My Almost Vacation by Marilyn Levinson

As December of 2024 drew to a close, I found myself looking forward to a vacation. A staycation, actually, but time off from writing. 2024 was a busy, often stressful time for me. I'd written two novels, one of which was the first book in a new series, as well as a short story for an anthology. I'd done edits for four novels--the first book I'd ever written and three books that were republished--along with the edits for two of the four books scheduled to be republished in 2025. As I emailed DEATH ON DICKENS ISLAND to my editor, I drew a deep sigh of relief. Ahead was January 2025--a month of free time, rest and relaxation.

Of course I had some writing-related chores to attend to. Aside from my monthly blog and newsletter, I wanted to master BookBrush and Canva to some degree and venture into BookTok. I needed to arrange promotion for my mystery scheduled to come out in the fall, and I had to start plotting the two books due in 2025. But no writing.

I started arranging lunch dates with friends and playing with my kitties. I'd go shopping; stay up late reading and streaming show after show into the early morning. I'd be on vacation, sort of, and have time to unwind and give the creative workings a sorely needed rest.

And then they arrived--the edits for my middle-grade novel. On one level, I knew they'd be coming eventually, but did they have to come so soon? My editor was very pleased with the manuscript, but like all editors she had a few suggestions, suggestions that I agreed would enhance the book. And so, after a few days that I granted myself free of work, I set about rereading my manuscript and incorporating some of these suggestions. Alas, adding scenes to a completed manuscript is always more time consuming than writing daily pages.

What have I learned from my failed plans for an almost vacation? Often edits will arrive when you least expect them, along with other writerly obligations. And so I've decided to take vacation days here and there, whenever I need a break. And if things should get too crazy and I need more time to myself, I'll make use of the Out of Office card so many of us have received.

Looking Ahead to My Books and Yours

 by Korina Moss

I’m closing out 2024 with my latest release in the Cheese Shop Mystery series, Fondue or Die. This fifth book in the series takes place at the annual Dairy Days, a weekend festival hosted by Yarrow Glen’s neighboring town of Lockwood. Cheese Shop owner Willa Bauer and her Curds & Whey crew (who are also her Team Cheese sleuthing friends), Archie and Mrs. Schultz along with her best friend Baz, will be working at the festival. Willa’s thrilled to celebrate her favorite thing―she is a cheesemonger after all―and this festival goes all out: butter sculptures, goat races, cheese wheel relays, even a Miss Dairy pageant. Too bad the pageant runner, Nadine, is treating Dairy Days prep like it’s fondue or die and is putting everyone around her on edge. When Willa finds Nadine’s dead body under years’ worth of ceramic milk jugs, the police aren’t sure whether the death was an accident. Willa is convinced it’s murder, but fingers are pointing at Mrs. Schultz, who stepped in to help the pageant after Nadine’s death. Team Cheese needs Yarrow Glen’s Detective Heath on their side, but this crime is outside his jurisdiction. Even though their relationship is rocky, Willa asks the by-the-book detective to team up with her to investigate on the sly. Someone wanted Nadine out of the whey, and Willa is determined to find out who. Fondue or Die is available now everywhere books are sold. 

While you’re catching up on Fondue or Die, get ready for Cheese Shop Mystery #6, Bait and Swiss. It releases April 29, 2025. In Bait and Swiss, Yarrow Glen’s newest business gives one unlucky resident the swiss of death. 

It’s been almost two years since Willa Bauer opened Curds & Whey in Yarrow Glen, and both cheesemonger and cheese shop are thriving in the Sonoma Valley. While Willa doesn’t eat chocolate, it’s true that life is like a box of chocolates. Unfortunately, life’s latest curveball is that Willa’s ex-fiancé and ex-best friend―the reason for her chocolate aversion―are opening a chocolate pop-up shop across the street. By the end of the shop’s first day, the town’s newest reporter is the victim of death by chocolate. Now Willa’s ex wants her to be Swiss Congeniality, solve the case, and save the day. As much as Willa wants to hit him with the nearest cheese wheel, she can’t stop herself from saying yes. There’s more at stake than her ex’s reputation—customers have decided to stay clear of Yarrow Glen’s shops until the killer is caught, and a cryptic note sends Willa to the top of the suspect list. To save herself and her town, Willa enlists her Team Cheese sleuthing friends to help her solve the case before anyone else falls victim to a bitter chocolate ending. You can preorder Bait and Swiss now. 

