Category: paranormal mystery

Guest Blogger ~ DeAnna Drake

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When the Sidekick Steals the Story—and the Readers
by DeAnna Drake

Every mystery writer starts out knowing exactly who the main character is supposed to be.

We spend hours shaping her voice, refining her backstory, and placing her at the center of every twist and turn. She’s the one asking questions, following clues, and ultimately restoring order to a world that’s slipped just slightly out of balance.

What we don’t always expect is who our readers will fall in love with.

In my case, it wasn’t the sleuth. It was the cat.

Not just any cat, of course, but a talking cat.

When I first introduced a feline companion into my cozy mysteries, she was meant to be exactly that: a companion. A touch of charm. A quiet presence curled up nearby while the investigation unfolded. She added warmth, a hint of whimsy, and just enough personality to make the world feel a little kinder.

At least, that was the plan.

That first cat was Aneksi—an immortal talking kitten who once walked the halls of Cleopatra’s court before finding her way into the modern world. With her calm, observant nature and a perspective shaped by centuries of experience, she brought something unexpected to the Purr-fect Relic Cozy Mystery series from the very beginning.

Even then, I didn’t realize how important she would become.

Readers, however, had other ideas.

They wanted to know everything about her, and then some. It started with a few comments. Then emails. Then more emails that all circled back to the same question:

When would we be seeing more of her?

At first, I smiled and took it as a compliment. Of course they liked her. I liked her, too. But she had a role to play, and I thought I understood what that role was.

It turned out readers had a much bigger vision.

As the Purr-fect Relic series grew, so did Aneksi’s role. And then something happened that took both the story—and reader enthusiasm—to another level.

In the third book of the Purr-fect Relic series, Aneksi met her long-lost sister, Kheppy. The moment they shared the page, something shifted. Readers immediately connected with their dynamic—the contrast between Aneksi’s quiet wisdom and Kheppy’s sharper, more outspoken nature—and their enthusiasm for the pair sparked an idea I hadn’t anticipated.

A spin-off series.

Kheppy stepped into a starring role in the Laguna Bay Midlife Witch Cozy Mysteries, bringing her distinct personality—and her strong opinions—into a new setting filled with new characters and new mysteries to unravel.

And it all began with a cat I thought would stay in the background.

What I came to understand through this process was both surprising and, in hindsight, entirely natural.

As authors, we begin with a vision of the story we want to tell. We map out characters, arcs, and outcomes. We know who the hero is supposed to be and how the journey is meant to unfold.

But the best storytelling doesn’t happen in a vacuum.

When I started paying attention—really paying attention—to how readers were responding, something shifted. Their enthusiasm for Aneksi, their curiosity about her world, and their excitement when Kheppy entered the story opened doors I hadn’t even realized existed.

Following that thread didn’t just change the direction of the series. It changed the way I approached my cozy mysteries.

It made the stories richer, more layered, and more connected to the people reading them.

Just as importantly, it made a difference beyond the page. Reader engagement grew, and the connection between story and audience deepened in ways I hadn’t expected.

In the end, I came to understand something simple but powerful: paying attention to those reactions can reveal where a story wants to grow.

Sometimes the characters we think are supporting players are the ones carrying the story’s deepest spark.

I may have started the story, but listening to my readers helped it become something more.

Candy, Cauldrons, and a Corpse (Laguna Bay Midlife Witch Cozy Mystery Book 1)
by DeAnna Drake

A spellbinding Halloween cozy mystery with a talking cat, small-town secrets, and midlife magic.

Boo Boudreaux’s Halloween Boo-tique in quirky Laguna Bay has seen its share of trouble—but nothing like a rival shop stealing her customers and threatening her chance at the Top Haunt Window Contest.

When that rival turns up dead—face-down in a witch’s cauldron—all eyes turn to Boo.

With her reputation on the line, Boo must rely on her instincts, her loyal friends, and her opinionated talking cat to clear her name.

