September 2024 – Andrew Careaga

Friday Five: Q&A with murder mystery writer K.T. Carlisle

‘I’ve always been drawn to the darker things in life.’

One of the more prolific indie writers I’ve discovered on social media is K.T. Carlisle, the pseudonym for a writer who has two murder mysteries to her credit (Reasonable and Forget-Me-Not) and two more in progress (Unhinged, which will be out this November, and I Know What I Saw, which comes out next January). The first three books are part of a series she calls, “What Happened to Mia Davis?” The fourth book is a young adult paranormal thriller.

*Reasonable*, published in 2023, was K.T. Carlisle’s first novel

K.T. also is active on X (Twitter), where she harnesses the power of that social media platform to promote her work, grow her audience, and connect with other writers.

Despite (or perhaps because of) her experience working in a literary agency, K.T. decided to self-publish her novels. In addition to writing murder mysteries, she offers copywriting, website development, and social media management services through a niche marketing agency she founded in 2018. Somehow, while juggling all these activities, she found time to share insights about her writing, her influences, and her use of social media as a marketing tool.

A week without news

What happened when I decided to heavily curtail my media consumption

I’d gotten sick and tired of the news — and even more weary of the distortions and reverberations of news and pseudo-news that skittered around the social media universe like ripples from a thousand stones thrown simultaneously into a sludgy pond. Stories and rumors of Haitian immigrants eating cats and dogs, the backlash to Taylor Swift’s announced support for Kamala Harris, the hate and vitriol spewing forth on cable news and X, which Elon Musk, despite his supposed commitment to making the platform a space for free speech, has turned into a raging hate machine — all of it was taking its toll on my soul and psyche.

So I decided to heavily curtail my consumption of news and news-related information. I could go without news for a week, I thought to myself. It wouldn’t be easy for an info-junkie like me, but I would do my best.

Friday Five: contemporary Hispanic authors you should read

You can be forgiven for not knowing we are in the midst of National Hispanic Heritage Month. Even I, a pocho but still proud of my Hispanic heritage (or Latino/a/x, if you prefer), often find myself taken by surprise when this annual event shows up on the calendar — probably because it’s a “month” that really isn’t. It starts in the middle of September and ends in the middle of October, an oddity that probably contributes to its lack of visibility.

Hispanic authors, too, often lack visibility in the mainstream of literature. Now that we’re almost a week into National Hispanic Heritage Month, I want to devote this Friday Five to Hispanic writers. Although many exceptional U.S. writers have Hispanic roots, they’re often overshadowed in the literary world.

Friday Five: Q&A with ‘Mailed It!’ authors Ashley Budd and Dayana Kibilds

Two marketing pros share their wisdom for writers.

Today’s Friday Five deviates from our usual fare — Q&As with literary types — to introduce two outstanding marketers and recent co-authors who can help all of us who struggle to promote our writing. Their tool is nothing mysterious; it’s that workhorse of modern communication, email.

Ashley Budd and Dayana “Day” Kibilds are the authors of the new book Mailed It!: A Guide to Crafting Emails That Build Relationships and Get Results.

Windows on the World

This morning, on the twenty-third anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, I reflected on my one and only visit to Windows on the World, the restaurant located at the top of the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. Both towers of the WTC, as we now know, collapsed after the planes crashed into them on that terrible day.