Tag Archive for: Cozy Mystery

From Broadway to the Grand Old Opry?

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By Lois Winston

Two years ago my younger son, his wife, and their two little boys moved to Nashville when my daughter-in-law’s company decided to transfer their corporate headquarters from Manhattan to Nashville. When that happened, my husband and I no longer had any family we could rely on in the NY Metro area. What would we do if one of us became ill or infirmed? That was a sobering thought.

 

When I was in my thirties, I helped care for a good friend who had developed Lou Gehrig’s disease. I know all too well what it’s like to single-handedly maneuver a six-foot man from a wheelchair into a car. I could barely manage the feat back then. I’m quite a bit older now, and I know there’s no way I could do what I did back then at this stage in my life.

 

When we moved to our current downsized house twenty-three years ago, we thought we’d live out the remainder of our days here, but we were now confronted with the prospect of moving out of state. We have two sons—the one in Nashville and his older brother, who lives with his family in the San Francisco Bay area. Real estate dollars go much further in Tennessee than they do in California.

 

We had decided we’d put our home up for sale once we both had secured vaccinations and the pandemic was behind us. The universe laughs at me at lot, though, and this was one of those times. The first week in March saw multiple news stories about the booming real estate market in towns with good schools and an easy commute into Manhattan. We live in such a town. Demand is high, especially for smaller homes like ours, and inventory is extremely low. Multiple offers and bidding wars are now the norm. The next thing I knew, we were getting our home ready to put on the market.

 

I’m a Jersey Girl, born and bred. Other than a stint in Philadelphia and its suburbs, I’ve lived my entire life in the Garden State. I love Broadway theater and spending hours wandering through Manhattan’s many museums. I much prefer the Metropolitan Opera House to the Grand Old Opry. Don’t get me wrong, Nashville is very nice. We’ve visited quite often the last two years. But it’s just not where I’d prefer living if I had my druthers.

 

And then there’s Anastasia. What am I going to do about her? She’s also a Jersey girl. All of the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries are set in New Jersey and Manhattan. Will she and her family make the move to Nashville? Personally, I think she’s going to dig in her heels and demand to stay put. However, I have time to figure that out. I’m not quite halfway through writing the tenth book in the series. For now, unlike her author, Anastasia doesn’t have to worry about becoming a southern transplant.

~*~

USA Today and Amazon bestselling and award-winning author Lois Winston writes mystery, romance, romantic suspense, chick lit, women’s fiction, children’s chapter books, and nonfiction under her own name and her Emma Carlyle pen name. Kirkus Reviews dubbed her critically acclaimed Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series, “North Jersey’s more mature answer to Stephanie Plum.” In addition, Lois is a former literary agent and an award-winning craft and needlework designer who often draws much of her source material for both her characters and plots from her experiences in the crafts industry.

 

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The Benefits of Podcasts by Kathleen Kaska

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Two years ago, I was asked to host a
podcast for a local business. Excited to take on something new, I prepared by joining
Toastmasters to improve my speaking skills, signing up for a one-day class to
learn the mechanics of podcasting, and taking a Creative Life class on
conducting podcast interviews. Always a big fan of NPR’s This American Life, I was happily surprised when that class was being
taught by Alex Blumberg, NPR’s producer and the show’s interviewer. Just like his broadcasts, he had me
hanging on every word. Saying his lessons were invaluable is an understatement.

 

Using what I learned, we recorded
and aired our first two episodes. One listener commented that they sounded like
NPR interviews. When I heard that, I knew that class had been worth it. Then we
got COVID-ed (metaphorically) while I was in the process of interviewing my
third guest, so the company pulled the plug on the podcasts. Needless to say, I
was disappointed because I loved being a podcast host. Even though that project
fell through, the lessons I learned about podcasting benefited me also as an
interviewee. Since many writers use this medium to promote their books,
learning the nuances of podcast interviews is just as valuable to podcast guests.

Here are
some tips:

1. Be
authentic. Don’t be afraid to look like an idiot. Laugh at yourself.

2. Pause before
punch lines, emotional moments, and important revelations.

3. As
interviewer, don’t ask yes-and-no type questions. Instead, ask questions that delve
into the subject. For example:

“Tell me
about the day you realized . . .”