But as she digs deeper, Boo uncovers dark secrets beneath Laguna Bay’s sunny charm, and realizes some ghosts refuse to stay buried.

Can she unmask the killer before she becomes the next target?

BUY LINK: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FVH89JXP

DeAnna Drake writes cozy mysteries powered by magical cats, tea, and a touch of whimsy. She is the author of the Purr-fect Relic Cozy Mysteries and the Laguna Bay Midlife Witch Cozy Mysteries, and enjoys sharing bonus scenes and cozy extras with her readers on Substack. https://deannadrake.substack.com

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/DeAnnaDrakeWrites

INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/deannadrakeauthor

Guest Blogger ~ Greta Boris

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The Lighter Side of Death

Greta Boris

It was March 19, 2020, and I was in San Diego at the Left Coast Crime Convention. I was just leaving my first (or maybe second) panel discussion when an announcement came over the loud speakers. The conference was being cancelled. The governor had just shut down the state. I grabbed my bags and headed for home.

During lockdown a lot of authors shut down just like the country. Their stories dried up. They were too distracted by the pandemic and all it’s accompanying fears to write.

Not me. Writing became my sanity.

There are two basic ways people deal with difficulties. Some are internal processors. They need to sit quietly and think things through. This is the kind of person I wish I was.

I am the second kind, however. I’m an external processor. Often, I don’t really know what I think about things until I get them out of my brain into the atmosphere.

Thankfully for my husband, I’m also a writer. Talking works, but so does writing. It’s saved our marriage. He can only handle so much of my mental meanderings.

Anyway, back to 2020. I was sure, like the rest of you, that this whole pandemic thing would be over in a hot minute. As the weeks of isolation dragged on, however, I realized I was going to have to do something with the growing fear within.

At the time, I was wrapping up book five or six of a seven book psychological suspense series now titled The Almost True Crime Series. It’s written as a if its a true crime podcast with each book representing one season of the show. My podcaster, Molly Shure, delves into the minds of the killers, trying to understand the “whys” behind the crimes. This is a topic that fascinates me, but it’s a little on the dark side.

In the middle of COVID, with all the darkness that it brought, I felt the need for something lighter and brighter. Being the kid that did NOT pull the covers over my head when something went bump in the night, I knew I had to tackle the current zeitgeist head on. I had to find the lighter side of death.

Coincidentally, my daughter had recently introduced me to a YouTube channel—The Ask a Mortician Show. Caitlin Doughty, an actual mortician, was funny and real and so, so interesting. She tackled topics like embalming procedures for people who’d died in various gruesome ways, strange burial rituals from around the globe, and why green burials were the wave of the future.

She, I thought, would make an excellent amateur sleuth. But how or why would a mortician be privy to things the authorities weren’t? By the time she got her hands on a corpse, medical and law enforcement professionals would have already investigated if an investigation was warranted.

Then, I remembered a conversation I’d had at the salon back in the good old days when we were allowed to groom ourselves. A stylist told me about another stylist who moonlighted in mortuaries doing hair for the dead.

What if my character got a request to style a deceased client for that client’s funeral? What if she discovered a hitherto unknown talent when she did? What if she could feel the final emotions or sensations of that person when she touched their hair? And what if the person demanded justice by haunting my main character until the murderer was exposed?

That had legs. I had an interesting protagonist with an interesting gift, a reason she would know things the police and coroner wouldn’t, and most importantly, a reason for her to encounter lots of dead people. No shade on Miss Marple, I love those stories, but the murder rate in St. Mary Meed was hard to swallow.

Thus To Dye For, book one in The Mortician Murders was born. I’m currently writing book nine in Imogene Lynch’s story. She’s found more than a gift and a slew of murderers. She’s found family, a legacy of power, an arch enemy in the Orange County Medical Examiner, and an evil cult she must ultimately confront. She’s also found love with Greener Pastures Mortuary’s hunky night watchman, Elmore Leonard Brown, who later in the series becomes an Orange County Sheriff.

