Author Archives: Alicia Dean

Please help me welcome today’s guest, Susie Black…

How an Apparel Career Led to a Writing Gig

Like the protagonist in my Holly Swimsuit Mystery Series, I was a ladies’ apparel sales executive. The most critical skill a sales executive must have to succeed is storytelling. Fortunately, I’ve been telling stories since I learned to talk. One thing I was told over and over as a sales executive was to know your product inside and out. I heard the same thing when I started writing cozy mysteries: write what you know. If you don’t know it, either do the research and learn it, or don’t dare to write it. Whether you’re an author or a sales executive, you’re selling yourself, and readers, like buyers, can sniff out a phony in a heartbeat. Then you and the story you’re telling are toast.

I came to write in the cozy mystery genre because I love solving puzzles. My parents would certainly confirm that I always asked a lot of questions. I am naturally curious (some narrow-minded people say I am nosy…go figure…LOL). So, writing mysteries was my natural next step. Since I’d never written a novel before, the only thing I knew to do was to apply the same storytelling skills I’d successfully used hawking bikinis to writing a tale. It turns out that how you present an apparel line is the same way you write a story. Both have a beginning, a middle, an ending, and a point of view.

So, where did my story ideas come from? From the start of my career, I kept a daily journal that chronicled the quirky, interesting, and often challenging people I encountered as well as the crazy situations I’d gotten myself into and out of. The journal entries are the foundation of all my writing for the stories that comprise the Holly Swimsuit Mystery Series. With a dollop of imagination, a pinch of angst, and a decades-long career chocked to the gills with juicy characters, I had more stories itching to be told in my daily journal than time to write them.

Who could push a sales exec to dream of murder and mayhem? Who else but a buyer?  After completing a rather challenging conversation with an important but difficult customer, I imagined how good it would feel with my hands around her scrawny neck, squeezing the life out of her. While the notion of knocking off my annoying buyers was wildly appealing, a horizontally striped prison uniform making my four-foot, eight-inch body look like a barbershop pole and a fire hydrant had a child wasn’t a pretty sight. The viable alternative? Writing humorous murder mysteries set in the Los Angeles garment center with a protagonist based on me. Brilliant and cathartic! In one fell swoop, eliminate a pain-in-the-patootie buyer, avoid life in prison, and still get the order. It doesn’t get any better than that.  

About the Author

Named Best US Author of the Year by N. N. Lights Book Heaven, award-winning cozy mystery author Susie Black was born in the Big Apple but now calls sunny Southern California home. Like the protagonist in her Holly Swimsuit Mystery Series, Susie is a successful apparel sales executive. Susie began telling stories as soon as she learned to talk. Now she’s telling all the stories from her garment industry experiences in humorous mysteries.

She reads, writes, and speaks Spanish, albeit with an accent that sounds like Mildred from Michigan went on a Mexican vacation and is trying to fit in with the locals. Since life without pizza and ice cream as her core food groups wouldn’t be worth living, she’s a dedicated walker to keep her girlish figure. A voracious reader, she’s also an avid stamp collector and sailor. Susie lives with a highly intelligent man and has one incredibly brainy but smart-aleck adult son who inexplicably blames his sarcasm on an inherited genetic defect.

Looking for more? Contact Susie at:

E-mail: mysteries.authorsusieblack@gmail.com

Blue Sky: @hollysusiewrites.bsky.social

Facebook: https://facebook.com/TheHollySwimsuitMysterySeries

Instagram: Susie Black (@hollyswimsuit) • Instagram photos and videos

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/authorsusieblack-61941011

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/hollysusie1/

Substack: https://substack.com/@2650?utmsource=global-search

X: Susie Black (@hollyswimsuit) / X

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/author/susieblackwritescozies

Susie Black Books – BookBub

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/21437641.Susie_Black

2026 National Excellence in Story Telling Contest Sponsored by Central Region Oklahoma Writers (CROW)

(The entries for these categories are very low: Erotic, Horror, Women’s Fiction, Young Adult)

For all works of fiction published in 2024 or 2025

Deadline to enter: March 22, 2026

Winners determined by readers…not votes! Get your work in front of new readers!

~ Ten categories with two winners (short and novel) in each category

~ Great Prizes

~ Entry Fees: $25 for novels, $20 for shorts.

For novel or short works (7500 words or above) published in 2024 or 2025.

Novel Length: 50,000 words and longer – Short Length: 7,500 to 49,999 words.

*** All categories are for romance or non-romance

CONTEMPORARY 

COZY MYSTERY 

EROTIC 

HISTORICAL 

HORROR 

INSPIRATIONAL 

SUSPENSE/THRILLER/MYSTERY

WOMEN’S FICTION

YOUNG ADULT 

FMI: https://crowowfigroup.wixsite.com/website/nestcontest

The Devil’s Book by Tamrie Foxtail…

Is Mallory Ander’s trying to kill her mother? Or is something in possession of her? And is it tied to The Devil’s Book, an old manuscript in the family’s possession?

• A few favorite lines from the story

“Look Mal, there are things going on in this town right now…bad things…and they’re happening on my campus.”

“What kind of things?”

“Exactly what you just said. Devil worship. I talked to the police this morning. There was a fire last night. An old house burned down. Some kids from the college were trying to raise a demon.”

“Why would the police talk to you about that?”

“Because they were my students.”

• Fun Fact:

I’m more of a pantser than a plotter. My stories never turn out the way I planned. That makes them more fun to write since I’m uncover much of the story as I go. The dog that pops up in this story was not part of my original plan. He seemed to write himself in the story.

• What was the most difficult thing about writing in conjunction with the other authors

I didn’t find anything about writing with other authors difficult.

• What was the best thing about writing in conjunction with other authors

Knowing that I’m part of something. The fun of waiting to see what everyone else has written.

Shadows Dancing in the Dark by Rickey Pittman

When you’re alone in the dark, what do you see? 

BLURB:

Lafayette Cemetery No, One is a New Orleans cemetery haunted by an ancient, malignant Irish demon. A photographer and a writer who visit this city of the dead find themselves enmeshed in a fearful nightmare of murder and insanity as the demon hunts any who has seen it and lived.

A Friday the 13th Short Story: 13 authors ~ 13 suspenseful stories. Murder and mayhem on Friday the 13th. https://www.facebook.com/Fri13thShortStories/

SERIES INFO: 13 different authors each wrote a stand-alone, horror short story in the series and the stories all released on Friday the 13th.

We hope you enjoy them all and that they bring a chill to your spine. We would love to hear from you. You can find us here: Friday the 13th Facebook Page (!! Link the page) Get your Fright on…

Sincerely,

Friday the 13th Authors

BUY LINK: https://www.amazon.com/Shadows-Dancing-Dark-Friday-13th-ebook