Creating (and Eliminating) Secondary Characters by Judy Penz Sheluk

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Delighted to welcome Judy Penz Sheluk as my guest this month. The characters in her books are always so realistic and fun that I was thrilled she picked them to talk about. Enjoy! – Debra

Creating (and Eliminating) Secondary Characters by Judy Penz Sheluk

Several years back I had the pleasure of attending an event that featured Giles Blunt, author of the much-lauded Detective John Cardinal mystery series (if you haven’t read him, or watched the TV series, Cardinal, based on his novels, you must). At one point in the evening, an audience member asked Blunt why he’d killed off Cardinal’s wife, Catherine, in By the Time You Read This, the fourth book in the series. Blunt had laughed and then said, “Truthfully, I got tired of writing about her.”

Maybe it’s “fourth book syndrome,” but I felt the same way about the cast of secondary characters I’d created for my Marketville Mystery protagonist, Calamity (Callie) Barnstable as I started to write Before There Were Skeletons.

If you’re not familiar with them, they included: Misty Rivers, a self-proclaimed psychic; Chantelle Marchand, Callie’s best friend, also a personal trainer and budding genealogist; and Shirley Harrington, an archives librarian. All three of them served important roles (with varying degrees of involvement) in the first three books, but with the last book (A Fool’s Journey) released in 2019, it just seemed to me that by 2022 their lives would have changed.

Of course, I didn’t ditch them without a mention—that would be unfair to the characters, as well as to followers of the series—and unlike Blunt, I wasn’t ready to kill them off. After all, I might want to bring one or more of them back some day. And so, I gave Misty a very small, but important role, allowed a glimpse into Chantelle’s new life, and retired Shirley (literally), sending her to winter in Florida (hey, she’s Canadian and snowbirds love Florida).

Dispatching those characters felt liberating, but it also left me with a hole to be filled. Enter a tech-savvy twenty-four-year-old woman currently employed as a waitress at her stepbrother’s diner, Eggstravaganza, and, thanks to an ex-boyfriend who drained their joint bank account, is also living in an apartment above the diner.

What this new character lacks in investigative experience will be made up for in her enthusiasm to learn from Callie while doing boring grunt work, like digging through newspaper archives. This works well in two ways: it frees Callie up to tackle more interesting avenues, and since the story is told from Callie’s point of view, I can also spare readers the tedium of the archival research.

In addition to creating a past and a present for my new character, however, I also needed to come up with a name. I had the last name, Hopkins (in homage to a late friend), but hadn’t quite come up with a first name. And then, while reading the closing credits of Yellowstone, I spotted the name Denim Richards (a fabulous actor who portrays ranch hand Colby Mayfield).

Denim Hopkins, I thought. No reason Denim couldn’t be female. In fact, it was perfect. And her half-brother, the one who owns the diner? Levi, of course. As Denim explains to Callie, “I guess you could say my mama liked the blues.”

Early readers of Before There Were Skeletons seem to like Denim, and as an author, I can envision several directions to expand on her role in the future. What those directions are, only time, and my imagination, will tell.

 

About Before There Were Skeletons: The last time anyone saw Veronica Goodman was the night of February 14, 1995, the only clue to her disappearance a silver heart-shaped pendant, found in the parking lot behind the bar where she worked. Twenty-seven years later, Veronica’s daughter, Kate, just a year old when her mother vanished, hires Past & Present Investigations to find out what happened that fateful night.

Calamity (Callie) Barnstable is drawn to the case, the similarities to her own mother’s disappearance on Valentine’s Day 1986 hauntingly familiar. A disappearance she thought she’d come to terms with. Until Veronica’s case, and five high school yearbooks, take her back in time…a time before there were skeletons. Universal Book Link: https://books2read.com/u/mqXVze.

 

About the Author

A former journalist and magazine editor, Judy Penz Sheluk is the bestselling author of two mystery series: The Glass Dolphin Mysteries and the Marketville Mysteries. Her short crime fiction appears in several collections, including the Superior Shores Anthologies, which she also edited.

Judy is a member of Sisters in Crime, International Thriller Writers, the Short Mystery Fiction Society, and Crime Writers of Canada, where she served as Chair on the Board of Directors. She lives in Northern Ontario on the shores of Lake Superior.