The Mortician Murder world has been a respite for me from the tumult of the 2020s. The scary things Imogene has braved have helped me face my own fears during COVID and beyond. Through her, I’ve discovered a secret weapon—laughter. As hyperbolic as it might sound, writing this series has taught me that embracing the lighter side of death helps to diffuse the power of darkness.

Viva la Cozy Mystery!

To Dye For – A Ghostly Mortician Murder

Death is Permanent. Unless It’s Not.

Imogene’s client has an unusual request. The only problem? She’s dead.

Hairstylist Imogene Lynch agrees to do a simple, if creepy, favor—styling the hair of her favorite client for her funeral. Things take a chilling turn when the body refuses to stay still. Either Imogene is losing her mind, or something far more sinister is at play.

Determined to untangle the mystery, she joins forces with the mortuary’s infuriatingly handsome night watchman. What do they uncover? Turns out her client’s death, like her hair color, wasn’t exactly natural. And worse—she’s not the only victim.

Someone is thinning out the population of Liberty Grove, and if Imogene isn’t careful, she’ll be next.

For fans of reluctant heroes, ghostly mysteries, and murder with a side of dark humor.

Buy link:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09WG2SVDC

Greta Boris is the USA Today Bestselling author of The Mortician Murders, a ghostly mystery series, and The Almost True Crime series, stories of psychological suspense. She hails from sunny Southern California, where—based on her books, which are all set there—things are darker than you’d expect. 

She’s also a popular workshop instructor with books and online courses on a variety of writing topics.

Author Links:  http://gretaboris.com and  https://www.facebook.com/greta.boris

Guest Blogger ~ Jacqueline Diamond

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I never thought of myself as a rule-breaker but…

One “rule” prescribed for novelists is to establish your “brand” and stick to it. Romantic comedies? Write a zillion! Medical-themed romances? Stick with that! Mysteries with a medical twist? Make that your one-and-only.

Although I have a good imagination, I can’t picture spending more than forty years writing basically the same type of book over and over. Or maybe it’s because I have a good imagination.

Since I sold my first romance (Lady in Disguise) in the early 1980s, I’ve published more than one hundred novels. They include mainstream mysteries and paranormal suspense, romantic comedies and contemporary romances.

Isn’t that enough for any writer? Well, no.

About ten years ago, after completing my Safe Harbor Medical romance series for Harlequin, I felt an urge to use that small-town hospital setting for mysteries. Since that type of novel didn’t align with Harlequin’s needs, I decided to venture into self-publishing.

I’d already begun reissuing some of my earlier books, including the mystery Danger Music, so I had a sense of the technical requirements. This turned out to be a rewarding creative decision that resulted in my Safe Harbor Medical mysteries, starting with The Case of the Questionable Quadruplet.

The four books in the series feature a young widowed doctor who solves murders in conjunction with his cranky, private investigator sister-in-law. Much as I enjoyed writing them, though, that series eventually reached what felt like a natural conclusion.

In the meantime, I’d become intrigued by cozy mysteries with talking cats, magical villages and mystical libraries. What I needed was a fresh, original take on the genre.

Coincidentally (or so I thought), with the end of the Covid lockdown, my husband and I seized the opportunity to travel to a place I’d always been intrigued by: Prague, in the Czech Republic. This turned out to be an inspired, and inspiring, choice.

Prague is a gorgeous city with an impressive literary history. We stayed at the Art Nouveau Palace Hotel, whose café was once a meeting place for artists and writers including Franz Kafka.

I’d heard tales of a golden age in Prague when Jewish intellectual life flourished. Since that’s my ancestry, I especially loved the stories of a magical rabbi who created an artificial man of clay, called a Golem, that acted as a protector for Jews.

Unfortunately, they needed one. The Austro-Hungarian empress Maria Theresa, a religious bigot (and mother of Marie Antoinette), expelled the Jews from Prague in December, 1744.

Don’t you wish you could right the wrongs of the past? Maybe I could… in fiction.

