Still waiting

Hi everyone!

Just a quick update to add to the blog to keep it somewhat active. Unfortunately, I am still waiting for Donna F. Crow's book "A Very Private Grave" to arrive from Amazon.com. I usually don't have to wait this long, but I am chalking it up to all the shipping they must have to do for the holiday season.

While I have been waiting for this book, I read a "cozy" book, but it wasn't about murder. Sometimes, I just need a break from the murder mystery world and enter another one for a while. I've decided that I love books that are set in the South. I am hoping to visit some of those beautiful southern states one day. My first stop will be South Carolina. That's about as far as I have gotten with my "bucket list". I am going to blame Anne George for my love of the South since she was the first author I read in the cozy murder mystery world where the setting was in the South.

I have decided that after I read "A Very Private Grave", I am going to ready Laura Alden's "Murder at the PTA". That one sounds right up my alley, being a stay at home mom and all. I can't wait! I may have to bump this one up if Amazon doesn't deliver to me soon. I can't stand to not have a book available to me to pick up and read whenever I get the chance.

If anyone has read either one of these books, I'd love to hear your opinion on them!

Until next time . . . . .Meg

A big warm Thank You

First off, I want to send out a big warm Thank You to the ladies that have contacted me and have welcomed me to the blog. I truly appreciate you reaching out and making contact. I have a feeling this is going to be a fun journey for me.

I have made contact with a few authors and am excited that they will be contributing to the blog. My first contact has been with Donna F. Crow. She has a new murder mystery out, A Very Private Grave, which is her first book in the new series The Monastery Murders. Before I have an author contribute to the blog, I have to read their book first. I feel that by reading the author's newest book, I will have a better feel for what to ask them and understand better where they are coming from. It's kind of like my own homework assignment. So starting this week, I will begin A Very Private Grave. I am really looking forward to it!

Somehow, I have to find the time to sit down and read with Thanksgiving hot on my heels. I am hosting this year. I love to host Thanksgiving (mostly because I LOVE to cook), but it certainly cuts into my time to read. My two passions are reading and cooking.

I am planning on contacting Donna F. Crow within the next few weeks to contribute to the blog.

If you happen to be reading A Very Private Grave, please feel free to contact me with any questions you may have for Ms. Crow and I will do my very best to get them answered for you.

Happy Reading . . . .oh and Happy Thanksgiving! -Meg

An Introduction

Hi Everyone!

My name is Meg and I contacted Donna about taking over the Cozy Murder Mysteries blog. I am a huge fan of Cozy Murder Mysteries and came across this blog while searching for some new cozies to read.

I plan on keeping the "Why I Write Mysteries" column and "Q & A" with cozy murder mystery writers. I am hoping to get to "meet" some of my favorite authors.

A little about me, I am currently a stay-at-home mom to my two sons. One is 10 years old and the other is 1 1/2 years old. I started reading mysteries in general back in 2002. My first ever mystery was a Mary Higgins Clark one. The more I read, the more I realized how much I loved mysteries. My first Cozy Murder Mystery was by Anne George called "Murder Boogies with Elvis". I have read all her books in the series and fell in love with them.

I think that everyone has their own definition of what a Cozy Murder Mystery is. To me, it takes place in a small town, with a lot of descriptive language so that you feel like you can imagine yourself living there. You get to know the characters and love to read about them developing as the author continues to write book after book about them. I love the thought of getting a good Cozy Murder Mystery book to read, crawling up in a nice soft spot with a cup of coffee and throw and just letting myself be taken away by the story.

My favorite authors are Anne George, Diane Mott Davidson, Leslie Meier and Joanne Fluke.

I would love to hear from the "Cozy" followers about what they would like to read about in this blog and am open to any ideas that may improve it and help us gain even more followers.

I look forward to getting to know you all! -Meg

Are Crime Fiction Cliches Comforting?

Are Crime Fiction Clichés Comforting?

By: Brooklyn White

We’re all guilty of using them once in a while or more often too; in fact, clichés are a constant weapon in any writer’s arsenal. The problem with using them however is that you have to be careful not to rub your readers the wrong way – one too many of them and they’re bound to label your writing a bundle of clichés that has no originality at all. Crime writing is an especially difficult genre when it comes to avoiding clichés; it’s so full of authors who exploit them and use them even without realizing they’re doing so, and very often, they continue to enjoy success even though they resort to clichés.

But clichés are not all bad; actually, they can be quite comforting and even necessary at times, like when:

• Readers are comfortable with a certain style of writing: I hardly ever read new authors unless I’m forced to do so because I have nothing else to read. That is when I explore new options and select one person whose writing suits my taste in books. In the course of this process, I’ve found that I gravitate to a certain kind of books, those that are written in a style similar to my favourite authors. Now these new books may not have the same clichés as the old ones, but the situations are similar, as is the method of solving the crime. Come to think of it, all of us choose what we’re comfortable with when it comes to change. So when clichés cause déjà vu, they may not be all that bad.

