Happy Easter!

Photo courtesy of Pixabay/Skitterphoto.

The Place Is The Thing

A novel’s setting is as important as its characters. The land of Oz. Hogwarts. Harper Lee’s Maycomb, Alabama. The Wonderland visited by Lewis Carroll’s Alice. We can all picture these settings instantly in our minds. The settings within the story’s main setting are also important, such as Jem and Jewel’s neighborhood in Maycomb and the courtroom in which Atticus defended Tom Robinson.

I love the main settings of my two cozy series: Barton (Veronica Walsh Mysteries) and Garland (Robyn Cavanagh Mysteries). I’ve roamed through both towns alone and with my pair of amateur sleuths. I’ve written about the joy of creating Barton and Garland and their businesses, streets, churches, and residences. Like regular characters in a television show, there are places in Barton and Garland that Veronica and Robyn frequently visit. They each have a favorite restaurant—Veronica’s Hearth and Robyn’s Town Tavern. Veronica has a bricks-and-mortar place of business, the All Things boutique. Robyn operates her accounting business from a home office, but her growing photography career takes her to all sorts of places around Garland. Veronica frequently pops into her best friend’s flower shop for a dose of “floral therapy,” while Robyn often stops in at her friend and client’s bakery for a chat and something sweet from the shop’s display case.

Some of my favorite settings are my characters’ homes. Veronica resides in a Folk Victorian while Robyn dwells in a residence of my favorite architectural stye, an Arts-and-Crafts house. I gave the stars of my series lovely places to live, but I also “built” wonderful houses for their family and friends. Some have been inspired by homes I’ve been in, passed by, or seen in a news article, magazine clipping, or on a real estate website. The grand home of George Bradshaw in Murder, by George (Veronica Walsh Mystery #2), was inspired by a local home I read about in my county’s newspaper a short while before I started writing the book.

I introduce new locations in my cozy towns in each new book, the main setting being the crime scene. Obviously, where the murder takes place is a crucial locale in a mystery. The location of the crime—private or public—may give a clue to whether the killer is a stranger or acquaintance of the victim. In the Veronica Walsh series, deaths have occurred in homes and behind a barn converted into a theater. The crime scene in The Freudian Slip Murder, however, is a fluid. Literally. A lethal dose of antifreeze is added to psychology professor Derek Morley’s bottle of black cherry soda. The poor fellow ingests the soda in one location and dies in another.

I take Veronica and readers to both places in the story. She visits Arden College and Hammes Hall, where Derek’s office is located. She has lunch in the public cafeteria with Professor Miranda Liu, and strolls the quad with student Gretchen Smith. Veronica also spends time in Derek’s home, first at a party where all the characters are introduced, and later with visits to Derek’s wife, Professor Susanna Rafferty.

A new setting that I’m eager to introduce to readers to is Linden Acres, which is featured In The Golden Hour Murder, the upcoming second Robyn Cavanagh Mystery (I hope to soon have a release date for the book). The family farm is lush with apple orchards, a large pumpkin patch, and fields for corn and other produce and has been a gathering spot for the community for decades. The Lindens have welcomed both Garland residents and visitors for holiday activities, school field trips, and autumn leaf peeping. For Robyn, the farm presents an opportunity to build her portfolio, as she is hired by the Linden’s to photograph their farm. Spending time roaming the orchards and fields with Robyn was as relaxing for me as it was for her. I hope to share more with you on The Golden Hour Murder in the coming months.

In what novel settings have you enjoyed spending time? Cozy series are full of wonderful location, from coffeehouses to tea shops, bookstores to libraries, bakeries to barbecue joints. Or do you prefer a spine-tingling sci-fi setting, a sweeping vista of a romance, or a wide-open Western space?

Writing Resolutions

Happy New Year! How are you doing on your 2024 resolutions for exercising more, cleaning out your closets or basement, or quitting a bad habit? I haven’t started on my resolutions—improving my posture is one (for the fifth consecutive year)—so I haven’t failed yet, correct?

I’m also figuring out what writing goals to set for the year. I’d be deliriously happy to write three books in 2024, but that’s not realistic for me. I’m a notoriously slow writer who admires (I may be even a bit jealous of) productive authors who write multiple books a year. Stephen King said a book should be written in a season. Four a year? I think I better set a goal to a book per two seasons.