What emerged from my offbeat mind was a reimagined, alternate version of Prague, ruled by wizards. When an evil queen tried to seize their city, they pooled their powers and accomplished the near-impossible, shifting their land halfway around the world.

The disruption shook loose and redistributed their town’s intrinsic magick, with surprising results. One of these was to imbue humanlike speech into a breed of cats. Yes, talking cats!

In a realm isolated from their surroundings (the West Coast of what became the United States), their culture developed in a unique way. Nearly three hundred years later, a young woman, an orphan who has no idea she’s from this enchanted city, is “summoned” there to discover that she’s inherited the town’s ancient library from her grandmother, who’s been murdered.

To solve the mystery and bring justice for her grandmother, she has to awaken her hidden powers. Along the way, she finds a touch of a romance and realizes her longtime companion cat, Kafka, has the power of speech.

The writing process was fun and challenging, splashed with humor and danger as my heroine, Chess, and I explored this new world. The climax proved even more exciting than I’d hoped, with a dash of bravery by Kafka and his pals.

My favorite review came from National Book Award winner Neal Shusterman, who wrote, “Master storyteller Jacqueline Diamond draws you in to this magical feline mystery, enchanting you page after page. You’ll fall in love with Chess Vevoda, and the wild world she’s stumbled into!”

A Cat’s Garden of Secrets launches my Forgotten Village Magical Mystery series. It’s complete in itself—no cliffhanger endings in my novels.

Now, I’m happily writing the next book, A Cat’s Nose for Murder, with a storyline that gives Chess and her cat a new mystery to solve and a little more romance (for both of them).

A Cat’s Garden of Secrets is my 109th book. But in a sense, I feel like I’m just getting started!

A Cat’s Garden of Secrets

Awakening magical powers? Yes! Solving a murder, sure. But turning into a cat? Who, me?

On the weirdest day of my life, my cat starts talking, my car kidnaps me to a charming hidden village, and I inherit a mystical library. Plus, I discover I have superpowers!

As an orphan who grew up in foster care, I had no idea I came from an enchanted land full of furry shapeshifters, including—surprise!—me. Or that I had a gifted grandmother, who’s been murdered. Now it’s up to me, with the help of a handsome, otherworldly detective and my know-it-all cat, to uncover the truth… if someone doesn’t kill me first.

Enjoy cozy mysteries with talking animals? Love tales of awakening supernatural abilities and small-town bookstores and libraries? Discover why National Book Award winner Neal Shusterman wrote, “Master storyteller Jacqueline Diamond draws you in to this magical feline mystery, enchanting you page after page.”

Buy links:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CR4KYCM9

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-cats-garden-of-secrets-jacqueline-diamond/1144921034?ean=2940185636138

GooglePlay: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=Kcn9EAAAQBAJ

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/a-cat-s-garden-of-secrets

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1542627

Apple: https://books.apple.com/us/book/a-cats-garden-of-secrets/id6480234897

Audio https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CR5PBK9Y

USA Today bestselling author Jacqueline Diamond has sold more than 100 novels in popular genres from fantasy to mystery to medical romance to Regency. A former Associated Press reporter, Jackie has traveled widely, and currently lives in California. Among her honors are a Romantic Times Career Achievement Award and a Thomas Watson Foundation fellowship. A Cat’s Garden of Secrets launches her Forgotten Village Magical Mystery series. You’re welcome to learn more about her and her books on her website, Jacquelinediamond.net.

Guest Blogger ~ J.T. Kelly

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I began my writing career after retiring at the age of 70. At the end of my first novel, protagonists Jack and Sara McCabe are thrilled to learn they’re going to have a baby. Fast forward four years later to my seventh novel. That child has grown to be twenty-year-old Amos, who has just graduated from college with a degree in anthropology and archeology.

Amos survived and even thrived in the sixth book, Missing Memories. So I wanted to explore an opportunity for him to spread his wings in another thrilling adventure.

