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May 7, 2025 38 mins

While most writers settle into the comfort of one format, Elizabeth Zelvin explores the contrasting realms of poetry, novels, novellas, short stories, and flash fiction, all of them distinctly different in approach, situation, and writing style. Zelvin even loves writing cross-genre. She shares freely her writing, building a community, and writing tool tips.

Elizabeth Zelvin is the author of two long-running series, the Bruce Kohler Mysteries and the Jewish historical Mendoza Family Saga as well as the Emerald Love urban fantasy mysteries.  Her series and standalone short stories appear in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, and Black Cat Mystery Magazine. EQMM has called her "one of our genre's most celebrated short story writers." She currently blogs on SleuthSayers.

In addition to writing fiction, Liz is a poet, a singer-songwriter and a psychotherapist who was one of the pioneers of online mental health. Liz lives in New York City and summers at the unpretentious end of East Hampton, where she swims in the ocean, gardens, photographs the resident hummingbird, and exchanges waves with the occasional whale. 

TIMINGS

  • 00:40 Welcome and Introduction
  • 2:30 When Poetry, Mystery, and Therapy Combine
  • 6:00 The Wide-Ranging and Expanding Mendoza Family Saga
  • 11:45 Narrative License yet Maintaining Historical Fact
  • 14:26 Group Mystery Blogging
  • 17:00 Networking and the Short Mystery Fiction Society
  • 21:00 Using Track Changes in Word
  • 28:45 Correcting Text, Designing Books, and Creating Covers
  • 30:45 Cross-Genre Writing
  • 35:00 Finding Places to Read Poetry Online
  • 37:20 Closing

Total Run Time = 38:26

 

LINKS

Her website https://www.elizabethzelvin.com/

Poe's Deadly Daughters  https://poesdeadlydaughters.blogspot.com/

Short Mystery Fiction Society https://shortmystery.blogspot.com/ and Subscribe to https://shortmystery.groups.io/g/main 

Website  https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/05/618-writers-on-writing-elizabeth-zelvin.html

 

Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.

Our current focus is Writers on Writing, a series of interviews with active writers on technology, social media, process and productivity, and much more. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7Kctg7OayipF1tU2xl6TKjy

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