Some Thoughts About Murderers by Marilyn Levinson

As a mystery author, I get to decide which of my characters will be murdered. I also get to decide who will do the murdering. The big payoff for mystery readers is discovering the killer's identity at the end of the novel. Equally intriguing is learning why he or she committed the crime.

Murderers in traditional and cozy mysteries are not always the most obvious characters. While some are inherently malevolent and carefully plot their misdeeds, others are ordinary except for the reason why they see killing someone as the necessary solution to their problem. 

Why does a character murder? A simple list might be reduced to revenge, jealousy, money, and the fear of being exposed. But unless the murderer's a serial killer or a hired assassin, his or her reason for killing is personal and driven by strong emotions, misguided information, or despair. Or possibly madness. Then there are characters who become murderers through so-called accidents and explain: "I didn't mean to hit him so hard," or "I only meant to teach him a lesson."

Sometimes a character murders for reasons that have roots in the past. The impact of an earlier murder affects the present and another victim is murdered. This occurs in Death Overdue and Checked Out for Murder in my Haunted Library series as well as in Death on Dickens Island.

I make sure that my murderers play an active role in my mysteries. I once stopped reading a well-known author because in one of her books the murderer rarely appeared. Not fair. Readers should have the opportunity to get to know the murderer as well as he reveals himself to the other characters. And he'd better have a darn good reason for killing.

How do you decide who your murderers will be?  

Some Thoughts on Naming My Fictional Characters by Marilyn Levinson

While deciding on the best names for your characters is not as critical as naming your children and your pets, it does require a considerable amount of thought. After all, you will be living with these characters for quite some time, especially if you write series. I spend the most time choosing my protagonist's name for obvious reasons. My sleuths are always female. I like to give them names I consider appealing and not very common, along with a nickname. In Giving Up the Ghost, my sleuth Gabriela Meyerson is called Gabbie. In Murder a la Christie, Lexie's official name is Alexa. My sleuth in Death on Dickens Island is Cordelia Dickens, though everyone calls her Delia.

However, not all my characters are happy with their given names. Carrie Singleton, in the Haunted Library series, officially changed her name to Carrie because she always hated Carolinda, which she was given at birth.

The names of my other characters usually come to mind as they're about to become  active members of the cast. I do my best to vary them, with regard to the starting letter and number of syllables. Masculine names tend to be shorter, and so I choose names with different vowel sounds. Readers are less likely to confuse two characters named Mike and Brett, while having characters named Fred and Ted in the same book might be a problem for some. But names can get mixed up even in an author's mind. I am grateful to the editor who noticed that I'd changed the murderer's name in the middle of the novel.

Recently, I've been having fun with names in a different way entirely. In the book I'm currently writing, Delia and her son Connor adopt two kittens that are littermates. I decided to call them Romeo and Juliet after my own kitties. And when Connor and his friend Trevor acquire girlfriends, I named them after my granddaughter and her "sister." Boy, was Livvie excited when I told her about that!

We authors have total control when it comes to naming our characters. What do you take into consideration when you name yours?

Who Will Live and Who Will Die? by Marilyn Levinson

 Until recently, I've never given much thought to how I select the murder victims in my mysteries. I don't usually go along with the popular cozy trope of killing off the character everyone loves to hate because part of maintaining suspense is keeping readers wondering who will be the first victim. But I will confess I couldn't wait to do away with my most recent murder victim because he has harmed so many innocent people.

There are many reasons why characters become homicide victims. In some of my books, the murder has occurred before page one. The first victim in Death Overdue, the first book in my Haunted Library series, died fifteen years ago, and the second victim is murdered to prevent him from announcing the killer's identity. In Giving Up the Ghost, my ghost Cameron Leeds wants Gabbie Meyerson to find out who murdered him in the previous year.

Very often a murder victim has no idea why she's been targeted. In Death on Dickens Island,  Missy Faraday's killer hears Missy asking questions about her family background and feels threatened enough to murder her. 

