From short stories, newspaper articles and corporate reporter to novel writing by Teresa Inge

I look forward to 2025 being a great writing year. Final revisions are being made to my debut novel, The Bride Arrived DOA, A Catering Hall Mystery, which will be sent to a publisher for their consideration for publishing the book.

Since I've written short crime fiction for numerous anthologies, creating my first novel has been a journey. After writing short stories for so long, I wasn't convinced I could write a book, even though I've always wanted to. I'm so accustomed to making every word serve a purpose in a short story that I started to doubt my ability to write a novel. Before writing short stories, I wrote business articles for the Virginian Pilot newspaper, which were also brief. Of course, writing shorter content is what I know best, having spent many years as a corporate reporter with a word count limit.

However, I decided to take the plunge into novel writing. Though not as daunting as I had assumed, the variations in word count, character count, and more in-depth descriptions were a learning experience. Since most of my short stories occur in the Outerbanks of North Carolina, a popular destination for weddings and beach vacations, I decided to use that as the backdrop. Because I was familiar with the location, writing was easier. The book features Cass Kennedy, the story's protagonist, who inherits a vintage motel from her brother after he passes away suspiciously. Cass soon discovers that the motel, which her brother had promoted as a top wedding location, was anything but.

Ultimately, I remained goal-oriented and set reasonable expectations during the process. This allowed me the time and research I needed to complete each chapter and finish the novel with solid checkpoints.