 During research for book seven, I learned that archeologists actually found the bones of nine Neanderthals in a cave south of Rome, Italy. They also uncovered the remains of prehistoric predators, including the giant hyenas. Scientists decided the hyenas killed the Neanderthals and brought them to the cave for a feast.

Having lived in the area for a year, I decided this would be a fascinating opportunity for young McCabe. In the story, he’s invited to be part of the cave dig site.

Needing to find out as much as I could about the Neanderthals, I spent days poring over research about their lives 50,000 years ago. They faced a variety of challenges from nature, including freezing temperatures and volcanic eruptions. And from fierce beasts and humans. While humans interbred with Neanderthals, they also took them for their slaves.

The Neanderthals were skilled as hunters, both on land and in the sea, and were adept at making fire, carving wood and stone, making jewelry and weapons. But they were no match for the humans.

What would it be like for a modern day human to inexplicably enter the bizarre world of the Neanderthals? What could he teach them to help them improve their lives? Or would the experience be too threatening to even survive? That’s why I decided to write Ominous Odyssey. The story evolved during the writing process. It was an emotional experience for me but I was thrilled with the result.

Here’s part of a recap on the back cover of the novel:

Ominous Odyssey is a thriller and a love story. It takes place four years after teenager Amos McCabe escaped from kidnappers. Now, with a degree in archeology and anthropology, he receives an invitation to work at a dig site in Italy south of Rome. Archeologists discovered the bones of nine Neanderthals. The young man can’t wait to learn more of the secrets of these prehistoric people.

The lead archeologist informs Amos there are tunnels they hadn’t yet explored. His curiosity gets the better of him. The adventurer brings his headlamp and investigates before anyone arrives for work. When the young man reaches the end of a tunnel, something terrifying happens.

He discovers he’s been transported to an alternate universe of 50,000 years ago. The explorer soon realizes there’s no way to escape. What will become of McCabe? Has his exuberance gotten the better of him? Join Amos for an adventure of a lifetime.

buy link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BYGD3XZT.

I was thrilled to see this book review in Amazon Italy: “What’s unique about this international thriller is its ability to explore the unknown. The story is intense and full of suspense, with an ending that is incredible. Ominous Odyssey is not just an adventure novel, it’s an intriguing journey that provokes reflection on what it means to be human, and how we can influence the world around us.”

My works include Fair Ways and Foul Plays, Deadly Defiance, Suite Suspicion, Formula for a Felony, Diamond Destiny, Missing Memories, and Ominous Odyssey. Prior to my writing efforts, I honed my creative skills as an advertising and communications professional.

Readers find that I reference Lake Maxinkuckee near Culver, Indiana, liberally in my novels. It was a summer vacation place that holds many fond memories from as far back as I can remember. The action or crime begins in this small community and explodes in a variety of European locales.

An avid reader, I’ve enjoyed numerous authors in the mystery, thriller, and suspense categories. As a result, I hope you’ll experience the degree of fast-paced excitement that rivals many of the most popular in these genres.

To learn more about me and to send a message, visit my website at www.kellyfairways.us. There are reviews and recaps of each book along with links to purchase them on Amazon and to provide 5-star reviews. The website also provides links to social media pages.

Guest Blogger ~ Skye Alexander

~ patyjag ~ 3 Comments

Mystery Stories and Mystery Schools

What comes to mind when you hear the word “occult”? Evil cults that worship the devil? Weird rituals where animals are sacrificed? Wizards with nefarious aims wielding power behind the scenes? If so, you probably got those impressions from Hollywood or from fear-based religious groups. Let’s pull back the dark curtain that shrouds the occult arts to discover how supernatural elements can contribute to a mystery novel’s plot.

What Does “Occult” Mean?

First of all, the word “occult” simply means hidden, as in hidden knowledge. For centuries, people who practiced the occult arts had to hide what they knew and practiced in order to avoid imprisonment, torture, and murder at the hands of misguided authorities. They formed secret societies sometimes known as Mystery Schools, passed down wisdom through symbols and oral tradition, and wrote in secret code.