Jealousy is often a reason why a killer offs his or her victim. In A Murderer Among Us, Claire Weill has no idea that her killer's in love with her husband. 

Blackmailers sometimes fall prey to their victims. That's what happens to Ilana Reingold in Checked Out for Murder, the fourth Haunted Library book, when she sees the murderer kill someone and tries to blackmail her.

Lastly, some victims are simply unlucky and are murdered by accident. Which is what happens in Murder a la Christie when poor Sylvia Morris drinks the poisoned refreshment meant for someone else.

A final word: I have killed off a few characters I'd grown to love, but I never murder my sleuth or anyone close to her. 

How do you decide who will be murdered in your mysteries?

Edits and Errors by Marilyn Levinson

The other day I received an email from a reader. I was pleased to learn that she'd started reading my Haunted Library series and was enjoying it. However, she also informed me that in one of the books she noticed three instances of a name change. Not good! I wrote back and said I was happy she was enjoying the series, and I apologized for the errors in the text.

How did these errors slip by and appear on the printed page? My books are carefully edited. I go over a manuscript three times before sending it to my editor. She goes over it, makes her comments and observations. I review the manuscript and make the necessary edits and additions. Then a copy editor combs through the manuscript, now in book format, editing and questioning. Once again, I go over the manuscript--sometimes twice--addressing these issues. These are put into the text,  and the manuscript is once again sent to me to read and make any final changes.

 Yes, my books are carefully edited. That said, the occasional error still may appear on the printed page despite the many eyes and read-throughs. There are a few reasons why this may occur. For one thing, our brains have a way of filling in a word that might have been omitted. Also, it is the unusual author or editor who can read through a manuscript of over 80,000 words in one sitting. Which is why he or she might not notice when a detail mentioned early on in the story is somewhat different when it's mentioned later on.

 Having just finished going through my copy editor's edits of Death on Dickens Island, I am grateful that she's caught some  name changes and has pointed out contradicting statements. But I also know that despite our very best efforts, there will be a few errors that will slip by. For these, I apologize in advance, and I promise to be even more vigilant as I write and eventually edit the next book in my new series.

 

Our Stories Have Wings by Marilyn Levinson

The other day I received an email from an English teacher in Brazil who loves cozy mysteries. She'd read some of the books in my Haunted Library series and asked if she could read a chapter of one of my books aloud on her podcast to encourage readers to read stories in English. I was thrilled with the idea, and after running it past my publisher for legal reasons, wrote back to tell her to go ahead. 

I was at a library event for authors the other evening and stopped in the main reading area. They were featuring mystery series that take place in libraries. How nice it was to see one of my books was part of the display.

Hearing from a reader in South America, seeing my book as part of a library display have made me realize how far and wide our stories travel. Once a novel or a short story we've written is published it takes on a life of its own. We have no idea who is reading our work. I'm always delighted when readers let me how much they enjoy my books. Usually, readers contact me via email, my website, or social media. Once I was on the phone getting help with a problem I had with an appliance and happened to mention that I write novels. The woman told me she'd read one of my books years ago.

We write stories and send them out into the world. Though we get figures of how many copies are sold, this cannot tell the tale of how many hearts we have touched. 

What interchange with a reader has made you realize that you've made a special human connection?

Why Ghosts Often Appear in My Novels by Marilyn Levinson

 Though I’ve never met a ghost, I’ve read enough about ghost sightings and hauntings to believe they exist. Experts in the field say some spirits remain earthbound because they’ve experienced a brutal or sudden death and don’t realize they’re dead. Others remain here because they have unfinished business or issues they need to resolve before passing on.

Ghosts, whether you believe in them or not, have a permanent place in our literary lore. Readers find their manifestations unnerving, thrilling and intriguing. George and Marion Kerby in Topper and the sea captain in The Ghost and Mrs. Muir are three of my favorite literary spirits.

