Mystery writer Kate Flora learned a lesson growing up in a small town in Maine: Everyone has secrets. And secrets are hard to keep.

"Everyone who lives in a small town knows everything about everybody," Flora said during a panel discussion at Jones Library in Amherst last week called "Writing New England Mysteries, Long and Short."

The panel included Flora, of Concord, author of 11 books, many featuring the character Thea Kozak; Granby writer Sheila Connolly, author of the "Orchard" mystery series set in the fictional town of Granford; and Barbara Ross of Somerville, mystery writer, co-publisher of a Level Best Books anthology by New England crime writers and president of the New England chapter of Sisters in Crime, the national organization which sponsored the panel and gave a $1,000 donation to Jones Library.

The three women spoke about how they became writers, how difficult it is to get published and how personally gratifying (although not necessarily monetarily rewarding) they find literary life.

Ross, a writer of short stories whose first mystery novel, "The Death of an Ambitious Woman," was published in 2010, recalled having a short story accepted by Level Best.

"It was probably the most validating thing that ever happened to me," she said.

A former assistant attorney general in Maine, Flora turned to writing after her second child was born. Her legal work, and love of mystery books, led her to question "what causes people to break the social contract," she said. "It's a fundamental question of good and evil."

Connolly had a varied career, including finance, fund raising, genealogical research and teaching art history. She began writing when she moved to Granby in 2001. Her "Orchards" series features the character Meg Corey, who moves to a decrepit house in a small town and finds herself enmeshed in local murder investigations.

The women agreed that creating a character to drive plot lines makes the process easier. "It's a blessing to have a real character because you don't have to wrap up everything in 288 pages," Flora said. But, she added, those characters can become so vivid that they take on a life of their own. "You think you're in charge and all of a sudden, your character is in charge," she said.

"It's an amazing amalgam of the conscious and unconscious," said Ross, adding that at times her fictional characters "take over" and drive the plot line to areas she didn't anticipate.

Connolly said the beginnings and endings of books are sometimes written in a fever of imagination. "But oh, those middles," she groaned.

"Chapters 16 to 19," Flora said with a sigh. "Sometimes I have to just go and buy shoes."

While life is full of rejection, "a rejection on your writing is so much more personal," said Ross, adding that as Level Best co-publisher and editor, she now understands why some writers get turned down.

"Wonderful stories get rejected," agreed Flora, who edits the anthology with Ross. Reasons for rejecting stories can be because a very similar piece was published in the previous edition, the geographical location of a story didn't mesh with the anthology's needs, or there just wasn't room, the two authors said.

Tyll van Geel of Amherst, who attended the discussion, noted that both Agatha Christie and Fyodor Dostoyevsky wrote about crime "but in very different ways," both satisfying to read.

Eileen Perron of Brookfield attended with sister Kathy Parella of Holden because "we're not football watchers," she said, referring to Sunday's Super Bowl game. "This was a nicer alternative for us."

"I thoroughly enjoyed it," Parella said, balancing six mystery novels she purchased after the talk. "I have two Kindles, but I love the feel of a book in my hands and I like being able to loan a book to a friend."