Are you a cozy mystery writer? Make 2025 the year your writing and publishing dreams come true! As well as writing the Cheese Shop Mystery series, I also offer developmental editing for your manuscript, specializing in cozy and traditional mysteries. With my experience writing a cozy mystery series for a Big 5 publisher (St. Martin’s Press, an imprint of Macmillan Publishing), I have the inside track on what editors, agents, and readers are looking for in a cozy mystery.  Whether you're a new writer hoping to be traditionally or independently published, or you're an established writer wanting some guidance with a manuscript, I can help you strengthen your book. 

Having written six books in my series, I know the expectations of a Big 5 editor. One of my strong suits for cozy mystery writers is making sure your manuscript has the cozy elements needed, while still delivering an exciting and well-plotted mystery. As an Agatha Award winner and an Agatha Award finalist, I can help level up your manuscript, so your theme, characters, and setting stand out. I focus on the balance between an exciting murder mystery and the cozy essentials that keep readers loyal to a series and make agents and editors take notice.

For further details and fees, email me at korinamossauthor@gmail.com. 

Readers: Have you ever dreamt of becoming an author? Writers: When did you know you wanted to be a writer? 

KORINA MOSS is the author of the Cheese Shop Mystery series set in the Sonoma Valley, including the Agatha Award winner for Best First Novel, Cheddar Off Dead, and the Agatha Award finalist for Best Contemporary Novel, Case of the Bleus. Her books have been featured in USA Today, PARADE Magazine, Woman’s World, and Writer's Digest. To learn more or subscribe to her free monthly #teamcheese newsletter, visit her website korinamossauthor.com.

  

WHAT DRIVES YOUR CHARACTERS?

 By Korina Moss

What drives your fictional characters? No, I’m talking literally. What kind of cars do they drive? It’s a simple enough question, but for most writers, there’s nothing standard or automatic about it. The kind of car a person chooses can say quite a bit about them. 

The protagonist of my Cheese Shop Mystery series, Willa Bauer, drives a used second-generation CR-V (a car that came out between 2002-2006). It’s practical, reliable, and not fussy—all qualities that Willa possesses and likes in others. She bought it used years ago, which shows her practicality and her focus on saving her money to open a cheese shop. It’s also quite old, so she probably ought to think about getting a replacement, but she’s going to drive it until the wheels fall off (figuratively, of course). This shows that her life balance may be a little off-kilter sometimes, and that she’s a risk taker who perhaps ought to be more careful. 

All this characterization in just the mention of a car? Not by itself—it’s simply one of the building blocks of your character. More than gobs of backstory, corroborating who they are through the choices they make, as well as their actions and reactions, helps to create fully formed characters to whom readers can connect.  

Writers, tell me the type of car one of your characters drives. (Or do they bike or skateboard, like Mrs. Schultz and Archie, two of my secondary characters?) Readers, what do you think the car you drive says about you?  

PREORDER NOW

COMING OCTOBER 22ND

KORINA MOSS is the author of the Cheese Shop Mystery series set in the Sonoma Valley, including the Agatha Award winner for Best First Novel, Cheddar Off Dead, and the Agatha Award finalist for Best Contemporary Novel, Case of the Bleus. Her books have been featured in USA Today, PARADE Magazine, Woman’s World, AARP, and Fresh Fiction. To learn more, visit her website korinamossauthor.com where you can subscribe to her free monthly #teamcheese newsletter. Follow on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. 

WHAT DOES A PUBLISHING HOUSE EDITOR DO?

 By Korina Moss

Before I became a published author of the Cheese Shop Mystery series, I had only a vague idea of what a publishing house editor does. I’m sure I still don’t know all their roles, but I do know what my relationship with my editor is regarding my series. Take into account when reading this that not all editors are the same and not all publishing houses are the same. In this post, when I refer to an editor, I’m basing it on what I know about the role of editors in my larger publishing house (Macmillan Publishing). This may be very different than what editors do in smaller independent houses. It’s also different than a freelance editor you might hire to help you with your manuscript before you send it out for querying or self-publishing. I’m also aware that I’m simplifying the roles of a publishing house editor and likely leaving out many other important duties their job entails.

One of the roles of an editor is to read and evaluate manuscripts sent to them by agents. If an editor loves your manuscript and thinks it’s marketable and will fit their house, they will bring it to the acquisitions team to discuss whether to make an offer. In larger houses such as the one I'm with (Macmillan Publishing), it is never the decision of just one person.