Ghosts appear in my Haunted Library mystery series; my mystery, Giving Up the Ghost; and in my juvenile novel, Getting Back to Normal. They are fully-developed characters who have remained on the Earthly plane to be of assistance or to settle accounts. In Death Overdue, the first book in my Haunted Library series, Evelyn Havers is the sixty-something ghost that haunts the Clover Ridge Library, where she worked as an aide for many years. While invisible, she urges my sleuth Carrie Singleton not to turn down the position of Head of Programs and Events she is being offered. Carrie takes Evelyn’s advice and soon discovers she has made the right decision. When her first program presenter dies before her eyes and those of a roomful of library patrons, Carrie goes on to investigate his murder and that of the cold case he claimed to have solved. Evelyn helps Carrie in her investigation, but also holds back information for personal reasons. It isn’t until Buried in the Stacks, the third book in the series, that Carrie discovers Evelyn’s death was no accident. 

Cameron Leeds, the ghost in Giving Up the Ghost, is a charismatic scoundrel. In life he was a good-looking man with a generous heart, except when he was wheeling and dealing, often at his friends’ expense; a Romeo who flirted with every woman who crossed his path. Though his best friend, the town’s police chief, has declared his death an accident, Cam knows he was murdered. Trouble is, he doesn’t know who did it, and he can’t move on until he does. When Gabbie Meyerson rents his family’s cottage—the only place where he can manifest—Cam nags and cajoles until she agrees to investigate. Gabbie starts asking questions, and to her dismay discovers that several of Cam’s so-called friends and neighbors are glad he’s dead and are possible suspects. 

Twelve-year-old Vannie Taylor, the protagonist in Getting Back to Normal, has just lost her mother and her father is a basket case without her. Vannie meets Archie the ghost, hours after her father has moved her and her brother to live in a dingy cottage on the estate where he manages events. Archie appears to be carefree and funny. Dressed in a tuxedo, he performs cartwheels and handstands. He has overheard Vannie wondering aloud what to give her brother for dinner, and provides her with a simple recipe. He even tells her she can find the necessary ingredients in the mansion’s kitchen.

But Archie is far from carefree, as Vannie and her best friend discover when they research his life. He was twenty-five when he died chasing the thief who stole his wife’s necklace. Archie tells Vannie that before he can go to his rest, he must atone for having left his wife and their one-year-old son. She is astonished to learn that Mayda, her parents’ close friend and the last of the family athat once owned the estate, is Archie’s granddaughter. Archie implores Vannie to encourage the budding relationship between her father and Mayda—the one thing Vannie doesn’t want to happen. But it may be the only way her life can get back to normal.

Is it any wonder that I've included a ghost in my new Dickens Island series? Helena is my sleuth's grandmother. Like Evelyn Havers, she reappears to offer information about past events and to help restore peace and order in the town where she used to live.

Ghosts, real or imagined, always add a dimension to a novel.

 

A Heartfelt Thanks by Marilyn Levinson

Recently I have become a wanted commodity, after so many years of writing fiction. I am thrilled that in 2024, eight books of mine will be released. Three—a cozy mystery, a romantic suspense, and a middle-grade children's novel—are new; five are reissues. I also have a short story coming out in an anthology. This astounding phenomenon has urged me to look back and give thanks to the two people who have done the most to help my writing career.

When I met Roberta Gellis so many years ago, I was writing short stories and sending them out to magazines. And receiving rejections. The town I lived in didn't offer Adult Ed courses, but Roslyn, a nearby town where I'd taught high school Spanish, did. So, I took a writing course with Roberta. She was a well-known author at the time, best known for her historical novels and she also wrote mysteries and fantasies. In those days, we didn't have the internet, online groups or social media. Unless we were taking writing courses, unpublished writers were pretty much isolated. During the few courses I took with Roberta, she helped me write my first novel, a romantic suspense.