“What
were the steps that got you there?”

“How did
that, or they, make you feel?”

And my
favorite question-preface (used when the interviewee is not sure how to
proceed, is hesitant, or unsure of what to reveal): “I noticed in your voice .
. .”

4.
Interview people with direct experience, rather than “experts.” It’s more
interesting to interview the passenger of a plane that’s been hijacked than the
airline’s official.

5. Once
you’ve chosen your topic and who you want to interview, create a two-statement
hook to grab your listeners’ attention. Example: “This is a story about a
family who sold everything to buy a boat and sail around the world. Then the
father, “abandoned ship,” returned home, and left the mother and three children
to fend for themselves.

6.
Conduct a short pre-interview to get to know your interviewee and decide on a
course of action.

Keeping this in mind, as
interviewee, rather than giving synopses of all your books, talk about an
interesting story behind the reason you write, how you developed your
characters, or why you chose your setting. Your listeners are more likely to
stay engaged until the end. And by discussing the interview ahead of time and
giving thought to what you want to cover, you will help the podcast host move
the interview in the direction you want to go.

 

Here are two podcasters I highly
recommend: Laurel McHargue’s Alligator Preserve Podcast ( https://leadvillelaurel.com/). Laurel has hosted me twice, on February 18, 2021, and on
February 10, 2019. The links to each follow. Take a look and see how I improved
in the second interview, which occurred after taking Blumberg’s class. You
don’t even have to watch the entire interview to notice the change.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/wkqtbNjBDcM

 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yf1MpsDeh60

Also,
there’s Linda McHenry’s The Writer’s Voice: (https://lindamchenry.com/the-writers-voice-podcast/).

You can find my interview (Episode 36, on January 27, 2021)
by clicking on “Listen to All Episodes.”  

 

Awarding-winner
author Kathleen Kaska writes mysteries, mysteries trivia, nonfiction, blogs,
stage plays, travel articles, essays, and poems. Her latest release, The Sherlock Holmes Quiz Book, was reissued by Rowman and Littlefield (Lyons
Press). Kathleen writes the Sydney Lockhart Mystery Series and the Kate Caraway
Animal-Rights Mystery Series. Her first two Lockhart mysteries, Murder at the Arlington and Murder
at the Luther, were selected as
bonus-books for the Pulpwood Queen Book Group, the country’s largest book group.

When she is not writing, she spends much of her time with
her husband traveling the back roads and byways around the country, looking for
new venues for her mysteries and bird watching along the Texas coast and
beyond. Her passion for birds led to the publication The Man Who Saved the Whooping Crane: The Robert
Porter Allen Story (University
Press of Florida). Her collection of blog posts for Cave Art Press was
published under the title, Do
You Have a Catharsis Handy? Five-Minute Writing Tips. Catharsis was the winner of the Chanticleer
International Book Award in the nonfiction Instruction and Insights category.

Website     Twitter

 

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A Christmas Like No Other

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A Christmas Like No Other

By Lois Winston

When I was a child, we didn’t have much in the way of holiday celebrations. Without going into lurid details, let’s just say my parents never should have had one child, let alone four. However, the one thing I did learn from them was how not to be a parent. As a result, I’ve always made sure holidays were a big deal in my family — decorating, tree trimming, cookie baking, listening to holiday music, and watching holiday movies are some of our favorite activities. I even enjoy shopping for those perfect gifts for everyone. And always topping my holiday list is gathering with family and friends. 

Of course, Covid-19 has forced us to pare that down severely this year, but instead of moping, I’ve decided to focus on next year’s holidays when—hopefully—this awful pandemic will finally be behind us. First up on my to-do list will be booking a flight to California to visit our son, daughter-in-law, and three grandchildren we haven’t seen for what seems like forever, except on FaceTime.

 

For much of my adult life I juggled three careers at once. I’m now retired from two of them and concentrating full-time on my writing. I’m used to spending my days working from home. That’s the one part of my life that hasn’t been impacted by the pandemic. Escaping into the world of Anastasia Pollack, my reluctant amateur sleuth, has been a way for me to block out all the horrible things that have occurred during 2020. 

