by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig I’ve read several mysteries lately that have surprised me. For a while, I’ve thought all mystery writers understood that mysteries are meant to be interactive affairs. The reader [...]
by Mike Martin, @mike54martin Where do stories come from? That’s a question I get asked a lot. So do other writers. The simple answer is that we get our stories from everywhere. Sometimes [...]
by Elizabeth S. Craig There’s something to be said for making mysteries less complicated. It’s no fun for the reader when the murderer is revealed, and they’re not sure who the character [...]
by Sierra Cross, @SierraCrossBook Hi all! I’m Sierra Cross, author of the Blue Moon Bay Witches series, and I’ve been writing about magic since the early 2000s, when the dominant trope in urban [...]
by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig I’ve written here before about cozy mystery victims and how tricky the process can be. It’s tough to make the victim a genuinely good person when you need [...]
by J.R. Lancaster, @jrlauthor For those of you who don’t know me yet, mysteries are my jam so there couldn’t be a more perfect topic for me to chat about. More so, let’s [...]
by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig Today I’ve got a quick tip for mystery writers to help keep readers questioning the killer’s identity until the end of the book. It’s a pretty simple one, [...]
by Kate Darroch, @BooksBonanza For the first time in decades, BISAC has recently created a new Book Trade Category: Cozies. It’s easy to see why that choice was made, and many would say [...]
by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig I have the luxury now of uninterrupted reading time, when I didn’t as much when my kids were little. But I still notice that I have the ability [...]
by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig Happy Halloween, everybody! On this day of spooky celebration, I thought I’d take a quick look at scares in cozy mysteries, known as being gentler reads than other [...]
by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig Hi everyone! I’m guest posting at David Farland’s blog today on the process of writing a Christmas cozy mystery. Hope you can pop over and join me! Tips [...]
by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig Cozy mysteries offer a very quiet approach to death for mystery readers. The crimes are never described in gory detail. The methods aren’t ordinarily very grim (I’ve [...]
by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig After writing about fifty cozy mysteries, I think I’ve used just about every story opener possible. I’ve opened with the dead body a few times. Sometimes I’ve had [...]
By Debbie De Louise (author of the Cobble Cove and Buttercup Bend cozy mysteries), @Deblibrarian Cozy mysteries are popular among those who prefer less graphic books with clean language and quirky characters. [...]
by Mike Martin, @Mike54Martin Greetings to our American cousins and many thanks to Elizabeth for giving us the opportunity to tell you about an exciting event happening north of your borders. From [...]
by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig I started reading the cozy mystery master Agatha Christie at a very impressionable age and loved the construction of her books and the characters she created. There were [...]
by Elizabeth Spann Craig, @elizabethscraig Cozy mysteries have a host of different settings, but one of the most popular, for writers as well as readers, is the small-town setting. It’s fun to have [...]
by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig I spend a lot of time reading blog posts and sharing them. I’ve noticed there are tons of posts on crafting better story openers. The posts usually talk [...]
by Elizabeth Spann Craig, @elizabethscraig I realized a couple of years ago that any time I’m interviewed for a podcast or anytime that a writer asks me about writing cozies, I immediately try [...]
by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig You probably wouldn’t think of funerals in cozy mysteries as having an important part in the story. But I know the time I left funerals out of a [...]
by Gayle Carline, @GayleCarline I have a confession to make: My mysteries have humor in them—I just don’t advertise it. I don’t like to talk about my mysteries being funny because if a [...]
by Yolanda Renée, @yolandarenee When I decided to sit down and write a mystery — I did just that. I sat down and started writing. It’s what I’ve done with every story I’ve [...]
By Libby Ware and Charlene Ball, aka Lily Charles A bibliomystery is a mystery where books are involved. The stories can take place in bookstores, libraries, auctions, or old houses, and can involve [...]
by Saralyn Richard, @SaralynRichard The heart of any mystery novel is a good story. But when writing a police procedural, having a good story is not enough. A police procedural is a form [...]
by Ellen Jacobson, @Ellen_Jacobson One of the quintessential hallmarks of a cozy mystery series is a hook such as the amateur sleuth’s hobby (knitting, quilting, gardening), profession (real estate agent, florist, archaeologist), place [...]
by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig In every cozy mystery, there comes a time when the sleuth puts together various clues and realizes who the perpetrator is. But the timing of this revelation can [...]
by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig Red herrings, or false leads, can add a lot to a mystery and serve different purposes. How red herrings add to mysteries: They make the mystery more complex. [...]
by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig When I came back from my France trip in July, several people asked me if I was planning to ‘take Myrtle on a trip to Paris.’ Although I [...]
by Jane Bennett Munro Medical practice, particularly pathology practice, is rife with jargon. I can’t not use it; that would destroy the authenticity. I don’t want to dumb it down; that would be [...]
by H.R. D’Costa, @scribesworld Wow. We’ve covered a lot of ground in this four-part blog series on how to handle the stakes in a cozy mystery. (By the way, although the illustrative [...]
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