Burning the Boats and Booking the Cruise

By Author Kathryn Mykel

Quilter| Quilt-Fiction Author| Quilt Pattern Designer

For years I had a private reward waiting in the back of my mind. When I finally “made it” as an author, I would celebrate with a fancy cruise.

I didn’t reach that goal in one dramatic breakthrough. I got there gradually by setting small targets and giving myself reasons to continue on each day. And, in a plot twist that may surprise readers who know me primarily for my cozy mystery novels, it was quilting that ultimately made that goal a reality and paid for the trip.

In my last guest post here, I talked about how story ideas often begin in ordinary places. During sewing days with friends, through casual conversations, and how the rhythm of creative work have shaped the mysteries I write. This post looks at the other side of that process. Inspiration and creativity may have started my journey, but structure and motivation have kept it moving.

Over the past five years, I’ve written more than fifty stories. On paper, that sounds impressive. In practice, it looks like structure and a very strict schedule. Deadlines must be met, the marketing never stops, and new ideas compete with ongoing projects. Most days my desk is a hot mess, much like my sewing table. Projects pile up in various stages of completion, all demanding my attention. It’s really controlled chaos at its finest.

About two years in, I made what I now think of as my “burning the boats” decision. I stepped away from the quilting business work I’d been balancing alongside writing and went all in on being a full-time author. As you can imagine, that decision felt both practical and terrifying. There was no comfortable fallback plan and no alternate source of income. If I wanted this career to work, I had to treat it like a real one.

It didn’t take long to realize that motivation was unreliable. Some days the words came easily. Many days they didn’t.

What helped me was learning to celebrate even the smallest victories. In the beginning, the goal was simple. Sell one book in a day. Later it became hitting a certain number of page reads, reaching a ranking milestone, or winning an award. Each step forward became a reason to acknowledge progress, reward myself, and keep going.

Sometimes the rewards were small. Finishing a draft might mean a trip to the quilt shop, or taking an afternoon off without (too much) guilt. Maintaining my best-seller banner could justify a favorite meal or a quiet evening with a good audio book (someone else’s). A successful book launch might call for a weekend of quilting with friends. These incremental incentives helped turn both the daily grind and long stretches of work into a series of goals, celebrations, and rewards.

Stepping back from writing this year to focus more heavily on quilting reinforced the same lesson. Creative work often moves in cycles. As I spent more time designing patterns and sewing samples for magazines, that income began to accumulate. Without intending it as a writing reward, the quilting ultimately funded an opportunity that came my way unexpectedly.

Here’s that plot twist I mentioned earlier. Next month I’ll be boarding an Alaskan author-reader cruise, something I used to joke was my “when I make it as an author” reward. Now, the cruise feels less like a prize and more like a consequence of committing fully to the path I’d chosen. Ironically, it also serves as a reminder that creative work has a way of coming full circle in unexpected ways.

Tell us, have you ever turned productivity into a personal game? Do you set goals and reward yourself for achieving them? And what’s the biggest reward you’re working toward right now?

Kathryn Mykel is a bestselling author of quilting-themed cozy mysteries and a professional quilt pattern designer whose work has appeared in national quilting publications. She lives in New England with her pup, Bentley.

Find Kathryn’s work here www.authorkathrynmykel.com

 

 

There’s More Than One Way to Tell a Story

By M.E. Proctor

We had dinner with friends a few days ago and Carol (not her real name) said, out of the blue, “I don’t need the crutches anymore.” I looked at her, and she was the same as always. She’d walked in without giving a hint that anything was wrong. We’d been talking about kids and travel. Regular conversation between people at ease with each other. She continued with another non sequitur, “I’ve had a stiff neck for a long time.” That statement was followed by, “I broke two legs.” At that point, my mind was doing cartwheels.

It isn’t the first time I’ve had to fasten my seatbelt when Carol launches into stories. They often ramble in search of a plot. Sometimes they get somewhere, but if they don’t, it’s okay. The journey, not the destination. This episode had a compelling narrative. I hadn’t seen her in almost a year, and a lot had happened. Eventually, the puzzle pieces fell into place, but in IKEA fashion it took some assembly work.

