Late one night, a man walked out of Tez Haag’s closet. She grabbed a butcher knife. There was a long, tense standoff. The man fled. After that, Tez bought a .38 revolver and learned how to shoot.
Today, Tez is an NRA certified pistol coach, a pistol instructor and a range safety officer. She competes in the International Defensive Pistol Association, and the Back-up Gun and Steel Challenge matches in Tucson, Phoenix and Colorado. She is also the VP of Las Pistoleras de Tucson, a women’s shooting team.
At our next meeting, Tez will talk to us about learning how to shoot, gun safety, and shooting as a sport. She’ll answer all our questions so we can write accurate scenes in our stories that involve guns. You don’t want to miss this one.
Join us online, 10:00 am Saturday, June 12 for a unique discussion.
The zoom link will be in our newsletter. If you want to get the newsletter, just sign up with the form below. See you online!
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It’s Story-Writing Time!
Get your short story ready to send in! The AMW story contest closes July First, still time to write your prize-winning masterpiece. But don’t delay. About ten pages, double-spaced (or less!) is all you need. And whether you win a prize or not, every story gets written comments from the judges. So you win either way!
Writing a mystery is easy and fun. In fact, it’s so easy, here’s an outline for you:
First two pages: describe the scenery and the main character and what’s going on. Near the end of that section, the character discovers something terrible (usually it’s a murder, but it could be any crime). Oh, no! What is she/he going to do?
Next five pages: The main character investigates. Who did it? Why? How? There are clues, but they don’t give the answers. There are suspects, but they have alibis. Meanwhile, some bad guy or troublemaker is interfering with the investigation, maybe even trying to stop it. Why? This is getting dangerous!
Last three pages: The main character reviews the clues, the suspects, the situation, and sees the answer. Or maybe the bad guy slips up and reveals something. Maybe investigator sets a trap that the perpetrator walks into. But in the end, it’s gotcha! Colonel Mustard, in the library, with a candlestick. Who could have guessed?
We don’t have a lot of entries this year because it’s been a tough year. As of this writing, we have so few entries that you could probably just scrawl your title on a blank page, send that in, and have a good chance of winning something. It’s a great year to be entering the story contest because the competition is so sparse. Give it a try!
See the story contest requirements and the entry form on the Arizonamysterywriters.com web site.
