Published History
Murder in St. Augustine
An interesting, fact-based historical perspective of a notorious unsolved murder mystery in Florida’s oldest city: St. Augustine.
Elizabeth Randall is a widely published freelance writer and the author of four books. She works as an English teacher in Seminole County, Florida.
At the 2017 Royal Palm Literary Award Banquet, author Elizabeth Randall won First Place for her published history book, Murder in St. Augustine. Each year at the RPLA Banquet, authors experience the joy of earning accolades for all the hard work that is often done in the privacy of the home with little to no recognition. We’re showcasing the best of the best with our First Place winners spotlight. Not only does RPLA recognize extraordinary talent, but we’re giving readers an opportunity to sample excerpts from the winning stories.
Click here to read an excerpt of Murder in St. Augustine.
An interview with Elizabeth Randall.
Q: Where do you get your story ideas?
A: I like to say that my stories come to me. I get a lot of good ideas, but I usually know when I have a winner, which will make it into a book. I also do a lot of “what ifs” “whys” and “how” when I get an idea.
Q: Anything in particular about your award-winning RPLA entry that you’d like to share?
A: I wrote it primarily to clear the name of a murder victim who was vilified after her gruesome demise.
Q: Who do you credit with inspiring your writing?
A: I have always been drawn to history, nonfiction, research. My grandfather and my father were journalists so I am carrying on the family tradition in my own way.
Q: Any tips for new writers?
A: A journalist once told me to get up early and write for an hour or two before I headed to work. I have done that faithfully for many years. Also, the best book I ever read about writing was Stephen King’s On Writing. In it, he said writers need to read a lot and write a lot every day. It’s good advice.
Website: http://
A message about supporting literacy in Florida:
If every member of FWA went to Smile.Amazon.com, chose Florida Writers Foundation, Inc. as their charity and, instead of logging into Amazon.com, logged into Smile.Amazon.com, FWF would receive 0.5% of the purchase funds. Every time.
We could significantly fund the literacy efforts of our organization. No money out of your pockets…just some invested time to set this up.
How easy for us to make a difference. To see all of our work, please read the pages of our website www.floridawritersfoundation.com. You’ll be proud.
Melody Dean Dimick,
President, FWF