After the couple left, I turned to my husband and said, “It’s like Pulp Fiction.” He deadpanned, without missing a beat, “The world needs non-linear thinkers.”

I pictured a scene. Apartment, night, lights dimmed. Carol has witnessed a crime. She’s being interviewed by a cop. He’s a solid, no-nonsense type with a hangdog face. A guy who has seen everything in a long career of getting sore feet from beating the pavement. Walter Matthau in the role. He listens to her. I see him pushing his hat back, going ‘uh?’.

We’re taught from a young age to put things in chronological order and focus on what’s important. In French, it’s called ‘esprit de synthèse’ (ability to synthesize). Example: a kid’s running home, flushed red, screaming, ‘Mom, you gotta see this, Jake’s up there, Billy’s in the pond …’ Mom raises a hand and says, ‘Breathe. Now, what happened? Make it short.’

Why is this the recommended approach? Because it’s efficient, it saves time. In the Billy-in-the-pond case it might even save a life. In an emergency, you don’t want a long-winded explanation before sending Lassie to the rescue. But does conciseness make for good storytelling? Not necessarily, unless Hemingway does it. And we’ve known what works since cave dwelling times. I doubt our forebears served the tale of the hunt straight up. I bet they enjoyed a bit of suspense. After supper.

We all have quirks, and they manifest themselves in our particular ways of telling a story. How we react is also largely dependent on how our minds are wired. What entertains some will irritate others.

My friend Carol is not incoherent. She knows what’s going on—in fact she knows it too well. She doesn’t need a tidy narrative. She’s telling you what’s most important to her, in the moment, and expects you to follow along. My mother was also an unorthodox narrator. She trained as a seamstress, had a keen eye for design, and loved historical movies. If you asked her for the plot, she’d start at the beginning but would never complete the tale because what she really wanted to talk about were the gowns, in crushed-velvet and lace detail. Mom wasn’t alone. I once worked with a girl who was the most tortuous storyteller I ever met. She’d stuff side plots inside side plots, like nesting dolls. I must have told her a hundred times ‘for heaven’s sake get to the point.’

Decrypting Carol’s story made me think about forms of storytelling. The classic beginning-middle-end structure, the three- or five-act model, the linear narrative. All familiar. Boring?

Laurence Sterne in The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman used linearity for comical effect: “I wish either my father or my mother, or indeed both of them, as they were in duty both equally bound to it, had minded what they were about when they begot me …” Start at conception, you can’t be more chronological than that. Dickens did it too, a hundred years later, when he titled the first chapter of David Copperfield: I Am Born.

If these guys poked fun at the straight timeline, why shouldn’t Carol dynamite it? Writers do it all the time. They all borrow from Carol, my mother, or my office colleague. In crime fiction, stories often start in the meat of it and jump around: flashback, flash forward, quick cuts, diversions, subplots. Last week, I rewatched Sunset Boulevard, which starts one scene from the end. Double Indemnity is one flashback, so is Murder, My Sweet. Memento plays backwards. I used to own a deck of Brian Eno’s Oblique Strategies (must have lost it in a move, which is quite ironic), and it’s all about reshuffling: plot, time, characters. Exactly what Carol did, in my dining room. I might not tell my stories her way, but a character who hopscotches like she does? Absolutely. I think I’ll revisit with that flabbergasted cop, the one with Walter Matthau’s cocker spaniel eyes … 

Now is your turn, how do you tell a story?

 About Catch Me on a Blue Day

 According to one reviewer:

“Catch Me on a Blue Day is a speedboat of a detective yarn, sleek and sexy and fast as hell. You'll love it.”

“For Ella and all the innocents slain by soulless men.”

It’s the dedication of the book on the Salvadoran civil war retired reporter Carlton Marsh was writing before he committed suicide.

