Category: cozy mystery

First, Third, How do I choose?

~ patyjag ~ 10 Comments

I spent way too much time trying to decide if this new series should be written in first or third person. A lot of the cozy mysteries I’ve read are in first person. They stay in the main character’s point of view (POV) throughout the book.

In my other mystery books, I stay in third person for all the series. But the main character’s POV all the time in the Spotted Pony Casino books. Sometimes I add another POV character in my Gabriel Hawke books because the story needs that added POV. In my Shandra Higheagle Mysteries, I use Shandra and Ryan’s POV’s both.

This new series, I went back and forth between first person and third. So far the book has stayed in my main character’s POV. And I think I’ll keep it that way. It’s how most cozy mysteries are. But as I write, I find myself typing “I” and writing some sentences in first person. This makes me wonder if I need to go back to the beginning and start over, writing from the first-person POV.

Which do you feel is stronger?

Third Person

Andi Clark parked her van in front of the Auburn City Park where the first Christmas event of the year would kick off in an hour. People bustled around putting the finishing touches on craft and food booths. It was the Saturday after Thanksgiving and the whole county was excited to move from the doldrums of a rainy fall into preparations for Christmas.

She never arrived more than an hour before an event. Any earlier her crew of cuddles became bored and got into trouble. The committee had asked her to set up a small petting zoo where people would enter the event. She’d parked as close as she could get with the inflatable decorations and roped-off areas making the attendees follow a specific path through all the booths and over to where Santa would listen to children’s Christmas wishes.

“Come on, Cocoa, I can use your help carrying things.” Andi unbuckled her brown and white border collie from the seatbelt harness and listened to Lulu whine. Andi scratched the Chiweenie’s dapple head and black, long furry ears. “You’re too small to help me right now. You keep Athena company.” She patted the Golden Retriever/Pyrenees cross dog’s blonde head and followed Cocoa to the trailer behind the van.

 Lucky for her all her animals were small except for Athena. The large breed cross was larger than her mini donkey and pygmy goat. Andi pointed to the bucket full of the pins that held the panels together. Cocoa grabbed the handle in her mouth. Andi gathered the top two panels and carried them to the area with a sign, Cuddle Farm Animals.

First Person

Parking my van in front of the Auburn City Park, I watched people bustling around getting food and craft booths ready for the first Christmas event of the year to kick off in an hour. It was the Saturday after Thanksgiving and the whole county was excited to move from the doldrums of a rainy fall into preparations for Christmas and the possibility of snow.

I never arrive more than an hour before an event. Any earlier my crew of cuddles become bored and get into trouble. The committee asked me to set up a small petting zoo at the entrance to the event. I made my way by the inflatable decorations and roped-off areas funneling attendees down a specific path through all the booths and over to where Santa would listen to children’s Christmas wishes.

“Come on, Cocoa, I can use your help carrying things.” I unbuckled my brown and white border collie from the seatbelt harness and listened to Lulu whine. Scratching the dapple head and soft, black, long furry ears of my Chiweenie, I said, “You’re too small to help me right now. You keep Athena company.” I patted Athena, my Golden Retriever/Pyrenees’, blonde head and followed Cocoa to the trailer behind the van.

 Lucky for me, all my animals are small, except for Athena, and fairly easy to handle. Athena was larger than both my mini donkey and pygmy goat. At the trailer loaded with panels to set up a small pen, I pointed to the bucket full of pins that held the panels together. Cocoa grabbed the handle in her mouth and I gathered the top two panels and carried them to the area with a sign, Cuddle Farm Animals.

Which version makes you want to continue reading?

When I wrote my first mystery 30 years ago, it was in first person. then an agent I sent it to, told me that no one bought mystery books in first person. Which floored me because I had just read the first three Sue Grafton books that were in first person. Anyway, I moved from first person to third and on to a different genre. Now that I’m back writing mysteries, I wonder if I also need to switch to first person for this series. I encourage all thoughts and responses to this dilemma.

A fun new adventure for me, besides trying to decide which tense to use in this new series, is having my books available to readers and listeners from my website. Yes! You can now purchase my ebooks, audiobooks, and print books from my website.