 

Photo (if you choose to use it) is of Denim Richards, the inspiration behind the name of Denim Hopkins.

NaNoWriMo 2022

Let’s All NaNoWriMo… or Not

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by Bethany “NaNoWriMo” Maines

NaNoWriMo Wha?

I don’t really believe in NaNoWriMo AKA National Novel Writing Month.  Partially just because I object strenuously to the clunky abbreviation.  But also because the goal of writing fifty thousand words in a month reduces novel writing to a very basic component—words. Writing fifty-thousand words is an accomplishment of a sort, but having the right fifty-thousand requires a bit more of a skill.  However, the NaNoWriMo community supplies great camaraderie and inspiration to a multitude of writers, and if an artificial deadline and contest get some people to put fingers to keyboard then I raise my glass in cheers.  And usually that’s it.

Soooo why am I doing this?

This year the fates have conspired to arrange my projects to have a novel that needs to be written this month.  I would really like to put out the next trilogy in my Supernatural paranormal romance world next summer.  The Rejects Pack is a fun, Indiana Jones / The Mummy inspired series featuring more wolves, warlocks, romance, and an ancient Egyptian artifact or two.  Also maybe a mummy that comes back from the dead.  (Shhh.  Don’t tell anyone.)  And with Book 1 out to my beta readers already, you would think I wouldn’t feel the need to rush book 2 and 3.  Butttt…. I keep eyeballing the amount of plot I’m intending to shove into book 3 and I’m just a little bit worried that my trilogy is going to become a tetralogy.

Tetralogy means a four book series. In case you don’t want to have to google it like I did.

And then…

And then there’s the fact the holidays are almost here (YAY!!!) and I have a new novella coming out this month!  I’m busy is what I’m saying.  So I’m trying to hedge my bets and leave myself time for a book 4 by cramming book 2 into November.  And of course it will be fun to watch the NaNoWriMo communities progress.  You can keep up with my progress and learn about Killian and Moira and their hunt for the long lost Library of Alexandria on Facebook and Instagram.

But Speaking of Christmas

If you’ve got a hankering for a Christmas mystery rom-com check out Winter Wonderland!

ORDER (all retailers):  books2read.com/Winter-Wonderland

WINTER WONDERLAND: When Marcus Winters, a photographer with a bah humbug take on the holidays, meets Larissa Frost, a set designer who loves all things Christmas, sparks are destined to fly. But when a famous diamond goes missing from the shoot they’re working on Larissa finds that Marcus may be the only one who can keep her from being framed for a crime she didn’t commit.

 

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Bethany Maines is the award-winning author of action-adventure and fantasy tales that focus on women who know when to apply lipstick and when to apply a foot to someone’s hind end. She can usually be found chasing after her daughter, or glued to the computer working on her next novel (or screenplay).  You can also catch up with her on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and BookBub.

 

So You Want to Write a Book – Part 7

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By Sparkle Abbey

We’re back this month for another chapter of So You Want to Write a Book!

Saying on stone Edit without mercy

If you’ve followed along on this journey so far, you know that we’ve covered how to get started, getting to know your genre, brainstorming, and revision. This month we’d like to talk a bit about editing.

Step 1 – Self-Editing

The first step is self-editing. That means reading through all those words you’ve written with a critical eye and fixing issues. Even if you’re a very polished writer with few grammatical errors, perfect punctuation, and clean and lean sentences there are things to fix.  Here are some ideas that might help:

Read Out of Order: We find it helpful to do this self-editing out of order. In other words, don’t read your manuscript from beginning to end. It’s far to easy to get caught up in the story and miss things. Maybe start with the last chapter and work backwards.

Use a Checklist: If there are particular words you tend of overuse or punctuation that often trips you up put those on your checklist and keep a lookout for them as you edit.

Learn from the Pros: There are different approaches to the editing process and you have to find the one that works best for you. Some resources we’ve found helpful are:  Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Browne and Dave King. Reedsy’s Book Editing Checklist, and Revision and Self-Editing by James Scott Bell.