• You have the same protagonist in all your books: If your hero is the same person (or team) in all your books, you’re bound to use clichés more often than not. Take the Perry Mason books written by Earl Stanley Gardner – Perry Mason, Della Street and Paul Drake are recurring characters, and almost every book features a case which is seemingly unwinnable at first glance, but which Mason solves with his usual ingenuity and quick wits when there are hardly any options left or time remaining. But you put up with the clichés because you know that Mason’s sense of deduction more than makes up for the rest of the banal stuff.

• You’re writing a spoof: Any self-respecting spoof (it may not respect other books, but it sure does respect itself) must be full of clichés so that readers know it is a spoof from the word go. So you’re forgiven for using them, or rather, if you don’t use them, you’re not likely to be forgiven.
So if you feel the clichés flowing from your fingers onto your screen, don’t worry too much. Just eliminate the ones that seem too obvious when you’re doing your edit and keep the rest as part of your artistic license.

This guest post is contributed by Brooklyn White, who writes on the topic of Forensic Science Technician Schools . She can be reached at brookwhite26-AT-Gmail.com.

Why I Write Mysteries - Phyllis Smallman

Editor's Note: Welcome to Phyllis Smallman for today's 'Why I Write Mysteries' Column. Harriet Klausner, one of amazon.com's premier reviewers, says about Sherri Travis, Smallman's sleuth, in Margarita Nights: "She makes the tale fun with her sass, spunk and spitfire sleuthing. " Enjoy!

Why I Write Mysteries.

Phyllis Smallman

When I was asked why I write mysteries it didn’t take me long to come up with a dozen solid reasons. To start with, writing is the most fun you can have with your clothes on and mysteries are the most popular form of fiction in the world. But more than that, I love mysteries, love to read them and love to write them.

The often reluctant and unprepared hero or heroine goes on a quest - often a life and death struggle, taking us with them on an epic adventure to right wrongs, to see justice done or to discover truth.

These stories of crime explore the dark side of human nature; greed, anger, jealousy and even love when it’s beyond control. All of these emotions are at the heart of a good mystery. Cautionary tales, they tell us what happens when our emotions get out of control.

Mysteries hold up a mirror to society, showing it without its make-up on, revealing all its warts. Mental illness, drugs, and the social problems we all have to deal with in our neighborhoods, workplaces and yes, even our families, are examined. We see how ordinary people deal with extraordinary circumstances, how they cope with what life sends them. And all this wrapped up in a puzzle.

Stories about crimes spot-light our fears. Each of us feels as vulnerable to crime as we do to disease. All those little security signs in flower beds are the new crosses over doors to tell misfortune to move on.

And how many of us think human beings are becoming less moral and more violent? Remember the first crime stories appear in the bible. Cain murdering Able, Joseph being sold into slavery, the bible is full of tales of theft and murder and even tales of the slaughter of babies. And you think identity theft is new? Think of Jacob stealing Esau’s birthright.

Human nature flows through crime books, entertaining us, frightening us and even educating us. That’s why I love a mystery! I have a new one out in March, A BREWSKI FOR THE OLD MAN. Holding your brand new book in your hands, well, it doesn’t get any better than that.

Phyllis Smallman

www.phyllissmallman.com

Why I Write Mysteries - Nancy Means Wright

*Editor's note: Welcome to Nancy Means Wright, author of the soon-to-be published historical mystery 'Midnight Fires', starring an admirable woman, Mary Wollstonecraft. Her official bio: Nancy Means Wright is the author of 15 books, including 5 mystery novels from St. Martin’s Press, and this April, an historical novel, Midnight Fires: A Mystery with Mary Wollstonecraft (Perseverance Press). She was an Agatha winner and nominee for two kids’ mysteries, and has published stories in American Literary Review, Level Best Books, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, et al). Enjoy, everyone!!


Why I Write (Mostly) Cozy Mysteries
Nancy Means Wright

Shortly after I was divorced and had begun to teach in a small liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, I read a newspaper account about a pair of elderly Vermont farmers who kept their money in barn rafters and under mattresses. They were assaulted one night and the cash stolen—but the thieves were caught when they tossed the money about in bars and restaurants—and it reeked of barn! Up to that point, I’d published stories, poems, novels, and nonfiction books, but I hadn’t even read a mystery since fourth grade when, inspired by Nancy Drew, I penned a novella about the kidnapping of a pesky older brother—and my mother threw it out.

