How Cozy Should I Be?

~ Anne Louise Bannon

I love cozy mysteries. I love the daring amateur sleuths of all manner of professions, seeking out a killer to free someone or protect someone or whatever. I love getting recipes and craft instructions and knitting patterns and tips on how to brew coffee or plan tea parties or store cheese.

I also sew. I’m big into clothing construction and repair. I’ve been spending most of my weekends on lockdown getting projects done that had been languishing because I almost always had places to go on weekends and was sticking to my writing work during the week. I even blog about it occasionally.

You’d think that given the above, I’d be a natural for writing a cozy about someone who sews a lot. Which I was thinking about as I was working on my latest set of projects the other day. I know a lot about sewing. I’ve got some pretty good tips stacked up. I should totally do this, except for one problem. There’s way too much foul language in my sewing life

You see, naughty words are largely a no-no in the cozy world, and when I’m sewing, the air gets more than a little blue. This is probably because I’m not the best stitcher out there. I mean, I’ve been doing it ever since I took Home Ec in junior high (and still use the pin cushion, pins, and measuring tape I bought when I took the class). But I am pretty impatient and that does not always get the best results. Or the reality that when I get something right, there’s probably something else that goes wrong. Like here.

The other problem is that I don’t have a plot yet. I’ve got a character I’m getting to like, plus some variations on the usual tropes that make nice little twists. But I haven’t got a victim and a really good way to kill him or her, plus a reason for my amateur sleuth to be sticking her nose into police business. These may come. They may not. This is the very, very early stage of the process. And I’ve already got a techno-(I hope) thriller that’s up for getting written next. Then Book Four in the Old Los Angeles series. But, dang. A cozy involving sewing. I could do that.

Published by Anne Louise Bannon

It's all about the stories...

4 thoughts on “How Cozy Should I Be?”

  1. I used to sew all the time, back when kids were still at home. Gave it up long ago as I did knitting. Have a hard enough time doing the things I need to do, plus work on the latest book. Right now I’m at more or less the same stage as you. Feeling my way. Good post, thank you!

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  2. Anne Louise, My mom and grandmother were excellent seamstresses. I wanted to make things like they did. I tried 4-H sewing in 4th grade. Back at that time you made a 3-armhole wrap-around dress that the only sewing was putting bias tape all the way around the dress and armholes and sewing the shoulder seams. I HATED sewing after that. I tried again my senior year of high school because I had an elective. Then I loved sewing and made clothes for my kids when they were small, but now, I only make quilts, table cloths, and curtains. My books are on the edge of being cozy but would never be considered cozy. Because of some language, and more because of the dark subjects that come up in my books. Good luck with writing a sewing cozy!

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