The ebooks are the same price as at other vendors but if you are a subscriber to my newsletter you will be able to purchase my new releases in ebook format from my website for a $1 less and get it before it publishes to other vendors. So if you want to get my new releases at a reduced price and before they release anywhere else, you need to subscribe to my newsletter. https://bit.ly/2IhmWcm

Also available from my website are my audiobooks, which ARE priced lower than at other audiobook vendors. Because I don’t have to pay a middleman to get my audiobooks to you, you get the reward of a lower cost. Also watch my newsletter and website for audiobook deals. As part of the IAD- Independent Authors Direct- group, I will have specials on my audiobooks every two weeks.

My print books have been for sale on my website for a year now. If you purchase a print book directly from me, you get it autographed, some swag, and free shipping. You can’t beat that!

Happy New Year everyone!

The Snake in the Grass

~ dzchurch ~ 1 Comment

The leaves on the oak outside my window have yellowed and are heavy with rain. Wonderful rain. No more threat of fire, though we do seem to have a wee firebug in our area happily lighting small blazes that keep our CalFire folks busy. No need to ask why. Power is almost always the answer.

The desire for it, the need for it, and the loss of it. As strong a motive for murder or mayhem as any. Perhaps greater than jealousy, love, and hate all combined. But not money because money is part of the power paradigm, a weapon that can be unleashed against others to keep them at heel.

The scariest purveyors of power are those in sheep’s clothing. As I write that, I am thinking of Rev. Francis Davey, Vicar of Altarnun, in Daphne DuMaurier’s Jamaica Inn. As foul a human as one could imagine, one who envisions himself as a wolf in front of his unsuspecting flock of sheep. A villain’s shuddery villain, without a name until the reveal, the puppet master. Oh, there are others, but this was my first and yes, a chill ran up my spine when Mary Yellen found the Vicar’s drawing.

Power. Control. The conceit of holding it close, knowing you alone are aware of the power you wield. Oh my. But how to write such a character, so subtle, so hidden, yet the master of your story? There are types. The helper, the one who is always there, gently steering the protagonists toward doom. The gay, happy, rich, swoon-worthy antagonist who attracts the innocent and then uses them. The antagonist, so subtle so in need of winning, that they move through the plot like a water moccasin through a swollen river.

These aren’t the people you are consciously watching as you read; they are the ones that niggle at the corners of your mind. Why was he in the room? Why did so and so seek out our hero? Why are they everywhere? What is their purpose in the tale? They couldn’t have been the killer. Or could they, or is something more nefarious their goal? Like their purpose in the book, they bring power and control to the narrative. A drive that bubbles below the surface until it boils.

I love ‘em, I do. And I admit to weaving them into the occasional book. The purposeful manipulators. The ones with so much to lose that they are blinded by the need. The ones who will do anything to win. Lie, cheat, steal, kill – take over the world.

Books are rife with the bombastic variety, but it is the snake in the grass I love. They are a shoot of wheat rattling in a nonexistent breeze that catches your eye and sends a frisson up your back.

I know this as a writer.  It takes great discipline and tedious planning to develop such a character, keeping the behavior consistent and weaving the foreshadowing to sustain the mystery. Because the one thing readers will never forgive you for is throwing in a surprise killer or manipulator. If you’ve done well, the reader will relish rewinding the book for clues that implicate the character. If you’ve done it wrong, they’ll close the book and perhaps never read a book of yours again. And that, my friend, is a scary proposition.

A friendly reminder, The Ladies of Mystery, Cavalcade of Books is available at https://bodiebluebooks.com/ladiesofmystery. It’s filled with wonderful tales, some with well-hidden evil. Twenty-nine great reads, including three of mine.

Find me at https://dzchurch.com and on Amazon, just search on d. z. church.