A shocking death. Marsh had asked Declan Shaw to come to Old Mapleton, Connecticut to help him with research. He looked forward to Declan’s visit.

Now Declan stands in the office of the local police chief. The cop would prefer to see him fly back to Houston. He’s never dealt with a private detective, but everybody knows they are trouble. In Catch Me on a Blue Day, Declan is far from his regular Texas stomping grounds. He’s off balance in more ways than one, and the crimes he uncovers are of a magnitude he could not foresee. Between the sins of an old New England town and the violence of 1980s El Salvador. And the links between the two.

Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/Catch-Blue-Declan-Shaw-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B0FR3DWYGD/

M.E. Proctor was born in Brussels and lives in Texas. She’s the author of the Declan Shaw detective mysteries: Love You Till Tuesday and Catch Me on a Blue Day, the author of a short story collection, Family and Other Ailments, and the co-author of a retro-noir novella, Bop City Swing. Her fiction has appeared in Vautrin, Tough, Rock and a Hard Place, Bristol Noir, Mystery Tribune, Shotgun Honey, Reckon Review, and Black Cat Weekly among others. She’s a Shamus and Derringer awards short story nominee. Website: www.shawmystery.com. On Substack: https://meproctor.substack.com.

Justice, Not Forgiveness: Why I Write About the Cost of Revenge

By Janelle Marie

Somewhere along the way, I stopped believing that forgiveness is always the answer. Maybe you have, too. Maybe you’ve looked at the world—at the headlines that make no sense, at the way justice often feels like a privilege rather than a right—and you’ve thought: What if I were in their shoes? What if I lost everything? What if the system failed me?

That’s the space where my writing belongs.

I came to fiction later in life. I spent years carrying stories inside me, but I didn’t start writing them down until I turned sixty. By then, I had lived long enough to understand how easily the world can turn cruel, how quickly everything can be taken from you. And I had met people—real people—who didn’t have the luxury or ability to “move on.”

That’s why I wrote Eternal Ashes, the first in my five-book thriller series about justice, vengeance, and what both can cost.

The Making of an Avenger

At the heart of my series is Sofie. She isn’t a detective, a lawyer, or a vigilante with years of training. She’s a mother, a woman who built a life she loved—until it was stolen from her. And when the system offers her nothing but hollow words and legal dead ends, she decides to take matters into her own hands.

Sofie’s story isn’t just about revenge; it’s about survival. It’s about the choices we make when there are no good ones left. It’s about what justice looks like when the law fails to provide it, and you feel like you must build your own justice.

I’ve always been drawn to stories about people who refuse to be victims. Crime fiction is full of brilliant detectives and relentless prosecutors, but I’m fascinated by the ones who don’t have a badge or a rulebook—just a fire burning in their chest that they can't ignore, and a line they’re willing to cross.

But there’s always a cost.

The Thin Line Between Justice and Vengeance

As I write this series, I find myself asking uncomfortable questions. How far would I go for justice? When does revenge stop being righteous and start being something else—something darker? How do you tell the difference? 

Those are the questions Sofie faces throughout the Ash & Rage series. Her journey doesn’t end with a single act of vengeance. That’s why this is a five-book series, not a standalone. Each installment digs deeper into the consequences of her choices. Each book pushes her further into the shadows, forcing her to confront the person she’s becoming.

Because justice isn’t clean. And sometimes, once you step into the fire, there’s no coming back.

Why I Write About This

There’s a reason stories about revenge resonate with so many of us. We live in a world where justice often feels out of reach. Where the guilty sometimes walk free and the innocent can suffer. Where grief builds when there’s no resolution, no accountability.

Fiction lets us explore what real life so often denies us: the chance to do something. To see someone fight back. To make the guilty pay.

But revenge isn’t a fairytale. It’s messy. It changes people. And that’s what I want to explore in this series—not just the satisfaction of retribution, but what it really costs.

