Thrilling opportunity: Albuquerque's Sonja Dewing forms Women’s Thriller Writers Association aimed at helping fellow authors

Author-editor-publisher Sonja Dewing of Albuquerque is a spark plug.

In the midst of COVID-19 outbreak, Dewing was meeting, virtually, with other female thriller writers and they all seemed to be facing the same obstacle: They couldn’t get their stories published.

Dewing saw the obstacle as an opportunity. So she pushed forward on several related fronts.

She established the Women’s Thriller Writers Association. Its web address is womensthrillerwriters.com.

The website has links to association-sponsored workshops, events, membership, registration for a project called “Write a Book in February,” and an anthology of stories by about 10 authors published last year under the title “ThrillHers.” A second anthology is in the works for publication later this year.

The website also connects to weekly, mostly virtual, member meetups on different literary subjects and to a Dewing-organized podcast “The Five-Minute Author,” which is about writing and self-publishing.

A recent podcast episode offered advice on how writers can use amazon.com to sell their books. A December episode featured five children’s authors offering tips on writing and editing.

As if those activities weren’t keeping Dewing busy enough, she founded a publishing company, Plot Duckies. It published the 2023 “ThrillHers” anthology and Dewing’s four-volume fantasy series “The Idol Makers.”

Thrilling opportunity: Albuquerque's Sonja Dewing forms Women’s Thriller Writers Association aimed at helping fellow authors

“For books I publish, I ask that they have a strong female character. I publish only fiction,” she said.

Dewing estimated that there are about 30 women who are currently members of the association, many from New Mexico.

Among them are Albuquerque writers Dita Dow, Kara Smith and Saleema Ishq.

Dow said she’s been writing for about 10 years and had first met Dewing through National Writers Month.

“As soon as I found out that she had formed the association, I joined it. It has helped me be a better writer,” Dow said.

To date, she has written four books of short stories, mainly in the category of paranormal thrillers, though she also has written psychological and suspense thrillers.

Dow said she meets in-person with some of the association members to hash out characterizations and plots.

Smith came to writing after having worked in full-time positions in the intelligence field with the National Security Agency, the FBI and a nonprofit. For the past eight months, she’s been doing consulting work and decided she would rather write.

“I’m 38. Is this my midlife crisis? I don’t know. I do know I love writing. My story ‘Hidden Waters’ was in the ‘ThrillHers’ anthology,” she said.

Smith is working on expanding the story into a full-blown novel.

“My goal is to pitch it to major publishing houses. If it’s rejected, I’ll self-publish it, with guidance from Sonja,” Smith said.

“Hidden Waters,” she explained, blends science fiction with a coming-of-age theme aimed at young adult readers.

“I like putting in, for example, super string theory, the particle collisions at Los Alamos. Isn’t that science fiction, science fact that hasn’t been proven yet?” Smith asked rhetorically.

Ishq said she joined the association about a year ago and soon after the thrillers writers group because “I needed accountability with my writing projects.”

She said she began writing fiction after being laid off from a day job as a content writer for an online publication.

Dewing’s belief in her as a writer of psychological thrillers has bolstered her self-confidence. “At this point I am comfortable in the genre. I am working on my debut novel. It involves family relationships,” Ishq said.