Guest Blogger ~ Susie Black

~ patyjag ~ 4 Comments

How I Develop My Characters and Plan My Mysteries

By nature, I am a people person, so, developing characters is where I begin when planning a story. Once the characters are created, the plot is built around them, not the reverse. So, how do I develop my characters? I have kept a daily journal chronicling all the interesting, difficult, and oddball people I have encountered as well as the crazy situations I’ve gotten myself into and out of during my apparel sales career.  The journal entries are the foundation of my mysteries. All my characters are based on people I have encountered in my career as a ladies’ swimwear sales exec. I take the characteristics, quirks, traits, and personalities of these real people as the foundation and then build upon them to create the cast members I want in the tale. Basing my characters on people I know has given my cast a ring of authenticity and that believability has translated into memorable characters readers root for or boo at, but either way, invest in.

To illustrate my character development technique, I’ll detail how I created Holly Schlivnik, the protagonist of the Holly Swimsuit Mystery Series. Holly Schlivnik is based on me. She is the me I always wanted to be and more. She is fearless, loyal to a fault, and smart. 

Holly is infused with me in every respect- from her physical description to her personality to her life experiences, career, family, friends, the kind of car she drives, and where she lives.

Physical Description:

Holly is slim as I am and is my height- 4 feet 8 inches to be exact. I have made the consequences of her height lack of it, a key component of the messes she gets herself into and the adjustments she’s had to make in her everyday life to accommodate her height. These situations add to her personality and turn into some of the funniest schticks of the series. She has brown eyes and short brown hair like mine.

Personality:

Like me, she is funny, sarcastic, stubborn, wise-cracking, and irreverent.

Idiosyncrasies, and inherited traits:

I inherited a fear of death from my maternal grandmother that we both overcompensated with the nervous habit of laughing, often inappropriately. I incorporated this idiosyncrasy into Holly’s personality and made it one of the main characteristics that identify her. I also inherited my grandmother’s rapier wit and a love of perfume and jewelry. I blended these into Holly’s personality as well.

Family: My dad was a ladies’ apparel manufacturer’s representative and I started my career working for him and so is Holly’s dad. I got into the rag biz by accident and so did Holly.  Holly also started her apparel career working for her father. My parents were complete opposites who had a very successful marriage and so are Holly’s. Holly’s parents, bigger-than-life maternal grandmother, and siblings were all based on my family. 

Religion: Like me, Holly is Jewish and the traditions and history are woven throughout the series and add to the richness and authenticity of each story.

Love Life: While I lived in the South, I did have two men in my life one of who I have introduced into Holly’s life.  Unlike Holly, I have never had a personal relationship with a police detective.

Pets: Sigmund Freud, Holly’s wildly popular standard poodle/psychiatrist and amateur sleuth, is based on the personalities of my own two springer spaniels. While he can’t talk, like my two hounds, Siggie gets his point across. He shakes his head yes and no, rolls his eyes, barks if he disagrees with Holly, and has been known to pull her in the opposite direction if he doesn’t think Holly is going the right way.

Health and habits: To keep my girlish figure, I am a dedicated walker I walk three miles every day- and have made Holly’s daily walks with Sigmund to the Washington Street Pier an important part of her routine. “Pop,” the senior citizen fisherman she has befriended and shares morning coffee with on the pier has helped her solve several murders.

Hobbies: I have been an avid stamp collector since my pre-teen years. In book number six, which was recently released, it is revealed that Holly is a stamp collector. She encounters someone tangentially involved in a murder while at her stamp dealer’s store.

Car: I have owned convertible cars throughout my driving career. I incorporated my love of convertibles into my stories by having Holly drive a bubblegum pink classic convertible passed down to her by her mother. 

Home: I lived on a houseboat in Marina del Rey for ten years. I loved living on the water in a houseboat and amalgamated that into the series by having Holly live on a houseboat in Marina del Rey, California. I have used Holly’s houseboat and marina locale as an integral part of Holly’s personality as well as the site of her adventures and misadventures as an amateur sleuth. 

Age: Holly is on the shady side of her twenties when she is promoted from a sales rep to a management position. This is the same age when I made the leap from sales rep to executive management.

Friends and colleagues:  Like me, Holly is in a traditionally male-dominated industry and is one of the very few females in a management position. I surrounded her with a group of female professional colleagues and friends who supported her and mentored her like the ones I was fortunate enough to have had to do the same for me. The Yentas are based on that group of wonderful women.

Career:

Holly is the same successful ladies’ swimwear sales exec based in the Los Angeles apparel center as me. 