I then wrote a children's novel. Roberta helped me whenever I had a plot problem and did so again when I wrote a third book, which was sold to Holt in 1985. And Don't Bring Jeremy received a wonderful review in Publishers Weekly. I was bound for fame!

Not so. While Jeremy went on to become a nominee for six state awards and I published more books for kids, book sales were few and far between. Roberta couldn't understand why I wasn't more successful. "You're a good, writer, Marilyn," she told me. I believed her because by then we were good friends and I knew she didn't mince words. We would get together every week or so to go food shopping and out for lunch. She taught me how to use a word processor and, through osmosis it seemed, I learned how to write a novel. With each book I wrote, I needed her input less and less, but I valued her friendship until she died.

I decided to try my hand at writing another romantic suspense. And then I wrote a mystery. I sold a few books to small presses. A few publishers presented problems regarding royalty payments. Two went out of business just as a book of mine was about to be released.

I had written three chapters of a book for a new series that an agent considered taking but declined. I sent them to Dawn Dowdle, who liked them and became my agent. She sold the series quickly. I was astonished at how well Death Overdue, the first book in my Haunted Library series, was received. It got a star review in the Library Journal, was an Agatha nominee, and became popular with cozy readers. When I told Dawn I wanted to turn my "children's choice" kids' book, Rufus and Magic Run Amok, into a series, she got me a four-book contract with Level Best Books. My writing career was suddenly taking off, and it was no coincidence that it all began when Dawn became my agent. Alas, she died suddenly two months ago. 

I am grateful that Roberta and Dawn were in my life. Who made a difference in your writing career and helped get you where you are today?

Ending a Series by Marilyn Levinson

I have loved writing the Haunted Library series. I love my  characters: Carrie Singleton, her friends,  relatives, and co-workers at the Clover Ridge Library. Evelyn the Ghost. Smoky Joe the library cat. I enjoyed helping Carrie develop from Goth Girl to becoming an effective head of programs and events; acting as a responsible member of the town council; able to sustain a deepening romantic relationship with Dylan Avery. The mysteries and adventures were always fun to write. But soon after I began the seventh book in the series I knew that the next book would complete my series' arc. Carrie's arc, actually, since her growth was always as important to me as the mysteries she helped solve. And once she was capable of leading a fully developed adult life, it was time for me to move on.

An idea for another series came to me a few years ago, one that I've been longing to start. Lately I've been thinking about its unique setting and how it impacts the characters who live there. My sleuth is a woman in her forties, a divorcée with a teenaged son. She's tougher than Carrie, but that's about all I plan to say about her for now. The tone of this series will be different from that of the Haunted Library series. What will remain the same are my concern for my characters and their relationships with one another as well as the mystery and mayhem that enter their lives.

A few readers have already told me they're sorry I am ending the Haunted Library series. I hope they will come to care for this new series as well. And perhaps some day in the future I'll return to the series when Carrie and Dylan are married and solving mysteries together like Tommy and Tuppence Beresford or Mr. and Mrs. North. I never know where my muse will take me.

A Few Writerly Observations by Marilyn Levinson

Becoming a proficient fiction author develops through hard work and constant writing. Over the course of my writing career, I've written twenty-four novels. I'd like to share with you a few observations I've made regarding changes in my writing process and some writerly issues that puzzle me.

Plotting: When I first started out, I found plotting to be the hardest part of novel writing. I moved ahead like gangbusters the first five chapters, then stopped not certain how to proceed. I needed a good deal of help from my mentor. Eventually, I managed to write out synopses and followed my outline. These past few years I've been writing the Haunted Library series as Allison Brook. I think in many ways it's easier to write a series than a standalone because many of the characters as well as the setting and the tone are set in the first book.

Since I worked from a detailed outline, I considered myself a plotter. I knew who would be murdered, the major plot points, the array of clues and red herrings. But I discovered my process changed when writing the last four books in the series. As always, I knew the book's major theme and the two seemingly unrelated elements that come together at the end. But I was no longer working from an outline. I had the option to veer off in various directions into the great unknown. 

