PRIME COZY READING MONTHS AHEAD

 by Korina Moss

Photo by Cheese Shop Mystery reader Cheryl Pelicano

Hurrah! We have begun the ‘ber months: September, October, November, and December. As a New Englander, these are my favorite months of the year. The air is cooler, the colored leaves are majestic, and it’s the start of the cozy season. Sure, you have your summer beach reads, but this stretch of the year is what reading was made for.  

Taken by me after a very early snow

It starts in mid-September, lazing on the lush grass, the warm sun countering every chilly breeze. You bring a picnic blanket, some artisan cheese, and an apple picked fresh from a nearby orchard. You definitely bring a book. 

A September day in the park with my son

Once October arrives, autumn has taken hold and you know it will vanish just as quickly.  You spend mornings on your front porch rocker, a crocheted blanket up to your chin, and your dog resting at your feet in a sunbeam. One hand holds a mug of something warm, and the other holds your book. The rustling leaves provide soothing background music, with the occasional thumping of your dog’s happy tail acting as percussion. You make a habit of this for as many days as Mother Nature allows, until it’s too cold to sit outside. 

Morning fog on one of my October walks

You bring your book indoors to lounge on the window seat, where the squishy pillows have a memory for perfectly resting your head and shoulders. The warm glow of the lamplight illuminates the book’s pages, as November rain darkens the skies, lashes the windows, and pulls the last of the dying leaves from their branches. Your cat jumps up to join you and pushes herself under your book, before kneading the throw blanket covering you. She eventually lies down, her soft purrs indicating her comfort. 

Clearing after a wet November day

By December, the windows have become frosty and radiate the cold, so you choose a deep-cushioned chair by the fireplace. The windows are now draped with tiny twinkling lights, and the only thing to match your mood is a holiday-themed book. As you read, you breathe in the aroma of freshly baked gingerbread. The spiced scent might be from your kitchen or merely from the cozy comforts written on the pages. Hot cocoa will do. You light the kindling atop the fireplace grate before returning to your book. As the flames crackle and dance on the logs, so does your imagination, lost in the story. At the final chapter’s end, you look up from your book and catch the first snowfall of the season. 

The snowy view from my back deck

Readers: What does cozy reading look like to you?

 

KORINA MOSS is the author of the 6-book Cheese Shop Mystery series, which includes the winner of the Agatha Award for Best First Novel, Cheddar Off Dead, as well as two novels short-listed for Best Contemporary Novel. Listed as one of USA Today’s “Best Cozy Mystery Series,” her books have also been featured in PARADE Magazine, Woman’s World, and Writer’s Digest. This summer, Cheddar Off Dead was recommended by PBS & PBS Kids for their all-ages summer reading challenge. Learn more and subscribe to Korina’s seasonal newsletter via her website korinamossauthor.com

KORINA MOSS is also a freelance developmental editor specializing in cozy mysteries. To learn more and read client success stories and testimonials, go to her website korinamossauthor.com. You may contact her by email at korinamossauthor@gmail.com.

Seasons of Writing

Seasons of Writing by Debra H. Goldstein

My heart goes out to those who lost family, friends, homes, and other possessions to Hurricane Ian. Where I am, in Birmingham, Alabama, there was no rain, wind, or other havoc. Instead, 90–100-degree weather dropped to comfortable 70+ degree days, with slightly cooler nights. The sun shone. The sky was blue. A few leaves showed signs of changing colors. Summer melted into Fall.

 

The change was subtle. The evolution of writers is much the same. There are days we write with the intensity of a hurricane or the summer heat of passion, while other days our production and abilities become more mellow (and occasionally freeze like Winter). Often, authors are not even aware as a passing season creeps into their writing.

 

Perhaps the writer is distracted by personal life events. Perhaps it is a matter of burn-out. Perhaps the factor is aging. Or perhaps a wonderful idea or a passion so overwhelms the author that doing anything but write is impossible. It’s unpredictable, but that is the beauty of the writing life. What author would want things to stay stagnant?

 

 

 

Good Bye, Summer Reading

A proud reader

For some, the first day of school means the end of summer. At libraries, it means the end of summer reading. Close to one thousand children participated in the summer reading program at my county library. The finishers, who had to read fifteen books over the summer, earned a coupon book of prizes and the right to put their names on paper cut outs we display in the branch. Many children proudly visit their cut outs, so we leave them up for a few weeks into the school year. But the gears shift; the reading lists change.

Gone are the lighter, funnier, summer reads. In September, the school reading lists bristle with classics and serious novels. The Great Gatsby steps in as Bridget Jones makes her exit.

Many adults make the same shift. Instead of the brightly colored book displays of beach reads, bristling with bikinis, sand castles, and sailboats, the library book display this month features biographies, serious and suitable for September, the back to school month. Many of these books may have bikinis, sandcastles, and sailboats in the story, but these frivolous elements are hidden behind serious head shots and no nonsense titles: Fearless. Unbreakable. No Easy Day. Lean In.

As we move into the autumn, we'll display books appropriate for those lengthening hours of darkness. Autumn is the time to recommend the darker favorites, Justin Cronin's The Passage, or Alden Bell's The Reapers Are the Angels, a zombie apocalypse/Flannery O'Connor mash up. Leigh Perry's A Skeleton in the Family, about a mystery-solving skeleton, might appeal to those who want some laughs with their shivers.

I realized as I watched this transition in reading material that I had unconsciously set my work in progress in a beach town in September. The tourists are gone, the crowds have left the beach, the leaves are shading into gold and orange. The transition of the seasons underscores the transitions being made by the characters. The sun is losing its warmth. The cold days are coming. Change is literally in the air.

What was your favorite “beach read” this summer?

Writers, does the season of the year play a part in your story?