Excerpt from Murder at Magic Lake

To celebrate the release of Murder at Magic Lake today, I'm going to share a short excerpt with you. This is about a third of the way through the book and shows the main character, Abigail, properly meeting her sidekick, Sherlock:

* * *

Grandma preferred to visit other people instead of inviting them over. As I scanned her living room, I could see why. This apartment appeared larger than Sandy’s, but it was cluttered. Stacks of magazines filled the chairs. Suits and dresses that had been fashionable before I was born hung on a stand on wheels. Bins of yarn balls in all sorts of colors surrounded her recliner. Scattered about were various handmade blankets, hats, and even tiny creatures like bears and dogs. While there was plenty of cover for an intruder to hide behind, I couldn’t see how anyone could squeeze behind Grandma’s things in the first place.

“Hello?” I called. Smart one, Abigail. Let the murderer know you’re here. Maybe the call for help I’d heard earlier was a trap. The murderer could be hiding in the kitchen or bedroom, waiting for me to come closer.

“Over here!” the voice called. It sounded like it was coming from the area around the recliner.

I looked around for something I could use as a weapon. The best thing I could find was an umbrella. Good for both jabbing someone and whacking him or her over the head. Was that bad luck?

Holding the umbrella above my head, I advanced on the recliner. The empty recliner. Maybe I’d just heard the TV. I checked it, but it was off.

The yipping came from under the TV remote, which had pinned a little fox made from yarn. Grandma kept it on a high shelf on the other side of the room; how had it gotten down here? The detail on the fox was exquisite. He had tiny beads for eyes and threads for whiskers. His ears were tipped with black, and his tiny white paws had claws stitched in the same color. White accented his muzzle and the tip of his tail. It couldn’t have been a more perfect rendition of a fox if someone had taken a live creature and shrunk it down.

It waved its paws, trying to free itself.

I let out a cry and dropped the umbrella. The fox froze, its paws stuck at odd angles. Then it slowly turned to stare at me. 

 

* * *

 

Murder at Magic Lake will be available at a special introductory price of  $0.99 through September 22nd. It's available in eBook and paper from Amazon and eBook on Google Play, Kobo, Barnes and Noble, and Apple.

Continuity Crises

The final eBook of Murder at Magic Lake is due Saturday for Amazon. My proof copy arrived last week, right as work got extra busy. I finally finished reviewing the proof last night. As you can see from the photo below, I have quite a few corrections to make. 

Besides catching typos and tweaking phrases, I also use the final draft to catch continuity errors. For example, did I spell a person's name the same way throughout? Did I change a description or number from one page to the next? These may be small details, but they're noticeable, whether the book is traditionally or independently published. If you're not careful, details can change between book to book, or even in the same paragraph.

When I first started writing, I kept most of my world-building details in my head. These days, I try to be more diligent about writing them down in a separate document. When all else fails, I'll search my story if necessary to make sure my details are consistent.

What's the strangest or funniest continuity error you've noticed in a book, either in your own or in one you've read? Feel free to share in the comments.

IWSG: Writing Success

How is it September already? It's not only time for apples, fall, my wedding anniversary, and Homecoming, but also the monthly blog post for the Insecure Writer's Support Group. Learn more about them on their website, Facebook, and Twitter. Our hosts this month are Rebecca Douglass, T. Powell Coltrin, Natalie Aguirre, Karen Lynn, and C. Lee McKenzie.

Here's our question for September: How do you define success as a writer? Is it holding your book in your hand? Having a short story published? Making a certain amount of income from your writing?

I think the definition of success is specific to each writer. I've held my books in my hand and had a few short stories published, but I can't say I've made much money from my work. While I would like to make more of my work available to readers (and get paid for it), true success for me is about connection with other people. I'd like people to identify with my characters and worlds--and even better, tell me about it. There are plenty of ways to gain money and fame, but communication is at the heart of writing. Communicating with someone across space and/or time, as writing allows us to do, is pretty amazing when you think about it. The more reach my writing has, the more successful I am as a writer. But even moving a single reader is significant and successful.

What is your definition of being a successful writer? Feel free to share your thoughts or link to them in the comments.

 

Murder at Magic Lake--Pre-Orders Up!

 I've taken the plunge and set up pre-orders for Murder at Magic Lake. The official publishing date is September 15th, three weeks from today. Pre-orders are currently only available for the eBook; I'm still waiting for the paperback cover from the designer, but it should be ready soon. Since this is a new series, I'm running a special promotion price of $0.99 through September 22nd. Click here for the universal book link. The eBook is available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Apple, and Google Play. Here's the blurb:

After losing her job, twenty-nine-year-old Abigail Ritter isn’t looking forward to returning to her hometown of Magic Lake, Wisconsin, for her grandmother’s birthday party. All she has to offer her family is her own special fruit juice and tea blend. But when Grandma suffers a fatal accident in her apartment building, The Grand, Abigail’s cousin Brian is blamed. Abigail will have to step up and investigate with the help of her best friend Sam, an intriguing detective, and a magical stuffed fox named Sherlock. Abigail’s got a plan for the Grand and its shuttered restaurant, but will she solve the case or drown in a sea of suspects?

