Writing - Carol Potenza

(Time) Traveling on My Mind

November 26, 2024 by Carol Potenza

As you might have guessed, I always weave science into my fiction. Hearts of the Missing, genetics and genealogy (Tony Hillerman Prize) The Third Warrior, toxic waste clean-up with infective biological organisms Spirit Daughters, parthenogenesis (Daphne Du Maurier Award) Sacred Ghosts (hopefully out in 2025), pre-Columbian dog genetics as a subplot In Sting of Lies (Silver Falchion Finalist), I chose to research the Pleistocene epoch and learn as much as I could about Clovis culture and Mammoths because I wanted to. This book received a WONDERFUL Publisher’s Weekly review. The reviewer said it has a “rip-roaring” plot. I love that …

The Endlessly Fascinating Process of Writing Fiction

March 21, 2024 by Carol Potenza

Okay. Endlessly fascinating for me. Authors and writers can talk about their writing process interminably. And we think other authors and readers and our husbands, wives, children, girlfriends, boyfriends, the poor guy sitting next to us on an airplane …. We think that the stream of words about what we write and how we write are like precious jewels falling from our lips. And if you ever eavesdrop on an author to author conversation, (Don’t get too close! It’s a trap.) you’ll probably hear what I call “parallel play”. Like when toddlers don’t yet know how to play with each …

So Long, Tony Hillerman Prize (2007-2024) Rest in Peace

March 9, 2024 by Carol Potenza

Tony Hillerman Prize for Best First Mystery Set in the Southwest After many great years, the Tony Hillerman Prize competition has come to an end. Minotaur Books is grateful to all who worked on this wonderful prize throughout the years. A special thanks to Anne Hillerman for her support of aspiring authors of the American Southwest, and as always, grateful acknowledgement to the legacy of her father, Tony Hillerman. (from the MacMillan Website) Excuse my ego, but I have gmail account set to search for Tony Hillerman/Prize alerts, so I’d know when a new prize winner was announced.. But the …

Original Thought? Probably not. Especially in fiction.

January 30, 2024 by Carol Potenza

Human thought—well, probably >99.9% percent of it—is derivative. Derivative? What does that mean? That most thoughts are not new but are developed from other ideas or copied or extremely similar to something else. Most human thought is not original but is built on the ideas, theories, works, even the life, of others. Example? The movie Julie and Julia (2009). Julie was a woman who received fame and a movie because she cooked all the recipes in Julia Child’s cookbook in a year and blogged about it. She even felt like Julia Child should meet with her because of this secondhand fame built …

New Year’s Resolution: Write a Mystery Challenge from Me to You

December 26, 2022 by Carol Potenza

We’ll follow Demystifying the Beats and write a mystery What made someone who’d only written scientific papers and grants want to write fiction? (That would be me) An eReader for Christmas. This gift from my sisters-in-law was amazing. It allowed me to take dozens in not hundreds of books anywhere and read anytime. Then I started to notice that the ebooks I read had major events at certain percentages in the books: 25%, 50% was usually a big one, 75%, etc. And as someone who analyzed data, this was like an epiphany. Just like in a scientific paper submitted to …

You are invited to Book Club to Discuss “Spirit Daughters”

November 23, 2022 by Carol Potenza

I’m going to copy paste the write-up up from the wonderful Charlotte Zimmerman who coordinates the Mesilla Valley Readers of Southern New Mexico Book Club BUT this is actually an international book club with members from all over the world because they use Zoom for their presentations, as well as in-person. Just a quick FYI: Charlotte (a retired librarian) and Las Cruces have been so supportive of my writing career. I’ve been invited to this book club to present all three of the Nicky Matthews mysteries, as well as to discuss topics that have an effect on authors and publishing. …