Once you sign a contract with the publisher, your editor is the project manager for that book or series. It’s their job to shepherd that book to completion. They are in charge of making a lot of decisions about the book, such as the direction of the marketing team, the cover art, possibly the title, and keeping track of the production schedule. I've heard from my author friends that their editors have given them varying degrees of involvement with these parts of the book process. In my case, my editor has asked my input on the cover art, and we’ve bounced around cheese pun titles. All the book jackets in a series should be cohesive, so the designers are also involved in the titles and cover art decisions. People often judge a book by its cover, so I’m happy to leave it up to the professionals. However, with each book, my editor asks for a short summary from me about things that might be germane to the cover, such as plot points, locations, season, etc., so they can align the cover design with my story.    

Once I hand in my manuscript, my editor will go over it and do what's called a developmental edit. This is different than line editing, which is fixing grammar, word choice, punctuation, etc., which is taken care of by a separate editor, the copy editor. A developmental edit means she makes suggestions for changes to the content, such as the pacing, characterization, inconsistencies, etc. A misnomer is that an editor makes changes to your manuscript or demands the author make changes. In my experience, that has never been the case. What an editor will do is point out where she thinks the trouble spots are, and then leaves you to decide if you agree and make the appropriate changes or not. Because I write a series, she also keeps tabs on past books. For example, in my third book, Curds of Prey, she thought my original ending was too similar to one I'd just done in Gone For Gouda. I hadn’t been happy with the ending either, for other reasons, but I had to get it in by the deadline. Since several weeks had passed since then and knowing my editor thought the ending was lackluster as well, I was able to read the manuscript with fresh eyes and come up with a much better ending. Among all the other things my editor does, she’s made me a better writer. 

Last but certainly not least, an editor champions their authors’ books, presenting them to the publishing team, who determines things like promotion and, if applicable, the lifespan of the series. 

To sum up, a publishing house editor is a manager, a teacher, and your biggest cheerleader. 

For you yet-to-be published or self-published writers, is what an editor does different than what you thought? For traditionally published writers, is this different than your experience with your editor?  

KORINA MOSS is the author of the Cheese Shop Mystery series set in the Sonoma Valley, including the Agatha Award winner for Best First Novel, Cheddar Off Dead and the Agatha Award finalist for Best Contemporary Novel, Case of the Bleus. Her books have been featured in USA Today, PARADE Magazine, Woman’s World, AARP, and Fresh Fiction. Book 5 in the series, Fondue or Die, arrives on October 22nd. To learn more or sign up for her free monthly newsletter, visit her website at korinamossauthor.com.  

You can preorder Korina's next book, Fondue or Die, for 25% off online at Barnes & Noble with code PREORDER25 now through July 17th with a free or premium B&N membership. 

THE WRITERS' CONNECTION

 by Korina Moss

Connection. That’s what good books are about, aren’t they? You connect with a fictional protagonist and their circumstances. They become someone real to you, often times long after you’ve read the last page. How many times have you stayed up late, racing toward the end of a book, only to dread it when you finally get there, because that’ll mean the book is finished? This is why cozy mystery series are so popular. What could be better than the opportunity to be back with “old friends” you loved from a prior book in the series as they maneuver through a whole new and exciting set of circumstances? 

As important as the plot is to a cozy mystery, the connection readers feel with the characters doesn’t come from the mystery solved. It’s the human connection—our protagonist’s plight, their quirks, and their vulnerabilities—the stuff our readers can relate to. The traits our characters possess that we hope to have in our real-life friendships is what makes them likable and worth returning to read about book after book. 

As an author, a connection is also what I try to achieve off the page. I’m a cozy mystery writer, but I’ve been a cozy mystery reader for over thirty years, long before my own series was published. So although the marketing aspect of my profession is time-consuming, it’s also a lot of fun, because I get to interact with other people who love reading cozies too. Although our foundation is our love of mysteries, we connect on other levels beyond books. Same with my connection to others in the writing community. I thrive on authentic relationships. My mindset is never one of selling to readers or networking with authors. It’s about having an authentic connection. 

When I was honored last year with the Agatha Award for Best First Novel for Cheddar Off Dead, it was the validation I needed that I’d begun to make that connection I’d been striving for in my books and within the mystery community. And this year, being fortunate enough to be nominated again for an Agatha Award, this time for Best Contemporary Novel for Case of the Bleus, makes me believe that connection is holding strong. I’m so looking forward to the Malice Domestic fan convention in April where the awards banquet will be held. After all, what’s better than being back with old friends? 

Reader: What makes you return to a series or an author? 

