Elizabeth Sims Books In Order

Publication Order of Lillian Byrd Books

Publication Order of Rita Farmer Mystery Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Collections

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Elizabeth Sims is an author and journalist from the United States who writes crime fiction. She is best known for the ‘Rita Farmer’ series of mystery novels.

+Biography
Elizabeth Sims was born in 1957 in Wyandotte, Michigan. She has worn numerous hats over the years. For instance, she has been a contributing editor at Writer’s Digest (Magazine) and a Sarasota Herald-Tribune correspondent.

She has also written poems, short stories, articles, essays and books. And when Sims isn’t producing her own fiction and nonfiction, she can be found helping aspiring authors find their way through the publishing field.

Sims spends a lot of time giving speeches and presentations at workshops and conferences. Her work takes her all over the United States.

The author’s resume includes stints at Michigan State University and Wayne State University where she got her degrees in English and composition.

+Literary Career
Elizabeth Sims believes she was destined to become a fiction writer. The author learned to read at an early age and she took to the habit with incredible fervor. Her father did a lot to encourage her obsession.

When she was little, he would sit her on his knees and tell her stories. Sometimes, he would read to her. Other times he would make up new stories. Most of those involved a little girl fighting to locate her lost doll.

Suffice it to say, once he ingrained the reading habit in her, Elizabeth Sims never lost it. It also helped that the author’s mother went to college to become a teacher when she was six-years-old.

As a result, their house began to fill up with new and exciting books. Sims couldn’t have asked for a better environment within which to practice and improve her reading. The author admits that a lot of what she read at the time made no sense to her.

But the experience had a lasting impact on Sims. She found herself feeling compelled to create her own stories. Sims doesn’t really remember choosing to write. The activity just sprung up one day and she quickly realized that she had a talent for it.

She was very serious about writing poems and short stories in High School, and by the time she got to college, everyone was certain that the author would begin fervently pursuing a career in publishing.

But writing wasn’t a particularly admirable career path at that time. Wherever she looked, Sims was told that not only was it impossible for writers to get published but the majority neither garnered the recognition they deserved nor made the money they needed to survive.

So Sims gave in and decided to try her hand at a litany of other occupations. She knew she could write. And she knew she had the passion. But she figured that she had to be practical about her career choices.

The author was only challenged to question her mindset when she landed a job at a Bookstore. While it was her job to sell books, she ended up reading a lot of them.

And while she still feared that the publishing industry would not accept her, she also concluded that she was talented enough to produce novels far superior to those of the authors whose books she regularly sold.

So Elizabeth Sims sat down and wrote her first novel. She successfully published it, joined the Mystery Writers of America and proceeded to write several more crime novels.

The author credits a lot of her success to all the short stories she wrote earlier on in her life. According to Sims, short stories are the natural starting point for most authors. They allow you to experiment, to execute any ideas you might have in mind, and to keep analyzing and scrutinizing your own writing, identifying the kinks in your style, resolving them and eventually emerging as a far better writer.

Sims had to put short stories on the back banner once her crime novels took off. But she has always yearned to return to her roots. Sims believes that good short stories are far harder to produce than novels.

Because space is so limited, Short stories require so much discipline to get right. You have to get to the point gracefully. Of course, Sims knows that full novels pay the bills. And she would never dream of giving them up.

But her passion lies solely with short stories. She is also passionate about her nonfiction work, especially her writing guides. Elizabeth Sims is what one might call a writing authority. She did not seek out the role.

Rather, after her first few books were published, she noticed that people were frequently hounding her for advice, asking her to help them get their manuscripts ready for publication.

Sims initially brushed them off. But then she felt guilty and decided that it would be worth it, in the long run, to help a few struggling authors find their footing. And after realizing that so many writing guides kept mourning about how hard writing was, Sims made it her mission to produce her own writing guides through which she could burst that myth.

+Holy Hell
Lillian Byrd is a small-time reporter with a problem on her hands. She got for fired for fighting her boss’s son off with a knife. Then she broke up with her girlfriend for no good reason.

And then women in Detroit began disappearing and Lillian decided to investigate. Not only did she unintentionally blow the police’s case but she put herself on the killer’s radar.

Now Lillian is in serious trouble, doing what she can to stay alive at a time when she isn’t anyone’s favorite person.

+Damn Straight
Lillian Byrd barely survived her last adventure. And she promised that she would keep her head down. But then a friend asked for help and Lillian took the first fight to Palm Springs.

The Dinah Shore golf tournament draws a lot of fanatics to the desert community in which Lillian suddenly finds herself. Discovering that a top athlete is being terrorized, Lillian throws her investigative reporter hat on, goes undercover and begins an adventure that seems to assault her with violence wherever she turns.