Why Do We as
Writers Kill? by Debra H. Goldstein
Why do the
writers on this blog kill? What perverse joy do we or our peers get from dead
bodies, dismembered body parts, bashed brains, or subtle symptoms of poisoning?
Secretly, do you think our families wish we wrote literary works instead of
books and stories in the mystery genre?
What makes us
listen to two people in a restaurant and immediately discern a conflict that
will result in the death of the one of the two we least like? Do other people
observe their surroundings and think about where a dead body can be shoved?
Outside of our sphere of friends, are we classified as “normal
The answer
probably is “no,” but who cares? I can’t speak for my fellow bloggers, but I
write in the mystery genre, because I love it. Although I have written and been
published in the non-fiction and literary areas, my passion is whodunits.
Despite
reading every aspect of the genre, I
primarily write traditional or cozy mysteries. In my other life, I traveled a
lot and found traditional or cozy mysteries to be easy plane or beach reads
that completely took me away from the stress of my everyday world. Often
character driven and with crisp dialogue, these mysteries quickly invested me
in their stories and challenged me to figure out the murderer before the great
reveal. My goal in writing them is to provide the same fun for other people.
To some, the fun may seem a bit
macabre, but I think I can speak for all of us --- we wouldn’t want it any
other way.