But I felt like a pariah so far away from my Vermont family, and desperately needed to put some kind of order back into my life. And mysteries, I knew from Nancy Drew, begin in chaos, but invariably end up in order—something I craved in my disjointed life. Moreover, in a mystery, one can do in the bad guys, including one’s former husband, and end on a bright note. I knew then that I had to write one. I’d begin with that assault, but change those elderly brothers to a French Canadian farmer and wife, and set the story on a small town dairy farm. After all, I’d lived most of my life in Cornwall, a town composed largely of farms and orchards, where Jamaican pickers came each fall to sing like dark birds in the ripe trees.

To me Vermont had always seemed an Eden, a place for healing and quiet meditation. But now I was beginning to discover the snake in the garden. Small independent farmers were being forced to sell their farms; I’d write in defense of those farmers. And I’d make the town of “Branbury” a character in the novel; I wanted a strong sense of place that was more than local color. But setting demands a sleuth. And knowing little about homicide detectives or PIs, I decided to make my sleuth an amateur, a good Samaritan farmer-neighbor to those assaulted men. Since I was going through a divorce, my fictional Ruth Willmarth would be a single mother of three. She would be like the novel’s author, the two of us trying to find out whodunnit and why—especially why—all those fractured relationships that can cause a murder. Ultimately, St. Martin’s Press published five Ruth Willmarth novels and a novella—until Ruth’s thirty cows were quarantined for mad cow disease, and the series came, like my first marriage, to an inevitable end.

But I had to keep writing. Writing is a compulsion—it keeps me out of the psychiatrist’s office. It’s my meditation, almost my raison d’être. I published two mysteries for middle grade kids—one an Agatha winner; and then a memoir about family, with real life people in it. I’ve always loved writing about real people, present or past—especially those with whom I share feelings and principles. One of them is Mary Wollstonecraft, 18th century feminist who wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Woman and led a wholly unconventional, rebellious life. I’d already published a small press book of poems in her persona, and now I wanted to write her into a mystery. She makes an ideal sleuth, I think, with her inquiring mind, her charismatic personality, and her daring. I would start with her year as impecunious governess to three unruly girls in Mitchelstown Castle in Ireland where, in my fictional telling, she saves a young rebel from hanging and tracks down the assassin of a roué aristocrat. A 2011 sequel will find her in colourful London, and then in bloody Paris during the French Revolution’s Reign of Terror, where in real life she lost her own head to a dashing but feckless adventurer.

I’ve loved writing Midnight Fires, which will be published in April by Perseverance Press. Writing about Wollstonecraft offers the chance to get into her head, to become her, to feel her passions and pains, the way I felt my farmer Ruth’s pain when the Feds killed her favorite cow Zelda in the end of Mad Cow Nightmare. Writing, then, is both pain and deepest pleasure, when light and order prevail in the end. It has given so much insight into other people and other worlds. How can one ordinary person live so many different lives—and all at once!

Nancy Means Wright
www.nancymeanswright.com
Midnight Fires: A Mystery with Mary Wollstonecraft (Perseverance Press--April,'10)
"Becoming Mary Wollstonecraft" Facebook page

Why I Write Mysteries - Penny Warner

Editor's Note: Welcome today to a wonderful Thursday edition of 'Why I Write Mysteries'. This installment features Penny Warner, author of the fun mystery 'How To Host a Killer Party' (Signet - February 2010 - Available Now!) This prolific author walks the walk and talks the talk, having written numerous non-fiction party handbooks. Enjoy, all!!

WHY I WRITE MYSTERIES? iT’S BECAUSE OF NANCY Drew

By Penny Warner

I didn’t plan to be a writer when I grew up. When I was a kid, I placed writers on pedestals—“writers” like Carolyn Keene, “author” of the Nancy Drew series. Larger than life, they seemed as fictional as their characters. Turns out some of them were—like Carolyn Keene. But not my other favorites like E.B. White, A.A. Milne, L. Frank Baum. With authors like that, I found it hard to believe that an ordinary person like me could become a writer.

Then, when I was in sixth grade, I got mono and missed two months of school. That’s when my mother handed me a copy of my first Nancy Drew mystery—“Secret in the Old Clock.” It wasn’t long before I became obsessed with the girl sleuth. I started wearing a trench coat, made my own sleuth kit, and wrote my first mystery, “The Mystery of Mr. X.” While Nancy Drew was fiction, she inspired me to follow my passion—and that passion turned out to be writing mysteries.

I’ve had 50-plus books published over the years, including eight mysteries and THE OFFICIAL NANCY DREW HANDBOOK. Now the first book in my new mystery series, HOW TO HOST A KILLER PARTY will debut on February 2—and I owe it all to Nancy Drew. I’ve come to realize that everything I know about writing, I learned from reading Nancy Drew mysteries. I thought I’d share some of Drew’s clues to writing that worked for me.