To achieve the required words for their novel, writers often set a daily word count. One thousand is a common mark reachable for many writers. Some exceed one thousand on a daily basis and strive to write two, three, even five thousand each day. For others, however, one thousand words a day may be difficult to reach. We have to squeeze in writing time before and after our jobs and around other responsibilities. A smaller goal—five hundred words, perhaps—is a more realistic target for us.

A word goal can be intimidating. When I write longhand, I have to resist tallying the number of words I’ve written when I reach the bottom of each page. When I work on my laptop, I can’t help but sneak a peek at the word count number on the screen. I know, I can turn off that feature, but what’s the fun of not tormenting myself?

Pages per day is a goal some writers set. Three pages roughly equals seven hundred and fifty words. Some authors aim for five pages, others, like Stephen King, ten pages. Having a goal of three or four pages is more encouraging than setting a word count of one thousand words per day. Small numbers seem more manageable, don’t they? But there’s the blank page you’re staring at and suddenly filling “only four” seems like a monumental task. Vladimir Nabokov wrote all of his books, including Lolita, on 4” x 6” index cards. His last work, Ada, took up 2,000 cards. That’s a lot, but having to fill an index card, one by one, is less daunting than an 8” x 11” sheet or the computer screen. It’s all in the head.

I’d like to abandon my pantser ways this year and become a better plotter. Meaning, I want to work more from outlines than make stuff up as I go along—a phenomenon called writing by the seat of your pants. Though I always know the beginning of a story and often the last scene before I begin writing, much of a story comes to me as I’m writing. Scenes that worked in my head are discarded once they are on the page while others are inserted after the first draft is finished. The intent of outlining is to have a guide so that I know what chapter or scene I’m going to work on every day, not that the entire plot is bullet-pointed so there’s no room for inspiration. Authors who outline say that having a solid framework helps them write faster. If I want to write two or more books this year, outline I must!

I also want to be more diligent in blogging. That means I need topics for posts. Of what subjects would you like to read? Specifics on cozy mysteries? The process of editing a book? How I’m doing on improving my posture?ow HoHowThe edThe

Again, I wish you an incredible year, in all the best ways. May 2024 be good to us all!

Graphic courtesy of Pixabay and 1681551.

A New Year Visit

Happy New Year! I’m starting 2024 with a visit to dru’s book musings, a top cozy mystery blog. Dru is a voracious mystery reader, indefatigable advocate for, and friend to, authors and the cozy genre, and an all-around remarkable person. Ten years ago, when I was planning a blog tour for my debut cozy, All Things Murder, Dru was one of the first bloggers I contacted. She welcomed me to her blog then and has invited me back to share each of my books with her readers.

Thank you, Dru!

Please take a few minutes to visit Dru’s blog and read my guest post for the fourth Veronica Walsh mystery, The Freudian Slip Murder. In the post, Veronica answers twenty questions from Dru.

May this day be the first in a wonderful year for you!

Happy 2024!

A very Happy New Year to you! May we all enjoy good health, happiness, and prosperity in all things in 2024.

Graphic courtesy of Pixabay and geralt.

Happy Kwanzaa!

I wish you a beautiful celebration!

Graphic courtesy of Pixabay and ooceey.

Merry Christmas!

Graphic courtesy of Pixabay and Monika.

A Die Hard Cozy Christmas

You’ve probably heard the debate—perhaps participated in one—over whether Bruce Willis’s blockbuster movie Die Hard is a Christmas movie. It’s a serious topic. Should the film, which takes place at a corporate Christmas party, be on the holiday list of classics such as It’s a Wonderful Life, A Miracle on 34^th Street, and National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation? Does a film need to include traditional themes of the season—faith, hope, family, redemption—and holiday figures such as Santa Claus, reindeer, and elves to make the list?

I raise the question because the same debate can be had over what makes a cozy mystery a Christmas story. My third Robyn Cavanagh Mystery, The Holiday Photo Murder (release TBD), is set in December. It starts at a holiday party at an elegant home overlooking the Hudson River and ends on Christmas day. Santa doesn’t make an appearance, nor do candy canes, Christmas music, or a single strand of garland in Robyn’s hometown of Garland. Does this constitute a Christmas cozy?

