Can A Terrible Accident Turn into a Fluffy Murder?

Of course it can. 
That's what cozy mysteries are all about.
I'm guessing people like them because
They make the horrendous neat and tidy, even pleasant. 
Fluffy.

    The book I'm reading this week is non-fiction about the Dark Ages of Europe. So, I'm talking about the mystery I finished last Sunday, cozy mysteries being one of my favorite forms of fantasy. 

   Cozies are known for their light touch with murder and mayhem. Why do I say this? Because I can't remember one that's gets into the messy process of grieving. Lorna Barrett's Sentenced to Death provides a perfect example. Oh, the main character feels sad and impelled to investigate. But no writer even gets close to the raw emotions that even a hard-boiled egg like me feels when losing a friend. 

   On the craft level, Sentenced to Death gives the reader a fast moving plot, an engaging cast of characters, and a delightful little New England town filled with small shops, including bookstores. And, ranks high is reader satisfaction. What's not to like? Everyone, except perhaps the villains, are pleasant.

   Result? I couldn't shake the thought that the book provided a perfect illustration for the phrase "once again lightly". Not that the book was badly written. I just didn't find anything memorable, except maybe the opening scene when a plane dropped from the sky and killed the main character's best friend. That's a solid hook if I ever saw one.

    The plot was so well constructed, it kept pulling me along, in spite of my wrinkled nose. Want twists and turns that jump from one complication to another until another murder needs to be solved? Ya got it. And, the clues are well embedded in the details of the villains' lives as they are unearthed by Tricia Miles, mystery book seller extraodinaire. In fact the plot reminded me of reading Agatha Christie, only with a younger, American "Miss Marple".

   The depiction of the characters got to me, like sand paper. I'd spend never more than fifteen minutes with the actual types of people depicted in the book, however well-rounded they are. The one exception is the main character's sister, but she annoyed me too. Didn't think she had her sister's back enough.

   This is the fifth book in a successful series which has a couple well-received additions since 2011, but I found the protagonist flat. So, she stressed out by the men in her life. But, she dithers. Eeeewww. She does have a nice cat, though.

   Again a summer read, mostly for fans of cozy mysteries. The plot and the writing overcome the overuse of conventions.

You can read excerpts and more reviews at  
Amazon and Barnes & Noble.  

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My Writing Rut 

    Am I making progress yet? Did get Vengeance to the copy editor and have my appointment with the formatter. Now I have to decide whether to have pre-orders. For a novelette, aka long short story. There's the rub. In short, I'm staring at the marketing tar pit and finding it unattractive. Guess I'll try pre-orders just to see what happens. [That's how I'm feeling today.]

I am looking for reviews. 

 Hint. Hint

   If anyone reading is interested, I should have a PDF copy by mid-August. You can email me at mkkaytheod at yahoo to get on the list for me to mail it to you. If you have a book review blog so much the better.  

My current blurb:

    After four centuries of political infighting with Linden, the ruler of the Marches, all Mariah wants is a little peace and quiet. Then, her daughter's family is attacked by enemy privateers, leaving Norerah at death's door. Mariah’s anger boils over. Ashton, her ring-mate, and Mariah seek vengeance, ignoring Linden’s decrees, only to discover a strange magic that threatens every thing the three Half-Elven hold dear.  

 
   On the Run? Would you believe I'm revising? Even tacked a new paragraph onto the beginning to set the emotions of Pillar, my main character. Yeah, I tend to be short on my characters reactions until my critique group yanks my chain. Look for a new installment of the On the Run wip. I should get it added when I clean up my author website some more. Give it a look if you want to check out longer versions of my estories.

Yeah, I'm getting sick of playing with my author website.

It's like getting immersed in quicksand.

Have you tamed your website? 

How Often Can You Recycle Plot Ideas to Keep Your Series Going?

Recycling writing ideas has been part writing almost since novels began.

Like I seem to remember a comment that runs along the lines of --  a man with a fortune is surely in want of a wife.

That premise has been used over and over again, especially among writers of romances. Poor girl wins the heart of a rich man. Rich girl wins the heart of a rich man. Middle class girl wins the heart of a rich man. Then, someone wants to be different, and they decide to switch the paradigm around. Poor boy wins the heart of a rich girl.  etc. etc.

One writer who squeezes the most out of that premise is Stephanie Laurens. She does it so well that she lands on the New York Times Best Seller lists regularly. Her best-selling Cynster series is based on the idea that a masterful rich man feels something missing from his life and wins the hearts of a worthy girl from at least the gentry to set up a family to fill the void. Very often, Laurens add a credible mystery to make the storyline more interesting.

With The Masterful Mr. Montague, Laurens has done a her double squeeze -- linking a romance to a mystery being investigated by Barnaby Adair and Penelope nee Cynster plus the Stokes couple. How two wives get included in their husbands work in late Regency times is one of the subplots of the book. Laurens is even trying to polish the mystery aspects of her stories by setting up a sub-series -- Barnaby Adair's Casebooks. I finished reading the book, but felt the storyline was as worn as a thread-bare carpet. 

Oh, there's a mystery to be solved, three murders and one attempted, but the perpetrator wasn't particularly hidden within the action. [I found it rather embarrassing for the usually acute characters didn't to interpret the clues faster.] Assorted Cynster ladies make cameo appearances to gossip about the suspects. The red herring turned out to be the most interesting part of the story line for me. [I don't think I've seen that particular scenario used before.] And yeah, the various couples get to enjoy moments of rapture, Laurens' style. Plus there're cute babies ... if you coo at such things.

More important, good craft techniques in setting up characters, settings, etc. are there in quantities enough to make me green with envy.

Yeah, there's the man of fortune who needs a wife to fill an emotional void. This time around, though, the romp travels a thread-bare path without much tension or innovative sparks. I usually enjoy Laurens' novels without reservation. This time, I'm sorry to say: I give it 3 Stars***. 

~~#~~ 

As usual, I've been running out of time ... everyday. It's getting a little tiresome. I'm not even playing much Mahjong.

Did get some something done though. First, I got my free, dark fantasy short story, set in the world of Andor -- The Ignoble Nobel Prize Winner -- published. It's up on Smashwords as I write in mobi, epub, PDF, and read-online. I rather like the manner in which I killed the demons, in an appropriate secular way, at the end. Even my critique group liked the ending.

Have also been working on the rewrite of Crossings  -- mostly because my critique group demanded I not end the story with Old Nance/Granny Nan dying. They wanted vengeance. So, I've devised another secular way to kill demons ... which meant I have to go back and forth to read the story so I can remove and add stuff, aka revise.

I'm keeping the slow beginning though. I knew I was breaking the "rules" when I drafted it. Yeah, I value my critique group, but I don't listen to them 100%. How about you, if you're a writer?

Now if I could only market well-enough to sell more than a hundred novellas a month. 

*Sigh*