1. Create unforgettable characters: “You know Nancy.” All agreed she possessed an appealing quality, which people never forgot. ~ Clue in the Diary

All stories are based on interesting characters—there are no exceptions. Introduce us to your character a little at a time, using action and dialogue (showing), rather than a thumbnail sketch (telling). Create realistic characters without using stereotypical traits, and include some surprises about the character that are believable. Finally, give the characters conflict—happy characters make dull characters.

2. Use dialogue: Suddenly the young sleuth snapped her fingers. “I know what I’ll do! I’ll set a trap for that ghost!” ~ The Hidden Staircase

Dialogue makes a story come alive. It also helps move the story along, increases pace and creates drama. Listen to real conversations for realism, then edit and tighten them to make the dialogue readable. Keep attribution simple—use action or “said,” rather than adverbs and euphemisms for “said.” Finally, read your dialogue aloud.

3. Set the scene: Many Colonial houses had secret passageways. “Do you know any entrances a thief could use?” ~The Hidden Staircase

A vivid setting pulls the reader into the story. It also intensifies suspense and becomes a character in itself. Show the setting through the character’s eyes and include all five senses, telling details, and occasional metaphors.

4. Add mood and atmosphere: Nancy had heard music, thumps and creaking noises at night, and had seen eerie, shadows on walls. ~ The Hidden Staircase

Give a sense of foreboding through description. Mood and atmosphere give the story depth and stimulate the emotions of the readers. Use foreshadowing to give the reader a feeling of unease.

5. Outline your plot: Ellen was alarmed. “We must do something to stop him!” “I have a little plan,” Nancy said. ~ Quest of the Missing Map

Before you begin writing, outline your plot so you know, generally, where the story is headed. You can keep it simple and just jot down the major plot points of the story—where the story takes a surprising turn and how it ratchets up the suspense. Or you can write a detailed chapter-by-chapter outline, with the option of veering off if the story requires an alteration.

6. Start the clock ticking: “Hurry, girls, or we’ll miss the train to River Heights!” Nancy knew being on time was important. ~ Secret of Red Gate Farm

Begin with the inciting incident, which starts the clock ticking. Include not only the situation, but where it takes place, and who’s involved. This is where you ask the story questions: What if….? Think about your goal as start the story and where it will lead.

7. Create conflict: Nancy struggled to get away. She twisted, kicked and clawed. “Let me go!” Nancy cried. ~ Secret of the Old Clock

There is no story without conflict. The protagonist must come up against an antagonist, which can be a person, an idea, a corporation, or some kind of evil. Conflict helps reveal the protagonist’s needs, values, and fears, and causes her to confront her demons, challenge herself, and become a hero of sorts.

8. Pack it with action: “How do we get in?” “Over the top, commando style,” George urged. “Lucky we wore jeans.” ~ Clue in the Crumbling Wall

Today’s reader wants action, so give your protagonist opportunities to do something physical. Give her a choice between fight or flight, and when she fights—make her strong but still vulnerable.

9. Spark reader’s emotions: Nancy was too frightened to think logically. She beat on the door, but the panels would not give way. ~ Secret of the Old Clock

Crank up the reader’s involvement but increasing the character’s emotional risk. This way the reader will care about the story. If she can relate to the protagonist’s emotional jeopardy, she’ll be hooked on finding out what happens.

10. Raise the stakes: In a desperate attempt to break down the door Nancy threw her weight against it again and again. ~ Secret of the Old Clock

The story begins with a challenge for the protagonist. But that’s not enough. As the story moves along, something worse must happen. And just when you think it’s safe to go back into the water, things become even worse. Keep raising the stakes to keep those pages turning.

11. Make the situation hopeless: “We’re locked in!” Nancy exclaimed, and began banging on the door with her fist. ~ Nancy’s Mysterious Letter

When all seems lost and the protagonist is about to give up because she’s running out of time and is under extreme pressure, she must find the courage to go on, make another decisions, and get herself out of this devastating trouble.

12. Give the protagonist strength: “Girls don’t faint these days,” George scoffed. ~ Secret of Red Gate Farm

As the protagonist comes face to face with the antagonist, she must pull out all her reserves and use her own skills to change the situation. This heroic attempt must also create growth and change in the protagonist.

13. Don’t give up: Nancy tried to open the door. It was locked. Not easily discouraged, she tried a window; it was unlocked. ~The Hidden Staircase

I really believe the reason I’ve had over 50 books published is simply because—like Nancy Drew—I followed my passion and never gave up!

Penny Warner is the author of THE OFFICIAL NANCY DREW HANDBOOK, and the upcoming mystery series, HOW TO HOST A KILLER PARTY, from Penguin. She can be reached at www.pennywarner.com.