Employment: Ditzy Swimwear and Mermaid Swimwear are based on two swimwear companies I worked for.

I have created a fictionalized me that has been fun to bring to life. Fortunately, unlike Holly Schlivnik, I have never discovered a murdered person or hunted down a killer…at least, not yet!

Death by Jelly Beans

“Brings a whole new meaning to the rabbit died.”

Mermaid Swimwear President Holly Schlivnik discovers the Bainbridge Department Store Easter Bunny slumped over dead and obnoxious swimwear buyer Sue Ellen Magee is arrested for the crime. Despite her differences with the nasty buyer, Holly is convinced the Queen of Mean didn’t do it. The wise-cracking, irreverent amateur sleuth jumps into action to nail the real killer. But the trail has more twists than a pretzel and more turns than a rollercoaster. And nothing turns out the way Holly thinks it will as she tangles with a clever killer hellbent on revenge.

https://www.amazon.com/Death-Jelly-Beans-Swimsuit-Mystery/dp/B0D88FNBSS

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/death-by-jelly-beans-susie-black/1145804565?ean=2940186124580

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/212700868-death-by-jelly-beans?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=PWl56Hmfkz&rank=1

https://www.bookbub.com/books/death-by-jelly-beans-holly-swimsuit-mystery-book-5-by-susie-black

Named Best US Author of the Year by N. N. Lights Book Heaven, award-winning cozy mystery author Susie Black was born in the Big Apple but now calls sunny Southern California home. Like the protagonist in her Holly Swimsuit Mystery Series, Susie is a successful apparel sales executive. Susie began telling stories as soon as she learned to talk. Now she’s telling all the stories from her garment industry experiences in humorous mysteries.

She reads, writes, and speaks Spanish, albeit with an accent that sounds like Mildred from Michigan went on a Mexican vacation and is trying to fit in with the locals. Since life without pizza and ice cream as her core food groups wouldn’t be worth living, she’s a dedicated walker to keep her girlish figure. A voracious reader, she’s also an avid stamp collector. Susie lives with a highly intelligent man and has one incredibly brainy but smart-aleck adult son who inexplicably blames his sarcasm on an inherited genetic defect.

Looking for more? Contact Susie at:

Website: www.authorsusieblack.com

E-mail: mysteries_@authorsusieblack.com

Book Bub: www.bookbub.com/authors/susie-black

Facebook:    https://facebook.com/TheHollySwimsuitMysterySeries

Good Reads: https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=susieblack&qid=MDCXK0T4FC

Instagram:   Susie Black (@hollyswimsuit) • Instagram photos and videos

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/authorsusieblack-61941011

Pinterest:  https://www.pinterest.com/hollysusie1_saved/

Twitter:    http://twitter.com/@hollyswimsuit

Guest Blogger ~ Marla White

~ patyjag ~ 7 Comments

Why I Write the Un-Cozy Genre

Any time someone asks “why do you write mysteries” I tell them because it’s the only way to kill someone who irritates me and not go to jail.

And I tend to stick to cozy mysteries because I don’t want to have to learn cop procedures. Just kidding. I still do a lot of research on cop jargon, weapons, and crimes, but I like to focus on what makes characters tick more than the policy and protocols. I leave that to the more procedural driven writers because those are the kind of details you cannot get wrong and still maintain your readers’ trust.

First, let’s establish that most people define a cozy mystery as a book set in a small town. In “Framed for Murder”, the setting of Pine Cove is heavily influenced by the actual town of Idyllwild, California. Neighbors know each other, they have a dog for a mayor, and there’s only two major streets. To me, there’s something comforting about characters living in a place where nothing truly bad happens (unless you count the dead person who usually is universally disliked anyway) and often there’s a spark of romance. It’s a nice break from real life.

One of the first books I read as a kid was a Nancy Drew mystery, so detectives out of uniform who can make up the rules as they go along have always been appealing. Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe, Robert Parker’s Spenser, and of course the great Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum all get to solve crimes but bend a few laws along the way. Dick Francis’ mysteries were a huge influence as well. My first full-length novel from The Wild Rose Press, “Cause for Elimination,” has a cop as one of the main characters, but there’s also Emily Conners, professional horse trainer and part-time snoop. Besides, once you throw a little romance in there, it’s reasonable that some rules get broken. Plus, his partner is a snarky, lovable jerk who refuses to draw inside the lines anyway, so problem solved!