Look at Your Story Differently: At this stage you’ve read this story SO many times. It can be great to do something different. Read it aloud, print it out, download it to your Kindle. You’ll be surprised at the things you catch that you’ve overlooked on previous passes.

Step 2 – Get Help

Mostly the writing life is a solitary pursuit, but if you’re writing for publication, you need outside help at this point in the process. Having new critical eyes on your work is absolutely essential. You may decide to use multiple methods to accomplish this, but here are some ways that many authors use to make sure their story is ready for prime time.

Critique Groups: If you have a critique group that’s wonderful. Depending on how your group works they may have seen all or perhaps just pieces of your book. Ask them if they’d be willing to do a read-through and mark problems they see.

Beta-Readers: Beta readers are not editors or proofreaders but they are your test audience. A beta reader may be a friend,  an acquaintance or a reader who you’ve connected with. The important thing is that it should be someone who reads in your genre. They need to love to read the types of books that you write. This may also be a good time to ask a subject matter expert to read through for potential errors.  Many authors find that their beta readers catch things that have gone unnoticed by other writers. It’s also important to communicate to your beta readers what you’re looking for in terms of feedback.

Professional Editing: None of the above can take the place of a professional edit. If you’re under contract and working with a publishing house you will go through several rounds of edits there. If you’re not yet under contract or are choosing the indie publishing route, you will need to find a freelance editor. A word of caution here – do your research. Ask others in your writing groups/organizations for suggestions, check out the editor’s credentials, and above all make sure you understand how the editor works and what they will provide. Most all professional freelance editors will ask for a sample of your work, provide you with a quote, and give you a timeline for your edits.

Well, that’s it for this month.  As always, if you have questions don’t hesitate to reach out. Happy writing!

Sparkle Abbey books

Sparkle Abbey Mysteries

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

 

“Thrilling and Unpredictable” – Where a Writer Got His Ideas

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I’m delighted to welcome author Terry Ambrose as my guest to discuss his new series in the blog “Thrilling and Unpredictable” – Where a Writer Got His Ideas. I’ll be back next month – Debra 

Readers often ask writers where their ideas come from. In my case, the ideas are usually driven by a confluence of events. The Beachtown Detective Agency series idea was different in that the series concept came to me while we were on a weekend getaway to photograph two San Diego area piers.

My interest in piers started when my wife gave me a copy of Piers of the California Coast. After discovering San Diego had several piers, we decided to stay near Pacific Beach. It was a centralized destination with a nice B&B. It seemed like the perfect spot to stay because I was just starting the Seaside Cove Bed & Breakfast Mystery series, and that made the B&B location a double win.

We walked into Pacific Beach the first night, wending our way through residential streets until we found ourselves approaching a funky little town with a boardwalk. This was in the days prior to Covid-19, so we didn’t worry about crowds or getting close to strangers. It was nearing 5PM as we made our way along Pacific Beach’s boardwalk. The place wasn’t just alive; it was positively chaotic!

People of all ages were everywhere. From kids to seniors, joggers and walkers to small groups hanging out. From the smell of coconut oil to marijuana, the energy consumed my attention. It reached out, grabbed me by the muse, and shook me with a fervor that demanded I write about it.

Almost on the spot, I began crafting a character who eventually became Jade Cavendish. Jade is twenty-six years old, spunky, and not quite ready to become an adult. She’s also forced to take over the family business when her father announces his sudden retirement.

I eventually moved the location of the series to Carlsbad, which is much closer to home. Carlsbad has a different energy. Where Pacific Beach is constant chaos and manic, the Village in Carlsbad is laid-back and quirky. But, as I integrated the change in location into the book, I realized that energy fit perfectly with my long-term goals for the series. The result was a book that Kirkus Reviews called, “…thrilling and unpredictable.”

The Fallen Man Release

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by Bethany Maines

The Fallen Man Release!

Next week sees the release of the fourth book in the Deveraux Legacy series – The Fallen Man. I suspect that each author picks their projects based on something in the story that they want to explore. For me this series started out as an exploration of why the broody, possessive, and sometimes abusive, “alpha” males are still getting plenty of romance novels written about them. The first, and most obvious answer is that they’re fictional. Like Vegas, the things that happen between the covers of a book, stay in the book. I suspect that a lot of people who enjoy those characters in fiction, would not appreciate those behaviors in real life.