 

She, of course, would have it otherwise, but I get it. She didn’t ask to go from a normal life as a middle-class working wife and mother to a debt-ridden single-parent who constantly stumbles across dead bodies. Then again, conflict is the name of the game when writing, and cozy mysteries do need their fair share of dead bodies. Readers kind of expect that. Besides, otherwise, what would an amateur sleuth do for 300 pages?

 

So far, I’ve written nine novels and three novellas in the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery Series, but the action has taken place over little more than a year at this point. When the series arc brought me to December, I knew I was going to have fun writing a Christmas mystery. As a matter of fact, I had so much fun writing Drop Dead Ornaments, Book 7 in the series, that I decided to write a second Christmas mystery. Handmade Ho-Ho Homicide, Book 8, picks up days after Drop Dead Ornaments ends.

 

Hey, there’s nothing like a little murder with your eggnog and gingerbread cookies, right?

 

As a holiday gift to my readers, the ebook edition of Drop Dead Ornaments is currently on sale through the end of December for only .99 cents.

 

Happy holidays, everyone!

 

Drop Dead Ornaments

An Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery, Book 7

 

Anastasia Pollack’s son Alex is dating Sophie Lambert, the new kid in town. For their community service project, the high school seniors have chosen to raise money for the county food bank. Anastasia taps her craft industry contacts to donate materials for the students to make Christmas ornaments they’ll sell at the town’s annual Holiday Crafts Fair.

 

At the fair Anastasia meets Sophie’s father, Shane Lambert, who strikes her as a man with secrets. She also notices a woman eavesdropping on their conversation. Later that evening when the woman turns up dead, Sophie’s father is arrested for her murder.

 

Alex and Sophie beg Anastasia to find the real killer, but Anastasia has had her fill of dead bodies. She’s also not convinced of Shane’s innocence. Besides, she’s promised younger son Nick she’ll stop risking her life. But how can she say no to Alex?

 

Buy Links
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Amazon 

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Apple Books
Nook 

 

USA Today and Amazon bestselling and award-winning author Lois Winston writes mystery, romance, romantic suspense, chick lit, women’s fiction, children’s chapter books, and nonfiction under her own name and her Emma Carlyle pen name. Kirkus Reviews dubbed her critically acclaimed Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series, “North Jersey’s more mature answer to Stephanie Plum.” In addition, Lois is a former literary agent and an award-winning craft and needlework designer who often draws much of her source material for both her characters and plots from her experiences in the crafts industry.

 

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A Thanksgiving Like No Other

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By Lois Winston

In Little Women Louisa May Alcott opens with Jo March grumbling, “Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents.” This year, for many of us, Thanksgiving won’t be Thanksgiving without family gathering around the dinner table. Such is life in the time of Covid. 

 

In past years, the day before a normal Thanksgiving would find me in the kitchen, either my own or one of my son’s kitchens, baking apple and pumpkin pies and prepping for the next day’s marathon of cooking. However, this Thanksgiving will be unlike any previous Thanksgiving. We won’t be hosting a houseful of relatives or traveling out of state to spend the holiday with either of our sons and their families. 

 

Turkey dinner for two? Hardly seems worth the effort or the expense. Besides, turkey leftovers are great the next day, but even with the smallest bird, we’d wind up with way too much leftover turkey. In the past I’ve tried freezing leftover turkey, but I’ve found it doesn’t freeze well. It always becomes too dry, no matter how much gravy I soak it in. So I’ve placed an order for two turkey dinners to be delivered from one of our local restaurants.

 

As for those pies, If I bake them, we’ll eat them, and neither my husband nor I need all those extra calories. I’ve discovered Covid Weight is worse than the Freshman Fifteen! Or maybe it’s that I’m older, and my metabolism has slowed down. Either way, with only one person with whom to split the calories, I’m nixing the pies.

 

As much as I’ll miss spending time with my family this Thanksgiving, Anastasia Pollack, the reluctant amateur sleuth of my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries, is thrilled to be ditching some of hers. She’s sailing off on a cruise in A Sew Deadly Cruise, the ninth and newest book in the series. She certainly deserves a relaxing vacation after all the murder and mayhem I’ve dumped on her in the eight previous books and three novellas.

