I was reviewing all the emails I received touting how to advertise your Christmas romance, mystery, et cetera, while writing the Bodie Blue November newsletter about the dearth of Christmas Cards nowadays, when I tapped out the plot for a Christmas book in a flurry of inspiration. If you want to read the fragile ladder, you can find the newsletter at my website: https://dzchurch.com.
Now I can’t get the idea of it out of my head.
I have written plenty of books that tackle Christmas, well, okay, two. And tackle might be the wrong word. They are both thrillers in my Vietnam-era-based family saga of four books. The first book ends with Christmas mayhem as the Cooper family unravels. The second book starts with the heroine picking out a Christmas tree for her cousin’s family and ends with Nixon’s Christmas carpet bombing of Vietnam. The very bombings that produced the Pulitzer Prize-winning photo of Napalm Girl. So, not happy holiday Christmas stories, but good thrillers.
Along with the usual Christmas movies (White Christmas to Prancer), I have watched my share of Christmas rom-coms, even a few rom-com mysteries. I get the tropes. But I’m not that meet-cute kinda girl. Of course, my Christmas book wouldn’t have to have romance in it. But I’m leaning toward it being part of the Wanee series, where romance almost always sidles through the porch door into Countryman House.
Having read the police reports for the small town that inspired Wanee, I know there was a doozy of a murder one winter in the 1870s. I’d tell you who done it and why, but then, well, you’d know. Which is a problem for writers, I think. I know it is for me. You know how when you tell your plot to others, even your best friend or actual husband, they tip their head and purse their lips, deflating your rapture with your plot like an overblown balloon slipping from grandma’s lips. If the reveal is gone, then why bother?
Let’s presume I rely on the nasty little murder from the police report. I’d start the book in the hands of Cora’s slightly wafty domestic Ellie, bouncing with holiday spirit and see where it went. It makes me grin just thinking about it.
The problem is, I have another book I have been chomping at the bit to write since I started the Wanee series. And I want to write it first. Which means I need to sit down right now and start it so I have time to publish a Christmas book by next Christmas – I mean, like NOW!
Because I’m a messy writer, it takes months to clean up my drafts before they’re ready for anyone but me and the toilet paper dispenser. The fifth book in the Wanee series took this entire year; that’s a long time even for me. I wrote two Wanee books the year before. On the other hand, I’ve had a few distractions, like my mountain cabin being rebuilt for fire insurance, some health issues, and my cat passing away.
And the Wanee series was designed to have only three mysteries per year because I hate series where someone dies every other day. I already have three planned for 1877, one published, one readying for spring, and the book I promised myself I’d write. With a Christmas book added, I count four murders in 1877. Here’s a thought: Maybe early 1878 was a wild time for the Women’s Christian Temperance movement. I could check my research.
But I am truly eager to write the WTCU book. I’ve wanted to tackle the WTCU ever since I had to take the El in Chicago from Evanston, home of the WTCU, to the Howard Street Station to buy wine. I was a graduate student at Medill School of Journalism and needed inspiration for late-night assignments. Yes, that is my excuse.
And I am dying to delve into the writings of Anne Wittenmyer and Frances Willard. They were the very beginning of the beginning of the women’s rights movement. And they were something. Oh, my, yes, indeed!
You see my problem, right? A piffle of a Christmas book based on a rather foul murder, or women marching through the streets of Wanee in sashes and boaters while a body moulders undiscovered. Come on?
It’s a plight. Christmas or the WTCU? If you have an opinion, let me know. In the meantime, have a wonderful holiday and much good food.
Find out about me and my books at https://dzchurch.com. Or just start reading about the Cooper family with “Dead Legend,” and Cora Countryman and friends with “Unbecoming a Lady.”
Ladies of Mystery 