KORINA MOSS is the author of the Cheese Shop Mystery series (St. Martin’s Press) set in the Sonoma Valley, including the Agatha Award winner for Best First Novel, CHEDDAR OFF DEAD and the current nominee for Best Contemporary Novel, CASE OF THE BLEUS. Her books have been featured in PARADE Magazine, Woman’s World, AARP, and Fresh Fiction. For more information about Korina and her books, and to subscribe to her free monthly newsletter, visit her website korinamossauthor.com. You can also connect with her on Facebook and Instagram. 

PODCAST NERVES AND HOW I COMBAT THEM

 

by Korina Moss

Happy Easter and Passover to all those who celebrate! 

I recently celebrated the release of the third book in my Cheese Shop Mystery series, CURDS OF PREY. I enjoyed all the buzz and excitement on that day and the days leading up to it. With each book in the series, I’ve been getting more publicity opportunities, such as written interviews and guest blog posts. I’ve also done more podcast/YouTube interviews in the last two months than I had in the last two years. I don’t know how you feel about public speaking, but I’m not used to it (Hello! I’m a writer!), so it was nerve-wracking to know I’d have to talk about myself and my books on camera. 

As live appearances began to fill my calendar, I wanted to be able to look forward to them instead of being anxious about them. My stress comes from thinking I’m going to lose my focus or stumble over my words or draw a blank or say too much or… You get the gist. So how to combat that fear? I keep the following in mind. 

1. You will not literally die from embarrassment.  

It was a lesson I learned at last year’s Malice Domestic convention when I introduced my first book, CHEDDAR OFF DEAD, at the New Authors’ Breakfast, an in-person event. Several things factored into why I was flustered, but I’ll just say that my five minutes in front of an audience of authors I admire felt like five hours when I couldn’t even properly describe my own book. Which leads me to my second recommendation…

2. Prepare, prepare, prepare, and then go with the flow.  

It’s better to over-prepare than to under-prepare. Many podcasters will give you the topics they plan to discuss or even a list of questions they may ask, and it always makes me feel better to run through my possible answers aloud. But another thing you have to be prepared for is going where the conversation takes you, even if it’s not what you practiced beforehand. Before that embarrassing New Author appearance, I thought, how hard can it be to talk about my book? I know it cover-to-cover and I’ve talked about it before with friends and family, even acquaintances in social situations. I thought I’d do fine “off the cuff.” The difference is that in social situations, you don’t have to be as concise as when you’re speaking to an audience about a specific topic. Think about what you really want potential readers to know when you introduce your book to them. Can you describe it in a few sentences? Nowadays, if I find myself rambling instead of getting to the point, I’ll stop and simply say, “I’m getting off course. Cheese. It’s got cheese.” Luckily for me, that usually does the trick. Which leads me to my next recommendation…

3. Humor is good and so is vulnerability. 

It’s okay not to sound perfect. In fact, admitting to a flub often breaks the ice. You’re not giving a TED Talk (and if you are, I am definitely not the person to come to). The advice of Elise Hart Kipness, an author and fellow Sisters in Crime – CT member who used to be a broadcast journalist, stuck with me: If you lose your train of thought or you realize you’ve gotten off track, just be real and say so in the moment. The podcast host will almost always bail you out. Which leads me to my next recommendation…

4. Pretend you’re having a conversation in your living room with a friend.  

This might be a tall order since you still have to prepare and be relatively concise. However, at least the audience isn’t in front of you, staring at you, and you don’t have to pretend they’re in their underwear. (Am I aging myself with that old piece of advice?) Before doing Liz Mugavero’s Get Writing podcast, I was surprised that I wasn’t nervous until I realized it was because she was a friend. It wasn’t that she was any nicer than any of the other hosts I’ve encountered. (In fact, they’re all exceedingly kind and I was previously acquainted with several of them.) It was because I was excited to chat with her about writing. It made me change how I perceive these interviews going forward. Now I try not to think of them as interviews or even call them interviews. I think of them as chats and it makes me approach them differently. 

With each upcoming appearance, I keep all these simple things in mind, and now any nervous energy I might still have is founded in excitement. For the times I still stumble or say “um” too often or anything else I wish I hadn’t done, I only have to remind myself of recommendation #1. Hey, I’m still alive to talk about it. 

If you’d like to listen to or watch any of my recent podcasts, click on the above photos, which will take you to their site, or listen on your favorite platform. You can aways find my updated news & events on my author website at korinamossauthor.com

Writers: Do you enjoy or think you’ll enjoy doing live interviews? Readers: How do you feel about public speaking?