 

There’s just one problem: I write a mystery series. You can’t have a mystery series without mysteries, and in Anastasia’s life, that usually means at least one dead body—often more. Being the devious author that I am, since I gave her a respite from her most annoying relatives, I dumped more than one mystery and several dead bodies onto the cruise ship. 

 

Of course, Anastasia is not happy with me, but what else is new? We’ve always had a tension-filled relationship. After all, before I dragged her into a starring role in my series, she was a happily married, middle-class wife, mother, and crafts editor at a women’s magazine. With a few strokes of my keyboard, I killed off her duplicitous husband, plummeted her into debt greater than many Third World nations, and permanently stuck her with the communist mother-in-law from Hades. I have to admit, her anger is justified.

 

A Sew Deadly Cruise

An Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery, Book 9

 

Life is looking up for magazine crafts editor Anastasia Pollack. Newly engaged, she and photojournalist fiancé Zack Barnes are on a winter cruise with her family, compliments of a Christmas gift from her half-brother-in-law. Son Alex’s girlfriend and her father have also joined them. Shortly after boarding the ship, Anastasia is approached by a man with an unusual interest in her engagement ring. When she tells Zack of her encounter, he suggests the man might be a jewel thief scouting for his next mark. But before Anastasia can point the man out to Zack, the would-be thief approaches him, revealing his true motivation. Long-buried secrets now threaten the well-being of everyone Anastasia holds dear. And that’s before the first dead body turns up.

 

Craft projects included.

 

Buy Links

Paperback

Amazon 

Kobo

Nook

Apple

 

USA Today and Amazon bestselling and award-winning author Lois Winston writes mystery, romance, romantic suspense, chick lit, women’s fiction, children’s chapter books, and nonfiction under her own name and her Emma Carlyle pen name. Kirkus Reviews dubbed her critically acclaimed Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series, “North Jersey’s more mature answer to Stephanie Plum.” In addition, Lois is a former literary agent and an award-winning craft and needlework designer who often draws much of her source material for both her characters and plots from her experiences in the crafts industry.


Find more about Lois and her books at her website where you can sign up for her newsletter. You can also find her at her Killer Crafts and Crafty Killers blog, Bookbub, Pinterest, Twitter, and Goodreads.

 

Five Things You Might Not Know About Agatha Christie

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 By superfan Shari Randall

 

September 15 marked the 130th anniversary of Agatha Christie’s birth and I’ve been celebrating all week. Please join me in raising a cup of tea in a toast to Dame Agatha, one of the most influential and successful novelists of all time. Her genre, the traditional mystery, has remained popular with readers since she published her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, in 1920.

 

Most are familiar with the biography of Agatha Christie. The mega-selling (over two billion copies) author’s work is rediscovered by every generation and celebrated with a splashy, star-studded movie (the latest, Kenneth Branagh’s Death on the Nile, is slated for October). Born to a wealthy family in Torquay, England, she was homeschooled and taught herself to read at age five. She had an ill-fated whirlwind marriage to Royal Flying Corps aviator Archie Christie and her disappearance when she discovered his affair caused a sensation. Her work in pharmacies during the war gave her a wonderfully deep and useful knowledge of poisons. Her happy second marriage to archaeologist Max Mallowan, and their travels, inspired some of her most popular books.

 

Her work continues to delight, inspire, and yes, confound 44 years after her death – from natural causes – in 1976 at age 85.


Here are a few lesser known facts about the Queen of Mystery:

 

Dame Agatha had a rose named after her: “Agatha Christie” is a “Beautiful rich, pink Hybrid Tea shaped blooms that are lightly fragrant. A strong growing disease-resistant climber with outstanding dark-green, glossy foliage. Repeat Bloom.”

 

She is the only female dramatist to have had three plays – Spider’s Web, Witness for the Prosecution, and The Mousetrap – running simultaneously in London’s West End.

 

She owned many dogs and her favorite breed was the terrier. Her first dog was named George Washington. Her favorite was a short-haired terrier called Peter that she wrote into Dumb Witness as “Bob.”