Which brings me to the “un-cozy” part of the story. One reviewer loved “Framed for Murder” but commented that they’d call it an un-cozy because my characters go beyond the sure steadiness of a Miss Marple. For instance, my characters’ lives are screwed up long before they find the body In the Pine Cove books, the main character Mel O’Rourke faces a fear of heights, learns how to run an aging B&B, deals with her eccentric grandmother, and solves a murder. The stakes for Mel aren’t just life or death, although there’s that too; she struggles with her identity as she has to start her life over.

In truth, I’m one of those idiots that writes in multiple genres. The idea of self-discovery is a common theme throughout all of them, whether it’s after losing a job, a cheating boyfriend, or the world as you knew it. It’s when characters are at their most vulnerable but also the most interesting. It’s one thing to know at the end of a cozy the killer will be caught, that’s kind of a given. But as a writer, I love the journey of writing a book where I have no idea what’s next for my characters beyond solving the core plot problem until I’ve outlined all the way to ‘The End’.

Old enemies become allies to unravel a deadly mystery. 

Mel O’Rourke used to be a cop before a life-changing injury forced her to turn in her badge. Now she leads a relatively peaceful life running a B & B in the quirky mountain town of Pine Cove. That is, until her old frenemy, the charismatic cat burglar Poppy Phillips, shows up, claiming she’s been framed for murder. While she’s no saint, Mel knows she’d never kill anyone and sets out to prove Poppy’s innocence.

The situation gets complicated, however, when the ruggedly handsome Deputy Sheriff Gregg Marks flirts with Mel, bringing him dangerously close to the criminal she’s hiding. And just when her friendship with café owner Jackson Thibodeaux blossoms into something more, he’s offered the opportunity of a lifetime in New Orleans. Should she encourage him to go, or ask him to stay? Who knew romance could be just as hard to solve as murder?

Buy Links

Amazon – https://bit.ly/43Uwj96

Barnes and Noble – https://bit.ly/3TKdPDu

Apple Books – https://books.apple.com/us/book/framed-for-murder/id6483932566

GoodReads – https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/211106987-framed-for-murder

AllAuthor – https://allauthor.com/book/87348/framed-for-murder-a-pine-cove-mystery/

Books2Read – books2read.com/u/4Djgor  

Book Bub-https://www.bookbub.com/books/framed-for-murder-by-marla-a-white

Marla White is an award-winning novelist who prefers killing people who annoy her on paper rather than in real life. Her first full-length mystery novel, “Cause for Elimination,” placed in several contests including Killer Nashville, The RONE Awards, The Reader’s Favorite, and finishing second in the Orange County Romance Writers for Romantic Suspense. Originally from Oklahoma, she lived in a lot of other states before settling down in Los Angeles to work in the television industry.  She currently teaches at UCLA Extension and gives seminars about the art of script coverage. When she’s not working on the next book, she’s hiking, cheering on the LA Kings, or discovering new craft cocktails (to, you know, drown her sorrows over the Kings #GKG).  

Social Media Links

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/TheScriptFixer

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marlawriteswords/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarlaAWhiteAuthor

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@marlaw825

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/21467766.Marla_A_White

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/marla-a-white

Amazon: https://amzn.to/3MHIzkB

Substack: https://substack.com/@marlawhite?utm_source=edit-profile-page

Guest Blogger ~ Elizabeth Crowens

~ patyjag ~ 4 Comments

A few years ago, I interviewed the most prolific writer I know, Heather Graham Pozzessere, for Black Gate magazine. https://www.blackgate.com/2018/10/10/the-poison-apple-talking-about-ghosts-an-interview-with-the-queen-of-many-genres-heather-graham/ Writing since 1982, she’s produced over 300 bestselling novels, often mixing romance with suspense and the paranormal, especially in her Krewe of Hunters series. Many people in the mystery/thriller community knew her, but apparently few in the speculative fiction arena were familiar with her work, which was why I wanted to introduce the Black Gate community to her fantastic writing.

