I haven't written a lot of mysteries, but I've read and watched a ton of them. How to write a good mystery?

It's really important to know where you're going. For me, I start with the end. Who did it and why? How did they do it? Who will they try to frame? How will they be caught?

From there, you work backwards. Figure out how they got to this ending.

Then you add the red herrings. The persons with motives and or opportunity who really didn't commit the murder. Often these will be criminals...

I thought I'd post this. In a previous post in mentioned unbelievably I'd received death threats that had come about as a result of my authorship and trying to market my books. I wanted people to be able to see I wasn't kidding. I wasn't making it up. This is how low people can really go.

Don't worry about me. I'm not. The is in some ways laughable and pitiful attempt to make me afraid. That' all this is, I don't consider these threats serious or anything more than just that. The only thing I...

One of my favorite lines from Star Wars.

Yes, many years ago I was a Sheriff's Reserve Officer. Wore a badge, carried a gun, the whole works. In the Sheriff's Reserve, we were unpaid volunteers. Yes, this meant that we took on some of the duties of full-time paid staff, as well as the risks for free!

Why am I writing this now? Some turkey in his critique on Amazon of my book accused me of "Stolen Valor!" as he put it. Stolen Valor is actually a crime. He asked me how many bodies I pulled out on...