How Did We Get Here?

I read one romantic comedy where the hero broke into her apartment with three other guys and relocated all her things to his house. Not surprisingly, for fiction, she didn’t call the cops. In real life, that’s a quick trip to the nearest police station. Also, did he manage to get her rice cooker? She had roommates—how did he know what furniture was hers? And did he rummage through her drawers and see any… toys? Inquiring minds want to know. Then there are the “dark romances” where the heroines somehow manage to get kidnapped, forced into marriage, or held hostage and still fall in love with their captors. I mean, Stockholm Syndrome is real, but… ladies! Come on!

I also wonder how similar these romances are to the crime thrillers, where women inevitably end up raped and murdered while the broody hero solves the crime. In both genres, it seems like perhaps the reader gets to control the abuse and trauma that is quite frightening in real life.

I’m Fun! I Swear!

All of which makes my series sound like a real downer when, in fact, it is an action-packed family saga. But my characters did grow from this space of pondering fictional traumas. In each book of the series, one of the Deveraux cousins struggles with their family’s past legacy of trauma and attempts to make peace with it. And, oh, dodge some killers, solve a mystery, and, of course, find love. Hopefully, none of my readers are out there thinking… “Call the cops! He’s a nutter!”

What do you think? Are the alpha-hole “heroes” still fun to read? Or have we reached a different standard of heroism?

 

👉 Pre-Order from all retailers: https://books2read.com/FallenMan

THE FALLEN MAN: When orphan and convicted felon Jackson Zane realized that he was part of the wealthy Deveraux family, he thought he’d found his proverbial happily ever after. And for the last seven years, Jackson has dedicated himself to fixing and protecting his new family, all while ruling out love for himself. Until now.

A banner shows the four Deveraux Legacy novels, and the prequel novella over the New York city skyline.

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Bethany Maines is the award-winning author of the Carrie Mae Mysteries, San Juan Islands Mysteries, Shark Santoyo Crime Series, and numerous short stories. When she’s not traveling to exotic lands, or kicking some serious butt with her black belt in karate, she can be found chasing her daughter or glued to the computer working on her next novel. You can also catch up with her on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and BookBub.

Mint Chocolate Wordplay

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by Shari Randall/Meri Allen

Do you Wordle? Do crossword puzzles? Enjoy Words with Friends?

I love word games, so when I was asked to make an anagram from the words in the title of my latest Ice Cream Shop mystery, MINT CHOCOLATE MURDER, I jumped at the chance. It was a fun to do – but challenging. So many O’s! But it was an enjoyable exercise and it made me think about my book in new ways.

M – Mysterious supermodel with a royal secret

I — Ice cream social to die for

N  — New England village of your Hallmark dreams

T — Teashops and treachery

 

C — Crafty clues and red herrings

H — Haunted Scottish castle

O — Obsessions turned deadly

C — Cat who needs therapy

O – One hot veterinarian

L — Locked room mystery

A – Art world gossip

T – Tantalizing twists

E – Enemies and frenemies

 

M — Malicious suspects

U – Unrequited love

R — Race against the clock

D — Danger in the dungeon

E – Extra sprinkles!

R — Riley Rhodes, my main character, an ice cream shop manager and former CIA librarian with plenty of secrets of her own

 

Readers, I hope you’ll find something here that intrigues. Writers, give it a try with one of your titles!

Do you enjoy word games? What’s your favorite?

Meri Allen is the pen name of Shari Randall, who loves playing Scrabble. She lives in New England, where she’s looking forward to the fall foliage.

 

 

Research

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by Bethany Maines

Recently, I was working on a bit of research for a novel and was forced to reach up into my library of reference books… OK, let’s just pause and admit that’s how old I am.  I have reference books.  When I wrote my first novel, Bulletproof Mascara, my heroine was a linguist, a subject about which I knew very little, and one of my plot points actually hinged on her being familiar with a Latin phrase.  So as I result I ended up purchasing a book on Latin and several on linguistics.  But shortly after that book was published (all the way back 2011) the world changed.