To my amazement, this didn't frighten me. I'd changed into a pantser—sort of. Somehow writing so many books had given me the confidence to have faith in my plotting. To know I would move ahead and write the right scenes to bring each book to its logical conclusion. This didn't mean I no longer needed the assistance of my dear fellow Plothatchers occasionally, but sometimes simply by being on the verge of asking for their input I found the answer to what I was seeking. Which leads me to believe that we authors know more about the book we're writing than we think.

Changing the murderer:  While I've never changed my murder victims, I have changed the identity of a few murderers from those I originally had in mind. I think this can only be possible if a writer isn't following an outline set in stone. I like to supply my readers with many possible murder suspects because part of the fun of reading a mystery is figuring out who dun it. Also, as I write each book, I get to know my characters better—their personalities, their value systems and their secrets. Sometimes this results in my casting a different character as the killer. In fact, I recently changed the murderer in my Work In Progress for a variety of reasons. 

Grammar and words: Grammar rules evolve just as language evolves, and we'd better keep up with the times. For example, I once thought I was pretty good when it came to using commas. These days I defer to others. I used to put in a comma to separate compound sentences. Now I find my editors often remove them. They also remove commas before such adverbs as "too" and "finally," words I always comma'd. Now I question whether an adverbial phrase requires a comma when once I was certain that it did. 

Compound word, hyphenated words or two words: Here we have three possibilities and I often choose the wrong one. I thought "homecooked" was a word, but my editor changed it to "home-cooked." "Semi-circular" seemed right to me, but no, "semicircular" won out. There are more of these word/words than one would imagine. I'm grateful that at this point in my career, I have an editor and a copy editor to sort them out.

Has your writing method evolved? Do you have any word usage or grammar issue that puzzles you? Please share if you do.

Some Thoughts Upon Starting a Novel by Marilyn Levinson

Here I am again, about to start a new novel in my Haunted Library mystery series. Death on the Shelf celebrated its book birthday this past week, and I'm in the midst of a virtual book tour and other methods of promotion as I continue to write guest blogs and interviews. My editor has gone over Dewey Decimated, the sixth book in the series, and I'm currently addressing her notes and edits. For a while now I've been thinking about book number seven.

My mysteries often have two plot lines that eventually converge, and the plot lines on which this book is based came to me immediately. That's all I know so far and it's not for lack of thinking. The criminal element in this book revolves around art. But in what capacity? I've considered storylines that involve art theft, art forgery and fake and illegal antiquities. All possibilities. Then I have to decide who's crooked, who ends up murdered, and how my sleuth will put two and two together and find the killer and the thieves.

Will I ever fashion an entire novel incorporating all these elements? How did I manage to write novels until now? A good friend and fellow author reminds me that I go through this with every book I write. It's somewhat comforting to know that many of my fellow authors go through the same morass of doubt and  concern.

The solution, I've discovered, is to turn to what I already know. Book number seven is part of a series, which means many of my characters, the tone, and the setting are well established.  One of my two plot lines comes directly from the previous book in the series. This always happens without any conscious effort on my part. It's as though my characters are pushing the story forward. While every book in the series stands alone, there are links to the continuous saga of my characters' private lives--their loves and friendships, experiences and adventures. These will help me figure out the mystery part of the story. And as soon as I've finished writing my final interview and have given away my last giveaway, I'll settle down and let the ideas I need come to me. And I'll start to write my next novel.

ESCAPES by Nancy L. Eady

I love mysteries, of course, or I wouldn’t want to write them. I read some mysteries for the fun of solving the “whodunit” puzzle. But I read series for more than that. The series I most enjoy create places and people so vivid that they become friends I can drop in on whenever I want.

