While most writers settle into the comfort of one format, Elizabeth Zelvin explores the contrasting realms of poetry, novels, novellas, short stories, and flash fiction, all of them distinctly different in approach, situation, and writing style. Zelvin even loves writing cross-genre. She shares freely her writing, building a community, and writing tool tips. Elizabeth Zelvin is the author of two long-running series, the Bruce Kohler Mysteries and the Jewish historical Mendoza Family Saga as well as the Emerald Love urban fantasy mysteries.  Her series and standalone short stories appear in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, and Black Cat Mystery Magazine. EQMM has called her ”one of our genre’s most celebrated short story writers.” She currently blogs on SleuthSayers. In addition to writing fiction, Liz is a poet, a singer-songwriter and a psychotherapist who was one of the pioneers of online mental health. Liz lives in New York City and summers at the unpretentious end of East Hampton, where she swims in the ocean, gardens, photographs the resident hummingbird, and exchanges waves with the occasional whale.  TIMINGS 00:40 Welcome and Introduction 2:30 When Poetry, Mystery, and Therapy Combine 6:00 The Wide-Ranging and Expanding Mendoza Family Saga 11:45 Narrative License yet Maintaining Historical Fact 14:26 Group Mystery Blogging 17:00 Networking and the Short Mystery Fiction Society 21:00 Using Track Changes in Word 28:45 Correcting Text, Designing Books, and Creating Covers 30:45 Cross-Genre Writing 35:00 Finding Places to Read Poetry Online 37:20 Closing Total Run Time = 38:26 LINKS Her website https://www.elizabethzelvin.com/ Poe’s Deadly Daughters  https://poesdeadlydaughters.blogspot.com/ Short Mystery Fiction Society https://shortmystery.blogspot.com/ and Subscribe to https://shortmystery.groups.io/g/main  Website  https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/05/618-writers-on-writing-elizabeth-zelvin.html Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away. Our current focus is Writers on Writing, a series of interviews with active writers on technology, social media, process and productivity, and much more. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7Kctg7OayipF1tU2xl6TKjy Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand. For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  . Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com. If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)