Since it’s one thing to knock off a quickie and let your editor polish it and another to have to make it almost perfect before turning it in, I asked her if editing got any easier as more books went down the pipeline. Obviously, she’s built a long-term relationship with her editors, but I also suspected after that many books one got much better at the craft, which also sped the process along.

Although Hounds of the Hollywood Baskervilles is technically my first bona fide mystery novel in print, altogether I have written ten novels which include unfinished works-in-progress, unpublished manuscripts, and published books in other genres. For each of them, I hired freelance editors. For my first novel I hired three, an expensive ordeal, but I was learning the craft of writing as I went along. In a certain way, it was like having a private writing tutor.

By now, I’ve learned a lot from my mistakes. The editing process is a lot faster. For certain elements, I have it down to a science which I’ve nicknamed Search and Destroy. I should probably propose to teach this in a session at a writers’ convention, but this technique helps slash and burn word count and helps eliminate redundancies. The great thing about it is that anyone can do it using Microsoft Word and the Find and Replace function under the Edit dropdown menu.

In a nutshell when we are writing, all of us use certain words far too often. Try doing a word search for common conjunctions such as but and although, adverbs such as maybe (and not only the ones with ly endings) and prepositions such as up and down. See if you can make your sentences more concise. Many times you can also spice up your prose or dialogue with better synonyms. Once you go through your manuscript, it’s amazing how other errors will scream out at you. However, using my Search and Destroy technique still doesn’t eliminate the value of having a second or third set of eyes review your manuscript. – Elizabeth Crowens

Hounds of the Hollywood Baskervilles

Asta, the dog from the popular Thin Man series, has vanished, and production for his next film is pending. MGM Studios offers a huge reward, and that’s exactly what young private detectives Babs Norman and Guy Brandt need for their struggling business to survive. Celebrity dognapping now a growing trend, when the police and city pound ridicule Basil Rathbone and ask, “Sherlock Holmes has lost his dog?” Basil also hires the B. Norman Agency to find his missing Cocker Spaniel.

The three concoct a plan for Basil to assume his on-screen persona and round up possible suspects, including Myrna Loy and William Powell; Dashiell Hammett, creator of The Thin Man; Nigel Bruce, Basil’s on-screen Doctor Watson; Hollywood-newcomer, German philanthropist and film financier Countess Velma von Rache, and the top animal trainers in Tinseltown. Yet everyone will be in for a shock when the real reason behind the canine disappearances is even more sinister than imagined.

Buy links: Bookshop.org https://bookshop.org/p/books/hounds-of-the-hollywood-baskervilles-a-babs-norman-hollywood-mystery-elizabeth-crowens/21021163

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Hounds-Hollywood-Baskervilles-Norman-Mystery/dp/1685125425/ref=sr_1_1

ISBNS:                                    978-1-68512-542-4 (paperback) $16.95

                                                978-1-68512-543-1 (ebook)  $5.99

Elizabeth Crowens has worn many hats in the entertainment industry, contributed stories to Black Belt, Black Gate, Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazines, Hell’s Heart, and the Bram Stoker-nominated A New York State of Fright, and has a popular Caption Contest on Facebook.

Awards include: Leo B. Burstein Scholarship from the MWA-NY Chapter, NYFA grant to publish New York: Give Me Your Best or Your Worst, Eric Hoffer Award, Glimmer Train Awards Honorable Mention, two Grand prize, and six First prize Chanticleer Awards. Crowens writes multi-genre alternate history and historical Hollywood mystery. Hounds of the Hollywood Baskervilles, which won First Prize in both Chanticleer’s Mark Twain and Murder & Mayhem Awards and placed as a Finalist in Killer Nashville’s Claymore Awards for Best Humorous Mystery, was released in March 2024.

SOCIAL MEDIA HANDLES:

Facebook.com/thereel.elizabeth.crowens

X.com/ECrowens

Instagram.com/ElizabethCrowens

LinkedIn  https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabeth-crowens-5227804/

Goodreads  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15173793.Elizabeth_Crowens

AUTHOR WEBSITE: www.elizbethcrowens.com