Cozy Fantasies and Cozy Mysteries

If you've been following my blog for a while, you may have noticed that although my prime reading/writing genre for a long time was fantasy, lately I've been reading and writing more cozy mysteries than anything else. A lot of it has to do with the "cozy" part. In these unsettling times, the main emotion I want to experience in my reading is comfort; warm things like books, tea, food, and crafts; and a sense of community. However, I've been drawn to comfort/cozy books for a long time. One of my first favorite fantasy series was Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar series. For a fantasy world, Haven felt like a very comfortable place, with creature comforts like heated baths being readily available. Some of M.C.A Hogarth's Pelted Alliance books also feature comfortable settings, but some of them go to surprisingly dark places. Then there's hopepunk like Susan Kaye Quinn's When You Had Power. I recently read Becky Chamber's A Psalm for the Wild-Built and found it as comforting as a cup of tea. Both of these books are science fiction. It seems like this trend may transcend genres, though there are many genres incompatible with coziness.

Do you like cozy settings, or do you prefer other genres? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

Mid-Month Mysteries: Murder at Magic Lake Cover Reveal

 

 

I've had the eBook cover for Murder at Magic Lake for a few weeks, but I think it's finally time to reveal it. I went through 100covers.com this time since I was able to get a sale: only $100 for an eBook and print cover package. I think they did a great job of creating a cover that fits with the cozy mystery genre:

In addition to the covers, the package also included a 3D image and a social media banner that I'll use on my website and perhaps a Facebook page for the series when it's more established. In the meantime, I'm doing another edit on the book. I'm a little nervous about publishing something in a new genre, so I want it to be as good as I can make it with the resources I have. Once the preorders are set up on all the eBook stores I use, I'll announce it here and on Facebook.

IWSG: Favorite Writing Books

 

 

It may be August, but with kids heading back to school this month, it feels like fall and summer are butting heads. Hope you're enjoying the month no matter what type of weather you're having.

With a new month comes another edition of the Insecure Writer's Support Group. Learn more about them on their website, Facebook page, and Twitter feed. Our hosts this month are PK Hrezo, Cathrina Constantine, PJ Colando, Kim Lajevardi, and Sandra Cox.

Here's our question for August: What is your favorite writing craft book? Think of a book that every time you read it you learn something or you are inspired to write or try the new technique. And why?

It's been a long time since I've read the Writer's Digest books, but as you can see from the photo below, I have several of them in my library. Some of the books that I learned the most from are Dibell's Plot and Orson Scott Card's Characters & Viewpoint. These are books I read when I was just starting out as a writer, so they helped me with the basics. I also recommend The Heroine's Journey by Gail Carriger as a counter to the traditional hero's journey popularized by Joseph Campbell. 

 

What are your favorite writing books? Feel free to share them in the comments.

 

New Stories From Old: Shrinking Stories

 Last year, I wrote a short story that was the pandemic version of a fairy tale, with theme's of women's work and community. I sent it out to a few markets, but it got rejected each time. I decided to hold on to this story until later this year, when I could submit to a special fairy-tale themed magazine issue. However, I was recently invited to submit to a hope-themes anthology that's currently in the middle of its submission period. I thought this story was a potential fit until I realized the word count limit for anthology submissions is only 3,000 words. My original story is 4,500 words, so it would need a lot of trimming to make it fit.  I also needed to change the tone of the story to better fit the theme.

I started by removing the first two scenes, which show the protagonist interacting with her husband. This put the story opening right at the critical moment of change. I also removed nearly a thousand words with this single edit, which left me with about five hundred to go. I tightened up some phrasings, removed details that no longer seemed necessary, and took out an incident that was told rather than shown. I actually managed to get the story down to about 2,100 words. Now I needed to work on the tone and the hope theme. To do this, I'm refocusing the story on the relationship between the protagonist and a friend instead of the woman and her husband. I've added more interactions between the friends,though I wasn't satisfied with the direction I'd originally planned for them and did something else. The deadline is next Monday, so I have to finish it before then.

Whether or not this new story gets accepted to the hope anthology or I submit the original one to the fairy tale issue, I think it's interesting how a writer can take the same premise-even some of the same words--and tell different tales. It might be interesting to publish them side-by-side in a collection someday.

 Have you ever had to cut a story drastically down? Did you feel it made a significant difference to the story? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

Reference Shelf: Electronic vs Paper

 Every so often, I sort through my books and other belongings in an attempt to keep the household chaos under control. One section I've been ignoring for a long time are the reference books I keep on my desk. Surely a writer should keep hard copies of dictionaries, a thesaurus, and name books on hand, even though it's easy to find online versions of them. I finally decided that that I was using the online versions more than the aforementioned paper books, plus the paper versions might be out-of-date. So I finally decided to sell them at Half Price. I am keeping several grammar guides and style references, along with a book on everyday life during the Victorian era and a German-English dictionary. I have to admit I don't use these books much anymore either, though I cling to the illusion that they might be useful. In the meantime, it's nice having a little more space on the top shelf of my desks.