Articles on linguistics and Latin are now readily available (and reliably accurate) online.  Heck, everything is available online.  And nothing has driven that point home more firmly than the book I’m currently working on—a paranormal romance with heavy Indiana Jones/The Mummy vibes. Once more I’m looking up Latin phrases and trying to remember everything I knew about about German menhir.  It used to be that I’d be trotting over to my friends and family and asking to see their Germany photo albums.  Now I just hit YouTube and there is Marburg Castle and I can see the color of the stone and check out the artwork without having to leave my computer.

There is nothing like actually visiting place to provide accurate detail, but it can’t be denied that life has gotten easier in the research department.  Which is why I was amused at my own grumpiness at having to actually rise from my seat, walk all the way over to the bookcase and pull down the book on Latin.  Oh, the horror!  The absolute drain of life force from having to flip pages.  How dare the internet fail me?!

Don’t be distressed.  I have recovered.  I managed to make up some absolute nonsense to counterbalance the actual facts I included regarding Egyptian canopic jars and German history and was thus soothed.  But remind me not to write anything close to historical fiction. I would probably have a historically accurate fit of the vapors if I had to have an entire book full of research.

You can check out my paranormal romances from the same world here: bethanymaines.com/supernaturals/

Or my upcoming magic free Romantic Suspense here: bethanymaines.com/the-deveraux-legacy/

The Fallen Man – Book 4 of the Deveraux Legacy Series – releases October 18 – PREORDER: https://books2read.com/FallenMan

The Deveraux Family: wealthy, glamorous, powerful… and in a lot of trouble. Senator Eleanor Deveraux lost her children in a plane crash, but she has a second chance to get her family right with her four grandchildren – Evan, Jackson, Aiden and Dominique. But second chances are hard to seize when politics, mercenaries, and the dark legacy of the Deveraux family keep getting in the way.

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Bethany Maines is the award-winning author of the Carrie Mae Mysteries, San Juan Islands Mysteries, Shark Santoyo Crime Series, and numerous short stories. When she’s not traveling to exotic lands, or kicking some serious butt with her black belt in karate, she can be found chasing her daughter or glued to the computer working on her next novel. You can also catch up with her on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and BookBub.

 

So You Want to Write a Book – Part 5: Bumps in the Road

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by Sparkle Abbey

hands on laptop keyboard

“A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.”

~ Thomas Mann

Welcome back to another chapter of So You Want to Write a Book!

This month we’re going to review where we’ve been and then discuss potential problems with getting those pages written and arriving at the finish line.

A quick recap. We started with an idea notebook and began the work around determining what kind of book you wanted to write and exploring that chosen genre. Next, we moved on to some creative brainstorming and last month we covered strategies for how you will approach the actual writing. Remember plotters, pantsers, and plansters? We hope the steps so far have helped to put you on the path to a finished book.

So, now you’re moving forward getting words on the page, right? But sometimes the writing goes great and other times it feels like you’re slogging through a swamp. Don’t get discouraged. It happens.

The reasons why writers get stuck may vary, but here on some things we’ve found helpful when you are struggling.

  1. Go back to the beginning. Pull out that notebook and remember why you wanted to tell this story. What’s the core story your book will tell? Have you lost that main idea along the way?
  2. Spend some time with your characters. You need to be clear on your main character (in fiction) and main idea (in non-fiction) and make sure you have not wandered too far away from the goal. If you’re a pantser perhaps you didn’t have the character goal completely defined when you started out. Or if you’re a plotter, maybe you’re moving forward to that goal too quickly. Or too slowly.
  3. Check your conflict. Remember most stories are about a journey. There’s something your main character wants and a reason they want it (Goal, Motivation) and also a number of reasons they can’t have it right away (Conflict). Have you provided realistic conflict/barriers? You need resistance.
  4. Examine what you have so far. Often if you’ve been writing and are struggling with moving forward, the problem is with the structure. Write out a quick sentence or two about the scenes you’ve already written. This different look allows you to see the flow of your story. You are better able to tell if you’ve thrown in unnecessary scenes that don’t move the story forward, skipped an essential scene that has created a gap in the momentum, or just plain took a wrong turn.
  5. Step away from the keyboard. If you can, walk away from the story for a day or two. Write something else, read something new, go somewhere. Fold the laundry or take a shower—don’t laugh, it works for some of us. It may be that your creative brain just needs a break and the refresh of not thinking about your story for a couple of days will allow you to come back to it with fresh perspective.

