Tornado Alley Mystery Writers

Episode 57: Interview with Nick Lyon

Alva, Oklahoma, native, Nicholas Lyon, is the author of the award-winning novel, The Baptist Bootlegger, a historical fiction novel set during Prohibition in Oklahoma, as well as the recently published romance, Bookshop Soundtrack. Past President and active member of OWFI, Nick was presented with OWFI’s Honorary Lifetime Member Award in 2024. Currently living in Guthrie, he’s keeping up with his blog, I Wanted to Tell You a Story, and working on a sequel to Bootlegger. He’s also a teacher, husband, dad, and a guitar player in the band The Dead Armadillos. From creative writing student to novelist, Nick tells his story on our podcast.

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.