On Entering Contests and Finding A Group

The local writing group held a flash fiction contest. That's kind of when you do what Kurt Vonnegut said of his aliens' fiction: catch a mood. I sent it in: a bit about a woman in an old house harassed by the presence of a cat. It pulls from the tradition of burying cats in a building to keep out evil and was inspired by collection of ghost stories.

Look, you always read many genres. Anyone who keeps to one is missing out. You have to sample everything. My problem is that the online communities I stumble upon seem fixated on romance and fantasy. No hate to either of those types of books. None whatsoever. I went through a real Anne McCaffrey craze when I was a teen, and I won't say no to a historical romance or a mystery with a heavy romance subplot. Hell, that last one is what 'Letters of Discontent' and 'The Importance of Loyalty' are. Straight historical novels, like 'Essex Dogs' and 'Pillars of Earth' are grand too.

But where are the mystery appreciators? So far, it's just the podcast 'Shedunnit' and the Poison Pen mystery people. Everyone else is strictly cozy with an extra big helping of romance. Maybe I'm being too picky.