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 [...]
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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 [...]
by H.R. D’Costa, @scribesworld Standalone or series. It’s a dilemma that many novelists face. But for authors of cozy mysteries, the decision’s almost a foregone conclusion: series. By all accounts, that’s what [...]
by H.R. D’Costa, @scribesworld Handling the stakes in a mystery with an unlikeable victim isn’t entirely a straightforward affair. On one hand, when the victim is unlikeable, you’ll have puh-lenty of suspects, which [...]
by H.R. D’Costa, @scribesworld Here’s the scenario: You’re writing a cozy mystery. And your victim is unlikeable. Your suspect list is, as they say, healthy. You’re having a blast coming up with motives [...]
by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig For me, brainstorming clues for my mysteries has always been one of the toughest parts of writing a mystery. Mystery readers are incredibly savvy and they’re very good [...]
by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig Suspect interviews aren’t quite as simple as they may seem. Something that may seem very straightforward for a police officer can be very different for a gifted amateur. [...]
By Sandra Gardner First a definition: Merriam-Webster: Definition of paranormal: not scientifically explainable: supernatural If you want to write a story — any kind of story — with a paranormal element, it has [...]
by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig Here’s a quick tip today for cozy mystery writers. Is your cozy mystery too short? Do readers (or beta readers) say that they were able to figure out [...]
by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig If you’re writing a cozy mystery, there are little things that come up sometimes. Writing is a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure process. You have so many different choices that can take [...]
by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig Today I thought I’d cover my process for starting a new cozy series. This post isn’t intended to replace the more in-depth posts I created for developing a [...]
Writing Sherlock Holmes and the Glad Game By Matt Ferraz, @Matt_Ferraz The genesis of Sherlock Holmes and the Glad Game was a challenge I made to myself: pick two public domain characters that apparently [...]
by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig It’s been a long time since I developed a new cozy mystery series. Long enough so that I tried to remember exactly how I’d gone about it the [...]
by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig Hope everyone had a good Halloween. Apparently I still have scary stuff on the brain. :) The subjective nature of fear: I’m not usually a fan of being [...]
by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig I’ve touched on this topic before, although before I was sort of working it through in my mind. What I’m calling ‘series tropes,’ which is what writer Camille [...]
by Elizabeth Spann Craig, @elizabethscraig I can only imagine the number of murder motives that I’ve come across in the last 35 years that I’ve read and watched mysteries. While writing cozy mysteries, [...]
by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig One of the questions I’m most asked when I speak is how I come up with my ideas. This, of course, is probably the number one question that all [...]
by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig Recently, I was looking over my customer reviews on Goodreads (I know…I rarely read my reviews there, although I always read them on Amazon) and one of them [...]
by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig Cozy mysteries are a subgenre in a large field of mystery subgenres. They’re primarily defined by their use of an amateur sleuth, lack of gore and profanity, offstage [...]
by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig I realized recently that the most common question I’m asked in podcast interviews, during writer’s conferences, and via email is: “What does your cozy mystery outline look like?” [...]
by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig Believe it or not, there are ways to make cozy mystery writing complex. And I think cozies are fairly easy books to write. At first I titled this [...]
by Gretchen Mullen, @GretchenMdm9524 “Thou shalt not cheat thy reader” Ronald Knox (1888-1957) was an English priest who moonlighted as a well-regarded author of detective novels and short stories. His reputation was such [...]
by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig I like reading many different kinds of books. Everything from biographies to literary fiction and classic literature interests me. But for writing, I’ve been sticking with cozy mysteries. [...]
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