by Margaret Fenton

Hello! My name is Margaret Fenton and I write the Claire Conover social work mystery series. I’ve just released book number four, Little Boy Blue. All the titles in the series start with the word “Little” because Claire works with little kids.

How did I become a mystery writer? I am an avid reader, and was an avid reader as a kid. When I was in elementary school, my mother was a travel agent at our local mall, and her agency was across the corridor from the Waldenbooks. Once a week she would bring me a Trixie Belden mystery. I loved them (weren’t there like a million of them? At one point I had about eighty). I also read the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew, of course, and that led to reading all my parents’ Agatha Christie novels, and then on to Dick Francis. Trixie Belden was my gateway drug!

When I was twenty-six, I was a licensed social worker. I moved to Birmingham, Alabama, with my fiancé and worked as a mental health consult for the local DHR. I was browsing in a bookstore one day, and the cashier asked me if I had read Anne George, the local mystery author. I hadn’t, so I did, and I was hooked from book one. I went to one of Anne’s book signings and acted like a stupid fangirl, but she was super nice about it. I did a website dedicated to her for a while, and we became friends.

Anne asked me once if I ever considered writing a mystery, since I was such a fan. I hadn’t ever thought about it. She mentioned that, as a social worker, I probably encountered a lot of evil people, and wouldn’t that be a way to draw people into a story? And the plot for Little Lamb Lost was born. Anne passed away in March of 2001, and I wish she could have been here to see the series published. She was one of the kindest people I have ever met.

I have been involved in the mystery writing/reading community for about twenty-five years now, both as an author and as the coordinator for Murder in the Magic City (a conference every February here in Birmingham: www.mmcmysteryconference.com). Very few people—one, I think—have ever said anything to me that wasn’t kind and encouraging. I’m consistently amazed at how supportive and helpful everyone is, and how so many pay it forward. I think we have all been there, unpublished writers trying to get our mysteries out into the world, and we all know how discouraging it can be. If you are trying to get published, hang in there. Go to conferences, talk to authors, and keep writing. You never know what will happen.

Check out other mystery articles, reviews, book giveaways & mystery short stories in our mystery section. And join our mystery Facebook group to keep up with everything mystery we post, and have a chance at some extra giveaways. Also listen to our new mystery podcast where mystery short stories and first chapters are read by actors! They are also available on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, and Spotify.