 

In 1922, Archie was asked to tour several areas of the British Empire to promote the British Empire Exhibition. He and Agatha stopped in Hawaii and the couple learned to surf, possibly becoming two of the first Europeans to master the sport.

 

Her daughter Rosalind, fiercely private like her mother, had one son, Matthew Prichard, with her first husband. Mathew received the sole rights to The Mousetrap for his ninth birthday.

 

There’s a misspelling on her gravestone. See if you can spot it.

https://cemeteryclub.wordpress.com/2016/09/15/a-visit-to-agatha-christies-grave/

 

 

What’s your favorite Agatha Christie book? Mine’s Murder on the Orient Express.


Shari Randall is the author of the Lobster Shack Mystery series. Her debut, CURSES, BOILED AGAIN, won the Agatha Award (yes, named for Agatha Christie) for best first novel. You can see what’s new with her at https://www.facebook.com/sharirandallauthor or see her mermaid obsession on Instagram @sharirandallauthor.

 

 

 

Getting Together When We’re Apart

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By Sparkle Abbey

We’re all doing it. If you haven’t yet, trust us you will. No, we’re not talking about drinking wine at noon. Although if you are drinking wine at lunchtime, more power to you. We’re talking about virtual meetings. Around the world, people are working from home as we practice social distancing, which means you may have already had to embrace the virtual meeting.

There are lots of options for online meetings. Last week our critique group used Google Hangouts. Our next meeting we’re going to use Zoom. It seems pretty straightforward and some of us have already used it for day-job work meetings now that we’re working from home.

If you’re considering using technology to stay in touch with family and friends, we have a few tips – besides the very important don’t take your computer with you to the bathroom.

So, before you accidentally turn yourself into a potato filter, here are our five tips for a successful virtual get-together.

  • Test everything first. Does your computer or mobile device have a microphone and camera? Make sure you know how they work. 
  • Before your first meeting learn a bit about the virtual meeting tool.  Practically all the available options have a tutorial on their website and YouTube is packed with how-to videos. 
  • Try out a few different options and see which one works best for you. There are a bunch of them out there. Google Hangouts, Zoom. Slack, Skype, Teams, Go-To-Meeting, and more.
  • Manage your expectation. It’s not going to be perfect and you’ll mess up, but keep trying. We promise it will get better with more experience. 
  • Have fun! Though it’s not as good as seeing your friends and family in person, it’s a creative way to stay in touch and see those faces you’re missing. 
Zoom seems to be the most popular meeting app of choice and so we’ve also included a link to a great article from Fast Company on the 7 Tricks to Make Zoom Meetings Great.
Let us know what you think! Have you been doing virtual meetings? If so, what’s your favorite app? If not, is it something you’d be willing to try? 
Sparkle Abbey is actually two people, Mary Lee Ashford and Anita Carter, who write the national best-selling Pampered Pets cozy mystery series. They are friends as well as neighbors so they often get together and plot ways to commit murder. (But don’t tell the other neighbors.) 
They love to hear from readers and can be found on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, their favorite social media sites. Also, if you want to make sure you get updates, sign up for their newsletter via the SparkleAbbey.com website.

The Joys of Getting Out!

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By Lynn McPherson

On Saturday, I had a book launch for my third book, The Girls Dressed For Murder. Accomplished and hilarious author, Melodie Campbell, shared the stage with me. We did short readings and answered questions by talented artist and reviewer, Don Graves. It was at our local independent bookstore and had an excellent turnout—made up of local authors, supporters, and readers. It was a wonderful afternoon and reminded me of the fun that can be had by doing something different.
It is often hard to tear myself away from the laptop. Other than my regular procrastination hobbies, such as tidying and organizing my writing area (nothing too in depth, of course!), I have been known to be somewhat of a homebody. Today I want to talk about fun stuff to do outside of the comforts of home--things to get us moving past the front door. I'm going to share my top picks. Hopefully, this will serve as a good reminder to you, as it has for me, that there's a lot going on out there--and some of it is truly worthwhile. Maybe you'll have a few ideas to add. I'm always looking for suggestions!
First of all, there’s nature. The natural beauty of the outdoors is unparalleled. Venture into it and look around--take in the red, orange, and yellow hues mixed in with the never-changing coniferous trees that fall has to offer. It is a great reminder that the magic Mother Nature provides us deserves our attention--even a jaunt in an urban park will give people a glimpse of the colours and crispness of the season.
There is also the importance of socializing. Friend time is not just for the young. It is important to take time out of our busy lives to connect with our favourite people and have a laugh. It has been proven to lower stress and cause spontaneous moments of joy!
The last reason is for all the writers out there—inspiration! How can someone write about life when they are shut away? Lone dogs may make for a mysterious character, but if a writer isn’t out and about, how can they accurately portray the way people interact and behave on a daily basis? Connection is key.
So there you have it, folks. A gentle reminder to dust off the old walking shoes (or stilettos!) and get out of the house—you’ll be glad you did.

