by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethspanncraig.com Characters who stumble through scenes without clear intentions leave readers feeling equally lost. When your protagonist just “goes with the flow” or reacts to whatever happens next, [...]
by Elizabeth S. Craig We’ve all read mysteries where a thunderstorm conveniently knocks out the power just as the sleuth is about to make a breakthrough, or where fog rolls in to create [...]
by Mike Martin, @mike54martin People often ask me what kind of mysteries are the Sgt. Windflower Mysteries. And I stumble and fumble and give them one of a variety of answers. My go-to is that [...]
by Shannon Symonds ,@shannonsymonds7 I love creating a killer, even if he is a cozy killer. I believe the why behind your bad guy can make or break your story. To show you how [...]
by Jenna Maeson The paranormal is a big deal in books right now. Like a really big deal. And it seems to be infiltrating all genres, even the ones that don’t usually include [...]
Planting Seeds for Your Mystery’s Solution by Elizabeth S. Craig The most satisfying mystery solutions can hinge on details that were hiding in plain sight all along. Mystery writers are constantly walking the [...]
by Elizabeth S. Craig If you’ve written cozy mysteries (or read them) for any length of time, you’ve probably encountered this common character dynamic: your amateur sleuth is busily investigating a murder while [...]
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’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 This is the last post in my series on cozy writing. (Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 6.) Today I thought I’d wrap up a few things that are, [...]
By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig One of the most important aspects of the cozy mystery is the puzzle itself. Aside from character development, the puzzle is the most important part of the mystery. [...]
By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig This is the second in my cozy mystery writing series. Last week I focused on writing better sleuths. Today, I thought I’d take a look at another vital [...]
By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig I’ve had a few people emailing me asking questions about starting a cozy mystery (or, really, any type of mystery involving an amateur sleuth). I promised to write [...]
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