In September, 2009, mystery author Morgan St. James began to write a column for the on-line newspaper Examiner.com as the Las Vegas Writing Examiner. Long before writing novels and short stories, St. James wrote many magazine articles covering a wide range of topics
After launching the column the challenge was to find what readers wanted, and the result has been her Spotlight interviews on Tuesdays, a new series of "how-to" writing articles on Thursdays and a recap of some of the events in the Las Vegas Writer's community on Fridays. At first her idea was only to do the Friday column, as she is always busily working on multiple fiction projects, with two new novels currently in work. But that was a narrow audience, and St. James wanted to attract readers in a wider scope.
So, she added the Spotlight feature. This week she concentrated on former members of the mob in Las Vegas with a review of a unique presentation called The Mob Chronicles. The first one was at the Stratosphere casino some months ago and she missed it. The presentation she reviewed this week featured Frank Cullotta and the FBI agents and undercover cop who brought him down. They have now all collaborated to present these programs. On Tuesday, May 11, her Spotlight was on Cullotta himself with a very candid interview about what it was like to be one of the top guys in the infamous Hole in the Wall gang, then become the target of a hit and finally a government informant.
St. James has also featured a Spotlight story of Andrew DiDonato, a former member of the Gambino crime family and subject of the new DVD and upcoming book "Surviving the Mob" and on true crime writer Dennis Griffin who also co-authored Cullotta's biography.
The other new feature, Writers: Tricks of the Trade, offers advice to published, non-published and maybe I'll write that story someday writers.
Find her columns on the Las Vegas edition of Examiner.com under ENTERTAINMENT. St. James is a frequent panel member, entertaining speaker and also presents writers' workshops. She belongs to Sisters in Crime/LA, Sisters in Crime/Southern Nevada, Henderson Writers Group, Las Vegas Writers Group and Public Safety Writers Association.
More information can be found online at http://www.morganstjames-author.com
