Elizabeth Sims

Elizabeth Sims is an American writer. Author of two series of crime novels, she is also a contributing editor at Writer's Digest magazine.

Sims is best known for her Rita Farmer Mysteries, a suspense series published by St. Martin's Press Minotaur.

In June, 2008, she launched this series with The Actress. The main character, Rita Farmer, is a single mother and struggling Hollywood actress who is recruited to secretly coach the unsympathetic defendant in a high-profile murder trial.

"Sims crafts a page-turner from stem to stern!" -- Kirkus Reviews

The Extra, second in the Rita Farmer Mystery series was published by St. Martin's Press Minotaur in June, 2009. Rita, dressed in a police uniform as an extra on a movie shoot is pulled into a real crime scene. When Rita and boyfriend, George Rowe, try to help Amaryllis B. Cubitt, the director of an urban mission, they move deeper into mystery and danger.

"brisk prose and facile storytelling" -- Booklist

Sims moves the action from Los Angeles to Washington's Olympic Peninsula in On Location, published by Minotaur in August 2010. Rita's sister Gina, working as a film location scout in the forests of the Pacific Northwest, goes missing, and Rita has no choice but to follow. Foul weather meets foul play as Rita and her stalwart friends risk their lives for the sake of truth—and love.

"Sims orchestrates the action--and occasional comic relief--for maximum impact" -- Publishers Weekly

The popular Lillian Byrd Crime Stories is a four-novel series now available in Amazon Kindle editions, originally published by Alyson Books (New York), beginning with Holy Hell in 2002. The second book in the series, Damn Straight, won a 2003 Lambda Literary Award. Lucky Stiff and Easy Street followed in 2004 and 2005. The main character, Lillian Byrd, is a reporter turned sleuth whose quest for true love takes her into dangerous places. The series, set mostly in the Detroit, Michigan, area, is noted for its off-kilter characters and wry humor.

Sims began writing features for Writer's Digest Magazine in 2006 and became a contributing editor in 2009, specializing in the art and craft of fiction.

She became a correspondent for the Sarasota Herald-Tribune in 2011.

Sims has degrees in English from Michigan State University and Wayne State University. She is a member of the Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and American Mensa.

Novels

On Location: A Rita Farmer Mystery (2010, St. Martin's Minotaur)

The Extra: A Rita Farmer Mystery (2009, St. Martin's Minotaur)

The Actress: A Rita Farmer Mystery (2008, St. Martin's Minotaur)

Easy Street: A Lillian Byrd Crime Story (2005, Alyson Books)

Lucky Stiff: A Lillian Byrd Crime Story ( 2004, Alyson Books)

Damn Straight: A Lillian Byrd Crime Story (2003, Alyson Books)

Holy Hell: A Lillian Byrd Crime Story (2002, Alyson Books)

Short Fiction and Poetry

"I am Calico Jones," short story in Romance for Life, ed. by Lori L. Lake and Tara Young, Intaglio Publications, 2006.

"Play Money," short story in Best Lesbian Love Stories 2004, ed. by Angela Brown, Alyson Books, 2004.

"For Faye," short story in A Woman’s Touch, ed. by Valerie Reed, Alyson Books, 2003.

The Smudge, a populist-style literary journal based in Detroit (now defunct). Poems in Spring 1978, Summer 1978, Winter 1978-79.

Moving Out, a feminist literary annual (now defunct):

- Short story "Beautiful" vol. 13, 1987.

- Short story "Cleva" vol. 14, 1989. Co-winner, prose contest.

- Served on editorial board, 1992-93.

Nonfiction

Port Angeles Symphony Orchestra: Seventy-Five Years of Music on the Strait, with Ned Thomas, published by the symphony, 2007.

The Complete Handbook of Novel Writing Writer's Digest Books 2010, Elizabeth Sims, contributor.

Crafting Novels & Short Stories Writer's Digest Books 2011, Elizabeth Sims, contributor.

Articles

"True Story" in Writer's Digest, March/April 2013

"Master Description Through Sensory Detail" in Writer's Digest, January 2013

"How to Develop Any Idea Into a Great Story" in Writer's Digest, December 2012

"10 Fast Hacks for Fiction Writers" in Writer's Digest, September 2012

"The Reluctant Risk-Taker's Guide to Filling the Creative Well" in Writer's Digest, July/August 2012

"7 Simple Ways to Make a Good Story Great" in Writer's Digest, March/April 2012

"Namedropping: Craft Perfect Names for Your Characters" in Writer's Digest, January 2012

"Spin Subplots Like a Master Weaver" in Writer's Digest, November/December 2011

"Fan Out!" in Writer's Digest, October 2011

"10 Things for Every Writer's Bucket List" in Writer's Digest, September 2011

"How to Gain Perspective on Your Work" in Writer's Digest, July/August 2011

"The Long and Short of It" feature in Writer's Digest, March/April 2011

"It's All Relative" feature in Writer's Digest, February 2011

"8 Ways to Write a 5-Star Chapter One" feature in Writer's Digest, January 2011

"On the Loose in LA" feature in Crimespree Magazine, #38 Sept/Oct 2010

"10-Minute Fixes to 10 Common Plot Problems" feature in Writer's Digest, the BIG 10 issue, September 2010

"Write This, Not That," feature in Writer's Digest, May/June 2010.

"Handsell Your Book: 10 Simple Steps," feature in Writer's Digest, March/April 2010.

"How to Make Your Novel a Page Turner," feature in Writer's Digest, January 2010.

"How Even a Bad Conference Can Make You a Better Writer," feature in Writer's Digest, October 2009.

"A Notebook, a PT Cruiser, and a Week In L.A." feature in Mystery Readers Journal : Los Angeles Mysteries I, Summer 2009

"What Not to Expect When You're Expecting," feature in Writer's Digest, July, 2009.

"Rough It Up," feature in Writer's Digest, February, 2009.

"Face-to-Face with an Agent," feature in Writer's Digest, August, 2008.

"A Hollywood Hunt for Deep Background," feature in Writer's Digest, December, 2007.

"Start Me Up!" feature in Writer's Digest, December, 2006.

"Store Wars," lead article in LOGOS: Journal of the World Book Community, vol. 13, issue 2, (2002).

Book reviews for The Detroit Free Press:, 1991-92.

Official Elizabeth Sims Author Website