I write for those who have ever felt powerless. For those who have ever wondered what they would do if they had nothing left to lose. And for those who, like me, don’t always believe that forgiveness is the only path forward.

Justice doesn’t always come wrapped in a neat little package. Sometimes, it has sharp, sharp teeth.

And sometimes, that’s the only kind that matters.

You can learn more about Janelle Marie and buy her book at:

Website: www.janelle-marie.com

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/223500016-eternal-ashes

Book link: https://books2read.com/u/mKkdr5

The Dangers that Lurk in the City by the Bay

by Erica Miner

‘San Francisco, a city that considers its Opera only slightly less sacred than the Holy Grail’

San Francisco. City by the Bay. Famous for stunning landmarks: the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, Pier 39, Fisherman’s Wharf. Legendary for its cable cars, iconic waterfront, steep rolling hills and Victorian architecture. A city of contrasts, from its natural beauty to its technology. Of fascinating history, from the gold rush to the present.

But the San Francisco of Overture to Murder, the latest novel in my Julia Kogan Opera Mystery series, is a city of mystery: Twin Peaks, stealthy fog…and the ghostly upper reaches of its opera house.

After her life-threatening entanglements in murder investigations at the Metropolitan Opera (Aria for Murder) and Santa Fe Opera (Prelude to Murder), intrepid young violinist Julia Kogan takes on new challenges as the concertmaster (first of the first violinists) of the San Francisco Opera, a position of immense responsibility. She is temporarily replacing the current concertmaster, who has been badly injured in a hit-and-run accident, which Julia thinks worthy of looking into as not accidental. It is a high-pressure situation for her, both musically and emotionally, but she’s up to the test—or is she?

In the historical War Memorial Opera House, Julia finds a theatre steeped in history: among other things, it’s adjacent to the Veterans Building where Harry Truman signed the UN Charter in 1945. But she also finds intrigue. There’s no time for sampling the sourdough, Dim Sum, Ghirardelli chocolates and other culinary delights of the city. Julia has her work cut out for her, trying to uncover the perpetrator in the latest grisly operatic killing.  

The city of San Francisco and its opera are in my blood. I have a personal connection with both of them. Over the last several decades I paid numerous visits to this amazing city to spend time with a close family member who worked with the company and with other family members and friends who lived in the Bay Area. Thus I experienced a doubly significant journey when I recently toured the War Memorial Opera House with the House Head, who had been working there for over 30 years and knew every corner and cranny. Little had I known that the place, which had served as the locale for the film Foul Play, is filled with creaky old equipment that’s positively scary to look at and listen to and is home to its own ghosts.

As I cringed from these discoveries, I put myself in Julia’s shoes. How does she cope with disturbingly creative modes of murder devised by a mentally unhinged killer? She investigates, of course, as is her wont. Her natural curiosity gets the better of her, as it has in previous opera houses. She will leave no sheet of music unturned until she discovers the perpetrator’s identity, with little regard for her own safety. The trouble is, she’s not the only one who’s in danger. The life of another person near and dear to her is in jeopardy as well. The tables have turned.

It was such a trip for me in so many ways to write this novel. Nostalgia about my past experiences with the company met with the fascination I experienced in my forays at the opera house of the present. Julia is my alter ego, based on myself when I, too, was an eager young violinist. But I could never summon up the level of courage that becomes essential for her as she navigates the perilous world of opera mystery in the dark stairways, back hallways, and hundred foot-high catwalks of the War Memorial Opera House. And again, the curtain comes down on murder.

About Erica:

Former Metropolitan Opera violinist Erica Miner is now an award-winning author, screenwriter, arts journalist, and lecturer based in the Pacific Northwest. Her debut novel, Travels with My Lovers, won the Fiction Prize in the Direct from the Author Book Awards. Her current Julia Kogan Opera Mystery series reveal the dark side of the fascinating world of opera: Aria for Murder (Level Best Books, 2022), was a finalist in the 2023 Eric Hoffer and Murder and Mayhem Awards; Prelude to Murder (2023) a Distinguished Favorite in the 2024 NYC Big Book Awards, glowingly reviewed by Kirkus Reviews; and the just-released Overture to Murder (2024). As a writer-lecturer, Erica has given workshops for Sisters in Crime; Los Angeles Creative Writing Conference; EPIC Group Writers; Write on the Sound; Fields End Writer’s Community; Savvy Authors; and numerous libraries on the west coast.

