Tornado Alley Mystery Writers

Episode 56: Interview with Chase Dearinger

Chase Dearinger is an Oklahoma native who now lives in Kansas with his wife and two daughters. His fiction, nonfiction, and poetry have appeared in magazines around the country, including Bayou, The Southampton Review, Short Story America, and Heavy Feather Review. He currently serves as the Chief Editor of Story Bottle, a quarterly online fiction magazine, and directs the Cow Creek Chapbook Prize, an annual poetry chapbook contest. He is a professor of creative writing and literature at Pittsburg State University. This New Dark is his first novel. Tune in to hear Chase read from his exquisitely written novel and learn about the importance of detail.

Episode 55: Interview with C. D. Jarmola

C. D. Jarmola, whose witty, cozy mystery, The Merry Widow, won the OWFI Crème de la Crème award, has never wished to be a widow. But she would love to have a friend like her character, Maeve. Married with two grown children, C. D., a retired schoolteacher, former theatrical director, and past president of OWFI, now spends her days dreaming up more adventures for Maeve and Sophia. If you like wit and murder, listen to C. D. read from her prize-winning novel and to her engaging take on life as a writer.

Episode 54: Interview with Alicia Dean

Alicia Dean is from Moore, Oklahoma, affectionately known as Tornado Alley, but now lives in Edmond. Other than reading and writing, her passions are Elvis Presley, MLB, NFL (she usually works in a mention of one or all three into her stories) and watching (or rewatching) her favorite televisions shows like Dexter, Vampire Diaries, Justified, and Breaking Bad. She is an author and editor for Wild Rose Press although she produces her own projects, such as the Friday the Thirteenth Series.  Listen to her story of being on different sides of the writing and publishing world and to an excerpt from her Friday the Thirteenth novella, Bleed My Valentine.

Episode 53: Interview with Krysta Scott

Krysta Scott grew up in Chicago and moved to Norman, Oklahoma, to attend OU law school. She practiced family law until her recent retirement to become a writer. In her latest novel, Something Wicked, 2026, she combines romance and horror. Tune in to hear Krysta read from her new novel and discuss how romance can be thrilling in more ways than we might expect.

Episode 52: Interview with Constance Squires

Constance Squires’ latest novel, Low April Sun, based on the Oklahoma City bombing, was nominated for the National Book Award (2025). A winner of the Oklahoma Book award in 2012, Constance teaches a variety of courses in creative writing, with special emphasis on fiction (novel and short story) at UCO. Constance is the author of two other novels, Along the Watchtower (2011) and Live from Medicine Park (2017), which was named one of Seven Candidates for the Great American Rock and Roll Novel by Electric Literature in 2018. In 2019, she published a short story collection, Hit Your Brights. She regularly reads and speaks at national writers' conferences, and she will be the Special Guest Speaker at the 2026 Tornado Alley SinC Writers Conference in Norman, Oklahoma, March 21. Tune in to hear her read from her latest novel and discuss genre's place in storytelling.