Lynn McPherson has worked for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, ran a small business, and taught English across the globe. She has travelled the world solo where her daring spirit has led her to jump out of airplanes, dive with sharks, and learn she would never master a surfboard. She now channels her lifelong love of adventure and history into her writing, where she is free to go anywhere, anytime. Her cozy series has three books out: The Girls' Weekend Murder and The Girls Whispered Murder, and The Girls Dressed For Murder.  

Strong, Smart and Not Ordinary

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Here’s to strong smart women. Especially those who fly
under the radar.

Amateur sleuths, particularly women amateur sleuths, often
don’t seem all that strong or all that smart at first blush. But they are,
aren’t they? Whether they have ordinary jobs like small-town librarian, preschool
teachers, haunted bed and breakfast owner or for that matter they may be like, pet
therapist, Caro Lamont and pet boutique owner, Melinda Langston, in our Pampered Pets mystery series.

Whatever their regular, everyday job…these women are
strong. They are smart.
They may seem ordinary, but they’re definitely not.

We love writing (and reading) these seemingly ordinary women
because they’re often underestimated, and even at times, overlooked. These
ladies can take care of themselves and anyone else who needs it.

Writing a strong heroine can be tricky. It’s a balancing
act. You see, a strong woman isn’t just a guy named Lance who’s been given some
curves and renamed Linda.  A strong
heroine is a multi-faceted person with feelings and flaws. She understands her
weaknesses, learns from her mistakes and draws on her strengths to face what
she needs to face. She’s loyal and fierce and believes in fighting the good
fight, not only for herself but for others who can’t fight. She may get
knocked down, but she always gets up, ready to try again.
Joss
Wheldon, of Buffy the Vampire Slayer fame, says he writes strong
women because of his mother was a cool, sexy, funny, woman. And because of his
father and step-father prized wit and resolve above all things.

We believe part of the fascination with strong, smart women
who fly under the radar is that they are going along, leading ordinary lives,
and suddenly they must rise to the occasion when faced with extraordinary
circumstances. In our books, it’s almost always a murder. But the murder isn’t
really the call to action for Caro and Mel. It’s the injustice. Someone is
falsely accused. Someone is in danger. Someone has been wronged or someone bad
will get away doing something bad.

And don’t we all hope that if we were placed in a situation
that called for it, that we’d put on our big girl capes and perform
extraordinary feats.

So here’s to us – the daughters, mothers, grandmothers,
sisters, and friends who fight the good fight. Even if, sometimes, we have to
save the world between grocery shopping, special events, and nonstop meetings.

Here’s to you – may your battles be small and your
superpowers sufficient to the challenge before you.

What
makes a great strong female character for you?


Sparkle
Abbey is actually two people, Mary Lee Woods aka Mary Lee Ashford and Anita
Carter, who write the national best-selling Pampered Pets cozy mystery series.
They are friends as well as neighbors so they often get together and plot ways
to commit murder. (But don’t tell the neighbors.) They love to hear from
readers and can be found on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, their favorite
social media sites.
Their
most recent book is The Dogfather, the tenth book in the Pampered Pets series.
Also,
if you want to make sure you get updates, sign up for their newsletter via the
SparkleAbbey.com website.

Where Do We Get Our Ideas?

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by Sparkle Abbey

People often ask authors where their ideas for particular books come from. And though it’s quite different from author to author, one thing we’ve discovered from hanging out with other authors is that most have no problem coming up with ideas for stories. In fact, most of us have far more ideas than we’ll ever have the time to write. Story ideas are everywhere.