ISBN-10: 978-1-68512-781-7 (pb)

ISBN-13:978-1-68512-782-4 (eb)

Webpage: www.ericaminer.com

Social media:

https://www.facebook.com/erica.miner1

https://twitter.com/EmwrtrErica

https://www.instagram.com/emwriter3/

Buy Link: Amazon

Blurbs:

“Anyone who loves the romance of opera and opera houses will enjoy Overture to Murder. Miner gives us a unique tour of the War Memorial Opera House, letting us in on its secrets, legends and gossip, and one of its most important occupants, the San Francisco Opera. She shares many details only a true insider can know, bringing the building to life and making it an essential character in this exceptionally well-crafted mystery.” ~ John Boatwright, San Francisco Opera House Head

“Divas and deadly secrets share center stage in Erica Miner’s Overture to Murder, a classic mystery tale set at the San Francisco Opera House, a chilling backdrop for murder. Precise details, inside information about the glamorous world of classical music, and a cast of finely drawn characters propel the action from the opening curtain to the final bows. This suspenseful tale of mystery, music, and mayhem is a page-turner. Highly recommend.” ~ Lori Robbins, author of the On Pointe Mysteries

“Set against the elegant backdrop of the San Francisco Opera, this smart, suspenseful mystery weaves a tale as intricate and compelling as Wagner's Ring. With its masterful blend of suspense, music, and drama, OVERTURE TO MURDER is a must-read for mystery enthusiasts and opera lovers alike.  Mally Becker, Agatha Award-nominated author of The Revolutionary War mysteries.

The Four Stages of Writing Three Books a Year by Matt Cost

 

I'm delighted to welcome Matt Cost to the blog. In addition to being a fine multi-genre writer, he keeps up a schedule that...well, I'll let him tell it. Take it away, Matt.

I have found the rhythm of writing three books a year to be a very good fit for me. This has, believe it or not, a variety that I find very appealing. On every single day, I have four different pieces of the writing process to be working on. They are writing, editing, marketing, and promoting. Sure, there are other things in writing books like inspiration and research, but these are the four stages that occupy me seven days a week.

As I just had a new book published, Pirate Trap, on March 27^th, I am going to take these stages in reverse order. I am currently promoting this latest release, the fifth book in my Clay Wolfe/Port Essex Trap series. This entails doing speaking engagements and book signings at a variety of libraries, bookstores, conferences, author brunches, and panel discussions. I have eleven such engagements in April and a like number in May. These continue forward, but will tail off in June and July, before picking up with a new book in August. These events are mainly in Maine, with a few exceptions in New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

These promotions were set up through the third stage of writing three books a year, and that is marketing. I have currently begun my campaign of reaching out to speaking and signing sites for my upcoming book, City Gone Askew, which is pubbing on July 31^st. Not yet having reached the stature of Michael Connelly, Harlan Coban, or Paul Doiron, this means approaching close to two-hundred places to create thirty engagements for this second book in my Brooklyn 8 Ballo series. The second main part of my marketing campaign is reaching out to reviewers, which is similar in scope, in that I need to query almost ten to get one, but that number builds with every book written.

 This brings us to stage two, the editing process. I might be editing several different books at once as there are my own edits when completing a book, the edits recommended by the professional editor I hire, and the edits of my publisher. For the sake of simplicity, we will focus on the edits from my publisher, Cynthia Brackett-Vincent at Encircle Publications, for the edits of my November release of Mainely Mayhem. This sixth book in the Mainely Mystery series has gone through seven edits before it gets to my publisher, where it will face two more as well as an edit from my wife, who can find fault with me where nobody else can.