It’s hard to say what makes a series magical to me. One of the first series I fell in love with was the Nero Wolfe mysteries. Archie Goodwin, Mr. Wolfe (only his best friend, Marko Vukcic, would ever call him “Nero”), and their supporting cast, which includes Fritz, the cook and butler, Saul Panzer, private detective extraordinaire, and a few others are very real to me. The brownstone building with the orchid greenhouse on the top is one of my favorite haunts. I was in New York City on business once and tracked down the address where Nero Wolfe is supposed to live. The address is nothing like Nero Wolfe’s habitat. That’s okay with me. The New York City Archie moves around in is a New York City I will never see but visit constantly.

Two of my newer series favorites are written by co-bloggers here at Writers Who Kill:  the Sarah Blair series, by Debra Goldstein, and the Haunted Library, by Allison Brook, aka Marilyn Levinson. Debra’s series takes place in a contemporary suburb of Birmingham, Alabama. I recognize the places and people which remind me of places and people I see in the real world. And who can’t love a “cook of convenience,” whose highest culinary achievement was the recipe, “Jell-O in a Can.” Top that off with the fact that Sarah is an animal lover with both a Siamese Alpha cat named Rahrah and a dog named Fluffy. Now there is someone I can’t help but enjoy getting to know. My only beef with Sarah is the fact that she refuses to even consider her friend and boss, Harlan Endicott, as a potential dating partner. But since the series continues, I can hope!

The librarian main character, Carrie, in Marilyn’s series is someone I relate to differently. Until book 1, she had been an itinerant wanderer, but with the help of the library’s resident ghost, Evelyn, she has settled down in one place as the librarian in charge of programs. Book by book I enjoy watching her rebuild her life and many of her relationships. And the idea that small towns exist in Connecticut fascinates me. I tend to picture the Northeast United States as one big city from Washington D.C. up to Boston, except for bucolic Vermont.

I am a little OCD with series. When a new book comes out, I start at book 1 and read through the end of the latest book. It can be quite time-consuming when reading series like Donna Andrews Meg Langslow series and Bobbi Holmes’s Haunting Danielle series, both of which have over twenty books in them. It’s worth it to escape to the worlds created by each of my favorite series’ authors.

And who knows? Maybe one day I will find THE enchanted bookmark or page or gizmo that will let me step into the pages of my favorite books and meet my friends in person. I think they’d be happy to see me. 

The Intrusive Character by Marilyn Levinson

I am one-quarter into the sixth book of my Haunted Library series. I love my characters, love writing about their relationships, adventures and watching them grow. Up until now, I have written an outline for each book  which I follow loosely—taking detours and making changes as I move farther along in the manuscript. I've discovered that with each book I write, I'm doing less initial plotting and more pantsing. I find this method more liberating, and frankly it's more fun to see what escapades my characters get into as they gather information to solve mysteries. So far, my muse has never let me down.

Along with my sleuth, Carrie Singleton, every book in my Haunted Library series involves the people in Carrie's life: her fiancé, her best friend, Evelyn the Ghost, the police chief,  her colleagues and close relatives. Since a murder or two—or occasionally three—occur in every book, I bring in new characters, most of whom are either a victim or a suspect. Since I often write about two seemingly unrelated homicides, I need to create characters that bridge both storylines. Sometimes plotting gets very complicated, indeed!

In my current Work In Progress, a young, brash investigative reporter named Julie Theron announces on TV that a body has been discovered in an abandoned building. Julie appears a few days later to berate the police chief for not discovering the dead man's identity fast enough. In fact, she goes on to say that Carrie Singleton has solved most of his recent homicides. Finally, she declares that she, Julie Theron, is going to solve the murder herself!

Who does this Julie Theron think she is, worming her way into my plot? Sure, I need someone to report the news, but that doesn't give her the right to make herself part of the story. Though I didn't plan for this to happen, I quickly saw it for what it was--a wonderful new facet of my novel. And I knew how I was going to milk it, too.