Hopefully, the words flow and you rarely get stuck as you work on your project, but if you find yourself not moving forward try one or more of the above ideas to put you back on the path.

We’d love to hear from you on what other techniques you’ve found to get you (or keep you) moving forward. And as always, if you have any questions, please let us know.

Next month, we’ll discuss what’s next After the First Draft. Until then, happy writing!

sparkle and abbey

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

How to Keep a Longstanding Cozy Mystery Series Fresh

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By Lois Winston

Have you ever fallen in love with a series only to discover that the author stopped writing it? Some writers get tired of writing about the same characters and move on to writing other books. Others fall victim to the fickleness of the publishing industry. Authors are dropped if their sales don’t continue to increase or increase enough, others because the editor who championed the series changes jobs or is laid off. Lines folds. Publishing houses merge or goes bankrupt. The reasons are myriad.

Those of us who have walked away from traditional publishing to “go indie” no longer have to worry about holding our breaths, waiting to hear if our current contract will be extended or a new one offered. We’re free to keep alive the characters we love for as long as we want to write about them. The challenge that confronts us is how to keep a longstanding series from getting stale.

Guilty as Framed, my eleventh Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery, will release in less than two weeks on September 6th. Keeping a series fresh after that many books (plus three novellas), is a challenge. After all, there are only so many ways the victim can die, especially in a cozy mystery where you need to keep the gruesome stuff off the page. There are also just so many ways an amateur sleuth can insert herself into a crime without readers becoming incapable of suspending disbelief.

To keep my series fresh, I decided early on that I’d periodically introduce new characters into Anastasia’s world. I began in Revenge of the Crafty Corpse, Book 3, where I introduced Ira Pollack, Anastasia’s deceased husband’s previously unknown half-brother, and his brood of spoiled kids. Also, in that book readers first meet Lawrence Tuttnauer, Anastasia’s future stepfather. In the following book, Decoupage Can Be Deadly, I introduced ex-Special Forces, IT expert, and bodyguard Tino Martinelli. All three men have had recurring roles in subsequent books.

In Drop Dead Ornaments, Book 7, I gave Anastasia’s son Alex a girlfriend. She and her father also play pivotal roles in Handmade Ho-Ho Homicide and A Sew Deadly Cruise, books 8 and 9.

Not every character makes an appearance in every book, though. Sometimes only a passing reference is made to them, sometimes not even that. Other times they once again become major secondary characters in the story. It depends on the book. But these additional characters I’ve created throughout the series enable me to come up with interesting character arcs and fresh plots.

I also didn’t want my series to succumb to Cabot Cove Syndrome, something the writers of Murder She Wrotebegan to become aware of as the popular series continued. Given the size of the town and the rate of murders, eventually Jessica Fletcher would wind up the only citizen left in the tiny hamlet. So the writers wisely decided to send Jessica off on various adventures. Of course, the dead bodies kept piling up no matter where Jessica went, but at least the murders were no longer all occurring in Cabot Cove.

I’ve done the same with Anastasia. Some of the books in the series center around her workplace, others around her home. In Death by Killer Mop Doll, Book 2, the setting is a television studio in New York City. A Sew Deadly Cruise is a “locked room” mystery with the murders taking place when Anastasia and her family are on vacation. Stitch, Bake, Die! is another “locked room” mystery, taking place at a conference center during a storm.

In Guilty as Framed, the story once again centers around Anastasia’s home, but in this book, the plot involves an actual unsolved crime that took place in Boston in 1990. Not only do I need to keep my stories fresh for my readers, I need to challenge myself with each new book. As much as I enjoy spending time with my characters, I need a creative challenge to keep from falling into the same old/same old abyss.