Yet occult ideas and practices––witchcraft, divination, spellcasting, incantations, and magic potions––continue to fascinate us to this day. Perhaps the most famous scene in literature comes from Shakespeare’s MacBeth where three witches stir a mysterious brew while they prophesy “toil and trouble” for the Scottish king. The Bard’s plays MacBeth and Hamlet also feature ghosts, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream involves faery spells and shapeshifting. More recently, J.K. Rowling’s popular Harry Potter stories have captured the imaginations of millions of young people worldwide and introduced them to some of the tenets of magic work––and its possibilities.

Using the Occult in Plotting a Story

Occult practices involve working with forces beyond the mundane, tapping into reservoirs of hidden power, and sometimes interacting with supernatural beings. Therefore, they let writers and readers step outside the ordinary limitations of a storyline. Ghosts and spirits can also expand readers’ knowledge into realms beyond the physical. In Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones, for example, a murdered girl shares a perspective of the crime from her vantage point on the other side.

Oracles such as the tarot, astrology, or runes can give veiled glimpses into the future. Is someone destined to die when the Death card turns up in a tarot reading? In my mystery novels What the Walls Know and The Goddess of Shipwrecked Sailors, a tarot card reader sees trouble lurking ahead for the protagonist Lizzie Crane, which adds to the stories’ suspense.

Authors can incorporate metaphysical ideas into their novels in various ways. For example:

  • Is a character a seasoned witch or wizard, or a novice dabbling with forces she doesn’t understand, like the Sorcerer’s Apprentice?
  • Does a character pursue a metaphysical path that leads him to a discovery or danger? How does he grow from this experience?
  • If this is a historical novel, what local customs, religious beliefs, and laws affected occultists at that time? Are historical events, such as the Salem Witch Trials of the early 1690s, worthwhile additions to the book?
  • Do nonphysical entities influence a character’s decisions, aid her in solving a problem, or guide her into a realm beyond the physical one?
  • Does a character conjure a spell that works––or goes wrong––and takes the story in an intriguing direction?

Oh, and by the way, writing is a powerful form of magic. When casting a spell, you envision an outcome you want to create. Then you infuse it with color, action, emotion, intention, and passion. You experience it as if you’re living it right now. In your mind’s eye, you see the result as if it already exists––and you’re the Creator who makes it happen. Sounds like writing a novel, doesn’t it?

The Goddess of Shipwrecked Sailors

Salem, Massachusetts, Christmas 1925: When the heir to a shipping fortune hires New York jazz singer Lizzie Crane and her band to perform during the Christmas holidays, she has high hopes that the prestigious event will bring them riches and recognition. But the evening the musicians arrive, police discover a body near a tavern owned by Lizzie’s cousin––a cousin she didn’t even know she had. Soon Lizzie becomes a pawn in a deadly game between her cousin and her employer over a mysterious lady with a dangerous past.


Buy links

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Goddess-Shipwrecked-Sailors-Lizzie-Mystery/dp/1685124348

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-goddess-of-shipwrecked-sailors-skye-alexander/1144045510?ean=9781685124342

Author Bio:

Skye Alexander’s historical mystery novels What the Walls Know and The Goddess of Shipwrecked Sailors, the second and third books in her Lizzie Crane mystery series, use tarot cards and other occult ideas to provide clues. Skye is also a recognized authority in the field of metaphysics and the author of fifteen bestselling nonfiction books on the occult arts including The Modern Guide to Witchcraft, The Modern Witchcraft Book of Tarot, and Magickal Astrology.

Facebook link

https://www.facebook.com/skye.alexander.92

Goodreads link

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/198671880-the-goddess-of-shipwrecked-sailors

Video trailer

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IjHJjQYpVe35nvBkMD4sMn-o2zt0skA2/view (if you can’t access it here, it’s also on the first page of my website and on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgCT41caKrs