dust: Army Brat Hauntings Series (2024)

Cary Herwig Author

10 Ways We Can Advance Social... (2024)

Hannibal B. Johnson Author

The Pirate's Curse: The Veritas Codex Series (2023)

Betsey Kulakowski Author

The World Ends at the River: Army Brat Hauntings Series (2023)

Cary Herwig Author

Partners in Crime: Daniel Pike Legal Thriller Series (2023)

WILLIAM BERNHARDT Author

Ascendant: Asylum Series (2023)

Susy Smith Author

Voice of the Victim: Maui Mysteries Series (2023)

Rick Ludwig Author

The End of Never: Chronicles of Ithical Series (2023)

Tamara Grantham Author

Traveling Salesman's Son (2022)

William Bernhardt Author

The Lost Templar: The Veritas Codex Series (2022)

Betsey Kulakowski Author

Dare to Call Me Vampire: Legends of Crimson Hollow Series (2022)

Tamara Grantham Author

Amber Dawn: Defenders Series (2022)

Kenneth Andrus Author
Rob Reider Narrator

Plot/Counterplot (2022)

William Bernhardt Author
Joe Hempel Narrator

Yuletide Splitsville: Splitsville Legal Thriller Series (2022)

William Bernhardt Author

Skyfire: Dreamslinger Fantasy Adventure Series (2022)

R.J. Johnson Author

The Ghost's Daughter: Army Brat Hauntings Series (2022)

Cary Herwig Author

Eyes of the Beholder: Maui Mysteries Series (2022)

Rick Ludwig Author

Arctic Menace: Defenders Series (2022)

Kenneth Andrus Author
Rob Reider Narrator

The Monk's Grimoire: The Veritas Codex Series (2022)

Betsey Kulakowski Author

WriterCon 2024.

AT WriterCon 2022. Editor-in Chief Alice Bernhardt, next to Bill, with a bunch of us Babylonians holding up one of our books at wonderful dinner.

About the pictures:

The top image is my talk for upcoming WriterCon 2024. The bottom image is wonderful dinner we had with a whole bunch of other Babylon Books authors at WriterCon 2022. Our tribe.