 Writing. Stage one. I am currently writing 1955, a Raleigh, North Carolina, PI mystery set in that year. I started writing 1955 on January 1^st of this year and have only missed four days of writing since I began. I write every morning, seven days a week, and then if I have time, some in the afternoon as well. The book will be reaching a thrilling conclusion very soon, and I will move forward through the stages. Write something new. Edit something new. Market something new. Promote something new. Write on.

Matt Cost is the highly acclaimed, award-winning author of the Mainely Mystery series. The first book, Mainely Power, was selected as the Maine Humanities Council Read ME Fiction Book of 2020. This was followed by Mainely Fear, Mainely Money, Mainely Angst, and Mainely Wicked.

 His Clay Wolfe/Port Essex Mysteries include Wolfe Trap, Mind Trap, Mouse Trap, and Cosmic Trap, and now, Pirate Trap.

 I Am Cuba: Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution was his first traditionally published novel. He had another historical released in August of 2021, Love in a Time of Hate, and in August 2022, Encircle re-released his originally self-published novel, At Every Hazard: Joshua Chamberlain and the Civil War.

Cost's love of histories and mysteries is combined in the novel, Velma Gone Awry, book one in his new series featuring private eye, 8 Ballo, set in 1920's Brooklyn. The second book, City Gone Askew, will publish in August of 2024.

Cost lives in Brunswick, Maine, with his wife, Harper. There are four grown children: Brittany, Pearson, Miranda, and Ryan. A chocolate Lab and a basset hound round out the mix. He now spends his days at the computer, writing.

 

Part of My Brain is Always Writing By Mary Ann Miller

My debut novel was released March 21, 2023, and in April I held a book launch party. I had no idea how many people would attend and was pleasantly surprised to see 75-80 family and friends show up. Of course, it was a nasty, cold, windy, sleeting afternoon in Chicago and maybe the free wine and dessert was the real reason for such a good turnout. In any event, several people told me that they didn’t realize I was a writer and how long had I been writing and where do my ideas come from. All standard questions, but it reminded me that part of my brain is always writing, searching for that one oddity that will make a character or situation stand out.

 

For example, I drove my niece to the airport this morning and as we sat at a stoplight, I noticed Winter Garden, my Florida hometown, is holding a fair. The kind with a Ferris wheel, cotton candy, and the bottle ring toss. In the area in front of the fair, where the cars eventually will park, was a field filled with cows. I’ve seen them there before, but what flashed through my mind was – there’s a novel in this scene. My niece’s observation was – are they going to leave the cows there during the fair? Who’s going to scoop up all the poop?

 

Even though we saw the same thing, my brain instantly wrote a book.

 

Another time, my husband, Mike, and I were heading home from the grocery store and in front of us was a very large man on an orange motorcycle. He wore an orange t-shirt, orange shorts and an orange bandana and on his feet were orange clogs. His helmet was orange with black trim and an orange backpack was strapped onto an orange saddlebag. Mike’s comment was – I like orange, but that’s too much. My thought was – a killer hiding in plain view.  He will make it into a novel someday.

 

Many writers, including myself, have driven somewhere only to get there and realize it’s not where we wanted to go. That’s because part of the brain is thinking about a scene in a book, a character who isn’t doing what we want them to do, an upcoming deadline, what to post on social media, an author book club zoom, any number of tasks that need to be done. Sometimes, my head hurts by the end of the day and it’s not because I didn’t drink my caffeine. There’s only so much room up there, and between life and writing, the space that my brain occupies is completely full.

 

Mary Ann Miller is a debut author, currently living in Florida with her husband, where she is working on the second novel in the series. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Northern Illinois University and earned a paralegal certificate with Roosevelt University. Miller is a member of MWA, ITW, and Sisters in Crime and when not writing, can be found reading poolside or hosting family and friends fleeing the cold winters of the north.

 

https://oceanview-publishing.webflow.io/authors/mary-ann-miller