What do you have on your reference shelf? Do you use paper books, electronic resources, or both? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

Mid-Month Mysteries: Location Themes

 

Although my family is fully vaccinated, our schedules don't allow us much opportunity to travel this year. Perhaps we can go somewhere during my son's next Spring Break or next summer. In the meantime, books allow us to experience other destinations. It's not surprising that there are cozy mystery series devoted to travel or vacations. Goodreads has a list of such series, and this blog has pages of mysteries on this theme. I'll just briefly mention books about places I've visited.

When I was fourteen, I spent a month in Germany but had a short layover in Reykjavik, Iceland. That's why I just added R.I.P. in Reykjavik to my Want-To-Read list. Representing Germany is The Watchman of Rothenburg by Adriana Licio. 

Another place that I've been to is Washington, D.C. I spent six months performing an internship at the National Cancer Institute, but I've also been in the area as a tourist. Elliot Roosevelt has a whole series set in D.C.; the first book is appropriately called Murder and the First Lady.

Before we got married, my husband and I visited friends in Minneapolis. These two series are set in Minnesota: Curiosity Thrilled the Cat and Killer Librarian.

For our honeymoon, my husband and I took an Alaskan cruise. Sue Henry has a whole series on Alaska, starting with Murder on the Iditarod. We also spent a week in London for our first anniversary, and this site has a whole page of mysteries set in London, too many to pick out just one.

When I was pregnant with my son, I accompanied my husband to Las Vegas for a veterinarian convention/continuing education experience. This location brings Carole Nelson Douglas's Midnight Louie series to mind. Start with Cat in an Alphabet Soup. 

In 2009, I spent two weeks in Japan for work, not a vacation (though I did get to do some sightseeing). The Daydreamer Detective is set in a small Japanese town and is free on Amazon.

To keep this post short, I haven't included books about other places, like New York City, Texas, Arizona, or Florida. Where do you like to go on vacation? Have you read any cozy mysteries set in these locations? Feel free to share them in the comments.

IWSG: Quitting Writing?

2021 is more than halfway done. Today might be Ringo Starr's birthday, but it's also post day for the Insecure Writer's Support Group. Learn more about them on their website, Facebook group, or Twitter page. 

Our hosts for July are Pat Garcia, Victoria Marie Lees, and Louise-Fundy Blue. 

Our question for this month is a simple yet deep one: What would make you quit writing?

 

I've been writing for about a quarter of a century now. I started out wanting to be traditionally published, then self-published my novels while selling a few shorter works to anthologies. It hasn't been a overwhelmingly productive or lucrative career so far, but hope springs anew with each completed story. I can fill my time with plenty of other activities if I choose, but writing fills my soul in a way other hobbies don't. My passion for writing has survived critique groups and workshops, rejections, bad writing advice, bad reviews, and being a working mother. At this point, I probably won't stop writing until I'm no longer physically or mentally able to continue. And if I should pass away while at the keyboard, I hope it's after I've completed whatever I was working on at the time.

Have you ever considered quitting writing, or have you done so for a while before being drawn back to it? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

 

Semiannual Reading Review

 Every six months I post a summary of my reading for the year. My original goal for 2021 was to read 125 books, but I'm doing so well I decided to increase it to 150 books. Currently (as of Sunday, when I'm writing this post for the week), I've completed 87 books. I might read 88 or even 89 before this post goes live. You can see my complete list of books here on Goodreads. I don't always add books to Goodreads when I start them, so those dates are often left blank. Completion dates are generally complete and accurate. Here's the breakdown by genre:

Science Fiction: 9

Fantasy: 18

Mystery: 43

Other Fiction; 3

Non-Fiction: 14

 

The bulk of my reading so far this year has been mystery, most of them cozy mystery. (Some cozy mysteries feature paranormal or fantasy elements like witches, vampires, or psychics, but I only list books in one genre to avoid confusion.) Cozy mysteries tend to short (some are less than 200 pages) and fast-paced, so I can read through them very quickly. I'm reading a lot of them to help me with my current project. That said, my favorite books so far this year are The House that Walked Between Worlds and The Dictionary of Lost Words. They are fantasy and other fiction respectively.

What are your favorite genres or books so far this year? Feel free to share them in the comments.

The Three Stories Within a Mystery

One of the online courses I took about writing cozy mysteries talked about the three stories within a mystery: the story of the crime (how it happened and the backstory), the story of discovery (how the detective figures out what happened), and the prevailing circumstances (the environment in which the story takes place, such as a special event or location). I lump any side-plots, such as the detective's personal problems, into the prevailing circumstances. What I've noticed is that I find some stories, such as the prevailing circumstances, easier to plot (or pants, since I tend to be more of a pantser than a plotter) than the crime story or discovery story. I can actually work out the story of the crime in advance, but plotting the discovery story feels less natural to me. For me, it seems that a lot of the clues my detective has to discover depend on context, which I often don't know until I'm writing it. It's probably due to a combination of me being a pantser and my inexperience with this genre.

Can you think of any other genre that depends on weaving different types of stories together? If so, feel free to discuss it in the comments.