I suppose Julie Theron came to life because of my looser, pantser style of plotting. Are you a pantser or a plotter? Or a combination of both?

Some Thoughts About Writing A Cozy Series by Marilyn Levinson

 Writing a series, I've discovered, requires focusing on more than one book at a time. Last month Checked Out for Murder, the fourth book in my Haunted Library series came out. This required months of promotion: Facebook parties, guest blogs, a virtual book tour, etc. At the same time I've been writing and editing Death On the Shelf, the fifth book in the series. And following my agent's instructions, I've started to outline Book Number Six. Then there are the price reductions and unexpected activity involving earlier books that demand my immediate attention. Is it any wonder I occasionally mismatch titles and murder suspects in my head?  

The nice thing about writing a series is that your main characters and setting are already established. I'm very fond of my sleuth Carrie Singleton, Evelyn the ghost, and the others who populate my books. I enjoy writing about their experiences and relationships, and, of course, the mysteries they solve as the series progresses. Carrie works in the Clover Ridge Library. Her life is filled with colleagues, friends and relatives. As head of programs and events, she also has the opportunity to meet new people—very important to a series as each book in a series requires new situations, events, and themes. Personal issues arise as well as problems facing the community—all fodder for a murder mystery. 

 

A cozy series provides readers with well-loved characters, a familiar sense of place, and the knowledge that all will be resolved in the end. At the same time, each book must offer new mysteries and new directions—a challenge to the author and not for the faint of heart. 

 

 

Happy Release Day to CHECKED OUT FOR MURDER by Marilyn Levinson

As Allison Brook, I write the Haunted Library mystery series. Checked Out for Murder, the fourth book in the series, was released last Tuesday, September 8th. No matter how many books an author has written, a book's birthday is always an exciting occasion and deserves a celebration.

The idea that my sleuth should be the head of programs and events of a small-town library came to me while attending a drum presentation in my library's beautiful outdoor park. As soon as the librarian in charge of adult programs presented the drummer I told myself There's my sleuth! A librarian responsible for its programs and events has colleagues and perhaps a nemesis at work as well the opportunity to meet people eager to give a library presentation. And so Carrie Singleton was born! I added Evelyn Havers the ghost and Smoky Joe the library cat along with several other characters. As for the setting, a beautiful Connecticut town I once visited came to mind and the Haunted Library series was born!

A cozy mystery series is more than a collection of books with the same sleuth and many of the same characters. Relationships develop, characters mature and each novel in my series, while showing progression also stands as an entity on its own. In Checked Our for Murder, Carrie's relationship with her mother undergoes unexpected changes, and two homicides might have a connection to a twenty-year-old murder. Mystery. Intrigue. Romance. And a touch of the paranormal. What fun it was to bring it all together in Checked Out for Murder.

 

Why I Write Cozies

     Like many novelists who have been writing for several years, I have written in several genres—mysteries, romantic suspense and books for kids. Recently, I find myself drawn to writing cozies. Here's why:

1. I enjoy writing mysteries and prefer leaving the CSI end of it to others. I’m interested in the puzzle aspect. The human factor. How my characters relate to one another. Why was a person or persons murdered? How does my sleuth track him or her down and prove his or her guilt?

2. I love writing a mystery from an amateur sleuth’s perspective. Not a homicide detective armed and trained to solve murders, but a so-called “average” citizen with enough intelligence, drive, and curiosity to solve a mystery. Like Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple, cozy sleuths observe suspects. They ask questions. They eavesdrop. They do research. They befriend the police investigating the murder. In my Haunted Library mystery series written as Allison Brook, Carrie Singleton is the head of Programs and Events of the Clover Ridge Library in Connecticut. Sleuths in my other mystery series are a high school English teacher, a retired CEO, and a college professor who leads a Golden Age of Mystery book club.