Guilty as Framed was quite the challenge! Not only does the plot center around a thirty-two-year-old cold case, but the crime occurred more than 250 miles from where Anastasia lives, and most of the persons of interest and suspects have long since died, from either natural or unnatural causes.

Mysteries provide a challenge to the reader to figure out whodunit before the end of the book. Guilty as Framed proved a huge challenge to me as the writer. I hope readers find it as satisfying to read as I did to write.

Guilty as Framed

An Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery, Book 11

When an elderly man shows up at the home of reluctant amateur sleuth Anastasia Pollack, she’s drawn into the unsolved mystery of the greatest art heist in history.

Boston mob boss Cormac Murphy has recently been released from prison. He doesn’t believe Anastasia’s assertion that the man he’s looking for doesn’t live at her address and attempts to muscle his way into her home. His efforts are thwarted by Anastasia’s fiancé Zack Barnes.

A week later, a stolen SUV containing a dead body appears in Anastasia’s driveway. Anastasia believes Murphy is sending her a message. It’s only the first in a series of alarming incidents, including a mugging, a break-in, another murder, and the discovery of a cache of jewelry and an etching from the largest museum burglary in history.

But will Anastasia solve the mystery behind these shocking events before she falls victim to a couple of desperate thugs who will stop at nothing to get what they want?

Buy Links

Amazon

Kobo

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. Learn more about Lois and her books at her website www.loiswinston.com where you can also sign up for her newsletter and follow her on various social media sites.

Brain Storming – When It Rains It Pours…Hopefully

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By Sparkle Abbey

Welcome back to part three of So You Want to Write a Book!

If you’ve decided there’s a book in you, thanks for joining us on this wild journey! Over the last couple of months, we’ve asked you to dig deep, think about what you really want to write about, and assigned homework.

First, we asked you to define the type of book you want to write. Last month we asked you to read extensively in your genre. How did you do? Do you feel well-read?

We also asked you to keep a notebook and jot down all your ideas. If you don’t have the notebook handy, go ahead and grab it. We’ll wait.

You’re back? Great! Let’s get started.

Step three is where we want you to take every idea and thought you have for your book and put those in your notebook.

 

This would be a fun scene, a snippet of dialogue, a unique character, an odd trait or habit that you find interesting, etc. We’re not suggesting you outline, at least not yet. We are suggesting you fill that notebook with ideas. Remember, at this stage, there is no such thing as a bad idea.

If you need help, get together with some friends over coffee or wine and brainstorm. If you still need help getting started, here are some questions you can ask yourself.

For a fiction book:

  • Setting – Where will your story take place?
    • Time period – past, present, future
    • City, small town, urban, suburban
  • What season is it?
  • Who are your characters?
    • Main characters, secondary, protagonist, antagonist, villain, hero, heroin
    • What do they look like?
    • Where do they live?
    • What are their beliefs?
    • What’s important to them?
  • Whose point of view is the story told?
    • First-person, third-person, omniscient
    • Which character should the story be told from?
  • What is your main story idea?
  • What’s the subplot idea?
  • What problem will your main character face?
  • How will that problem intensify?
  • How will they overcome their problem?

Is that a lot to think about? It is! Maybe you can answer all of these or maybe just part of them. That’s okay. Right now, we just want you to jot down everything you can think of.

If you’re writing a non-fiction book here are some prompts for you:

  • What do you want to achieve with your book?
  • Who is this book for?
    • Hobbyist
    • History buffs
    • Self-help seekers
    • A general audience
    • A very niche group
  • Do your research
    • Online or the library
    • Interview people
  • How will you say it?
    • Is it a narrative – you’re telling a story
      • Autobiography
      • Memoir
      • Biography
    • Expository – you’re showing the story by explaining your topic
      • Self-help
      • How-to
      • Cookbook

Are the ideas flowing? Is there a story starting to unfold? We encourage you to write everything down, even if it sounds like a crazy idea. You’ll be surprised what you’ll use later as you’re hammering out your story and need that perfect twist.

We’ll check back in with you next month with the next step. Until then, if you have questions, feel free to ask us.

 

Sparkle Abbey’s latest story (written in first person) is a short but fun one. If you’ve not yet
checked out PROJECT DOGWAY, this is a great time to do that. 

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