Writers are innately curious and so a news story, a magazine article, even an obituary can spark a thought that turns into a possibility. The writer imagination is off and running and wondering what if. The news of the day may be a big fire at a local business. It could have been faulty electrical wiring, but the writer wonders what if it wasn’t. What if there’s more to the story? What if the fire was actually a cover-up?

Also writers are by nature observers. Yes, that’s us sitting quietly in the corner of the room or the park. That couple holding hands while their body language says there’s something else going on. What’s their story? The three girls in a whispered conversation whose foreheads are almost touching. What secrets are they sharing? The elderly woman with her purse clutched tightly on her lap who keeps checking her watch. Who is she waiting for? And the guy in a dark suit that looks oddly out of place. He’s too quiet. Is he an undercover cop? Perhaps a spy?

Or wait maybe the elderly woman is the spy. Would that be a great twist? The guy in the dark suit could be headed to a job interview. We imagine the three teen-aged girls in ten years. Will they still be friends? Still sharing secrets? What if they lose touch with each other? What if they don’t?

See how it works? There is drama everywhere, and secrets, and stories. As writers we are sponges for the bit and pieces that are story sparks. We get to bring those stories to life and give them twists and change them around. Ideas are everywhere. 

Now that you know how it works, the only thing to remember is when you’re having a conversation with a writer, and they get that far-away look, that there is a good chance they have spotted a potential story across the room and they’re already coming up with ideas. Or the other possibility is that something you’ve said has been the spark, and you’re the story idea.

Writers, is this how it works for you? Have you come across an interesting story spark that you’ve yet to write? Readers, how about you? Have you come across an idea that you thought would make a great story?

Do tell…


Sparkle
Abbey is actually two people, Mary Lee Woods aka Mary Lee Ashford and Anita Carter, who write
the national best-selling Pampered Pets cozy mystery series. They are friends
as well as neighbors so they often get together and plot ways to commit murder.
(But don’t tell the neighbors.) They love to hear from readers and can be found
on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, their favorite social media sites. 


Their most recent book is The Dogfather, the tenth book in the Pampered Pets series.


Also, if you want to make sure you
get updates, sign up for their newsletter via the SparkleAbbey.com website.

Location, Location, Location

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By Lynn McPherson

The setting of a book is a critical part of a story. Location
can determine the mood before opening the first page. A big city will feel
different than a coastal village, or a domestic setting versus one abroad. As a
cozy writer, my location is pre-determined since the majority of cozy mysteries
take place in small, idyllic towns. But even within these parameters, there are
several options.

In my Izzy Walsh
Mystery Series, I chose a fictional small town in New England, not far from
New York City. It was an easy decision. Every time I’ve been there, the warmth
and beauty of New England captivated me. In addition, when I started writing
the series, I was a new mom. Writing was a great escape for me, and part of
that was going on a vacation to one of my favourite places every time I looked
at my screen.
With the end of February approaching, I’ve been thinking of
warm weather and beach escapes. It’s fair to say the springtime always makes me
feel like it’s time for a quick jaunt. March break and the slow end of winter
stirs up a desire to run away from the dreary end of the cold days and long
nights here in my own small town, not far from Toronto, Canada. However,
instead of physically leaving, this year I will be planning an escape on paper.
I’m considering a short story, or possibly even a new series, that incorporates
a beach or, at the very least, short-sleeve weather. I’m ready to soak in the
warmth and bask in the rays of an imaginary sunshine.
Do you have any place, real or imagined that you like to
escape to when you need a break? Do you have a favourite location or setting in
books that you gravitate toward? I’m always happy to discuss beautiful vacation
spots and let my mind take me there, even just for a few minutes.

Lynn McPherson has worked for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, ran a small business, and taught English across the globe. She has travelled the world solo where her daring spirit has led her to jump out of airplanes, dive with sharks, and learn she would never master a surfboard. She now channels her lifelong love of adventure and history into her writing, where she is free to go anywhere, anytime. Her cozy series has two books out: The Girls' Weekend Murder and The Girls Whispered Murder.