Perhaps it does, because the book, like the series, features Robyn’s family. They love and support each other; if you’ve read the first in the series, The Double Exposure Murder, you know the extent to which Robyn’s parents will go to help and “protect” their daughter. Again, if you’ve read the book, you’ll understand the quotation marks. There’s also redemption in The Holiday Photo Murder of people who at first are not likeable but, by the last page, have won the readers’ sympathy or at least their understanding. There’s the hope of a blossoming love and Robyn’s strong faith, a trait I’m proud to portray in the character.

So, what do you think? What are your requirements for a Christmas cozy mystery (or movie)? Do you need choruses of “Ho, ho, ho,” refrains of “Holly jolly,” and sleigh bells ringing in the night? Do you need a thread of silliness, an abundance of candy canes, or a theme of the twelve days of Christmas and each day’s gift?

What movies and books do you enjoy during the holiday season? For me, there’s no such thing as watching Home Alone too many times. And for reading, nothing surpasses Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. I read the eighty-page classic every year during the week before Christmas, and every year I receive a fresh impression from the story. It might be a single line or a scene; something in the text always draws my attention.

I hope in these last days before Christmas you are able to have a quiet moment to reflect on the season, watch your favorite movie, and read a beloved holiday story.

Photo courtesy of Pixabay and Terri Cnudde.

Self-Publishing Notes

The Freudian Slip Murder is the second book I’ve self-published (I also re-issued All Things Murder and Murder, by George, which were originally published by Five Star Publishing), after releasing Cast for Murder in 2018. Self-publishing has been a wonderful and exasperating learning experience. I thought I’d share some notes for readers interested in the process and writers who may be self-publishing their work for the first time.

Before I began the work of preparing Cast for Murder for publication, I had no idea of the many decisions I’d have to make, of the list of details that I had to check off as I turned the manuscript into a paperback book and e-book. The process starts with converting the final, edited draft of the manuscript from its format of Times New Roman 12 pt., one-inch margins, double-spaced, first-line indent (standard publishing industry format for manuscript submissions) to a format suitable for a paperback edition. My first decision for Cast for Murder—and all of my future self-published books—was to set the book’s trim size at 5.25” x 8”. Then, after much testing, I chose Garamond for the font and set font size, line spacing, and margins. I fussed over these details, plus (irony alert) the fun of setting the footers and headers. Oh, the heartburn over making sure page numbers proceeded consecutively between section (chapter) breaks, that the book title was the header on the verso (left-hand) page, and my name the header on the recto (right-hand) page.

Once the paperback is done, I format the e-book edition for Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) and Draft2Digital (D2D-they make the book available to Apple Books, Barnes and Noble, Hoopla, and other vendors) in Calibre, a free software program that converts documents into e-books . The margins and font are already set for the e-book in the EPUB file I create in Calibre; I have to set the line spacing and height for the title page, chapter headers, and back matter material (About the Author, Acknowledgements, Bibliography). Each section of the book—title page, dedication, copyright page, chapters, back matter—is stored in a separate file (the index_split files in the following screenshot), and each file has a style sheet. Here’s a sample:

To set the formatting for the title page, I’ll select the title’s style block and make the changes to the elements. For chapter headers, I’ll set the elements for the first chapter’s header block and then go through each chapter’s file, making sure the first chapter’s block is selected for each subsequent header. Not hard, but a tedious job that I forget once it’s done.

I’ve written all these details down in a guide for my future reference. I’ve also included several notes to myself. For example: when I create a book cover, I have to set a new paper size with the measurement of the exact trim size (a little bit larger than the final book, to allow for KDP’s bleed and cut lines), then select that form as the paper size when I save the file as a Print-to-PDF. Tip: Saving the cover as a normal PDF doesn’t

Other notes: the recommended size of the cover jpg for the Kindle, a reminder that I need to submit to D2D an e-book that doesn’t include the Amazon sales links on the bibliography page, and the file to D2D must include the cover (the cover for the Kindle e-book is downloaded separately). With each new release, I have the reminder to update my bibliography page on previously published books. The most important note: Make sure all files (manuscript, e-book, cover) are as I want them so I don’t download them multiple times to Kindle and D2D!

Have a terrific week, and may you be enjoying a bright holiday season.

Happy Hanukkah!

I wish a blessed holiday to everyone celebrating Hanukkah!

Graphic courtesy of Pixabay and Ooceey.