3. While I enjoy plotting, my characters are my priority. What makes each of them tick? How do they relate to one another? Why do they behave the way they do? Some of my characters are quirky. Others are likable. They are very real to me. They have to be since they appear in one book after another.

4. I love writing cozies because they’re written in series. I love writing series because with each new book, readers get a chance to learn more about my sleuth and her friends, family, love interests and enemies. My characters evolve and mature. In the Haunted Library series, Carrie Singleton starts out as an unhappy loner who dyes her hair purple and wears Goth-style clothing. Over time she develops friendships, a romantic relationship, and a growing concern for the town where she lives.

5. I ADORE secrets. Many of my characters have secrets that impact their current behavior. Secrets can make a character look guilty when she isn’t. Secrets can drive a character to murder.

6. Cozies are set in small towns where everyone knows everyone else. A cozy’s setting is another character of the story because it affects all the characters. My Haunted Library mystery series takes place in Clover Ridge, CT, a small town with centuries-old homes, restaurants, and shops built around a village green. The library where my sleuth, Carrie Singleton, works is housed in one of these large former residences.

7. Romance winds its way in many cozies. In DEATH OVERDUE, the first book in my Haunted Library series, Carrie finds herself attracting the attention of two very different men.

8. Animals and cozies go hand-in-hand. In DEATH OVERDUE, a stray half-grown cat attaches himself to Carrie and she ends up bringing him to work with her. Smoky Joe proves to be very sociable and becomes the Library Cat. In one book in the series he helps solve a mystery.

9. Cozies are resolved on a happy note. The murderer is caught. Future books in the series give one’s sleuth an opportunity to forge more adventures and solve more mysteries.

Some Thoughts On Writing a Novel

I spent the first six months of 2019 writing the fourth book of my Haunted Library mystery series. Then, to my surprise, it was finished—the murderer revealed, loose ends tied up at 80,000 plus words—just like the previous three books. Surprised because I'd simply sat down each day for a few hours in the late afternoon and wrote a few pages at a time.

I approached this book as both a plotter and a pantser—starting out as a plotter with a clear idea of the book's framework: two groups of characters with a murder in each camp linked to a murder that took place twenty years earlier in Clover Ridge, the setting of my series. Once I worked out how the murders were connected, I began writing as a pantser. Scene after scene came to mind and my story unfolded. I'm not saying I never got stuck, but it was never over anything major and never for long. I have line-edited two-thirds of the manuscript so far, and the only edits I've made involve changing words or phrases for clarity and smoother reading.

I began to wonder how this relative ease—and I say relative because I feel a pang of anxiety every time I sit down to write—came about. Writing a mystery, regardless of the subgenre, requires attention to one's characters' development and interactions, careful plotting, and good pacing to maintain the reader's attention without telescoping the identity of the murderer. A mystery writer must deal with many elements simultaneously, similar to the way a puppeteer has to control a marionette's many strings when performing.

I believe that becoming a good fiction writer is an ongoing process. We learn as we take courses, study technique, critique one another, and continue to write. Soon we no longer have to stop to consciously think: does this scene further the plot? Do I need to bring in the murderer more frequently? Am I remembering to show character development? Not revealing too much too soon? These are important issues that must be addressed. Eventually, they are dealt with on a subconscious level. As we continue to work on our novels and short stories we acquire the ability to know how and what to write.

Years ago, I read Malcolm Gladwell's book Outliers: the Story of Success. Using Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and the Beatles as examples of masters in their fields, he surmises that learning, practicing and/or performing roughly ten thousand hours in their areas of expertise led to their high achievement in their chosen fields. I've no way of knowing if ten thousand hours of writing and learning about writing will make a good fiction writer, but I do know that becoming one requires hard work. Until what we've taken in becomes ingrained in our minds and our souls, to be made use of intuitively—like a seasoned tennis player knows subliminally where to send the next volley so his or her opponent can't return it. It's all part of a process that requires dedication and discipline—and constant writing.