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? 

Weaving the Details to Create an Innovativel Fantasy World

  This week I found myself traveling through a strange, sort of 18th century Hanoverian world of the Foundling by D. M. Cornish. The books has won some big time awards -- ALA Best Book for Young Adults and A Book Sense Autumn 2006 Pick -- which made me feel a little guilty that I didn't like the book more. While the plot line is highly original, I found the prose rather ponderous ... like Germanic ... like in the days when I thought my term papers had to have 100 word [but coherent] sentences.

  Rossamund, a boy who, as an infant, was left on the doorstep of an orphanage that prepares kids for government service, leads a cast of Dickensian, over-the-top characters, especially his human and nonhuman villains. At the same time, internal motivations and personal development are in short supply. Too many of the characters prance across the stage when needed and disappear. I wouldn't say they were cardboard cut-outs, but some of the secondary characters came close.

  The setting of this dark, innovative world is its strength. The world is so unique that the book comes with a 100+ page Explicarium. The use of the odd term for a glossary demonstrates the tongue-in-cheek narrative that gives the book much of its charm as Cornish's Candide-like character learns that his world is more complex than his teachers taught him.

  The MC dreams of becoming a sailor ... well, and maybe that the school's bully would disappear ... but he ends up being chosen to become a lamplighter, the stalwarts who keep the roads of the country safe from monsters. Cornish adds all sorts of details that add texture to his world until it stands out in stark 3-D. Example: Lamplighters receive a tattoo etched in monster's ichor each time they kill one. Steampunk-type details like bathing eyes in chemicals to gain super powers abound in the book. But Cornish's habit of giving new terms to things that already have perfectly good names rather annoyed me.

  Foundling is the first of The Monster Blood Tattoo trilogy. Instead of magic, Cornish uses a
steampunkish rational for building his world's special powers. Recommended with reservations because of the sometimes limp character development. The excellent world creation redeems the book.

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Social Media Finds

  How about learning how 8 Key Elements of a Powerful Book Landing Page can help your marketing? Niki Woods takes you through the steps of creating a selling ad page for your book. She's focusing on non-fiction, but there are lots of ideas for fiction writers and anyone else trying to sell something on the web.

  Amazon has added an advertising service to beef up the reasons why you should give them a first six month exclusive on selling you book, aka Kindle Select. Nicholas Rossis blogs on how to Advertise with Amazon: a Step-by-step Tutorial.

  I find I'm actually thinking about doing Kindle Select for The Ghostcrow ... until I remember I get my cheap ISBNs at Smashwords.

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My Writing

  Editing my new author website has monopolized most of my marketing time this week, especially my evenings. The good news is that I'll have a more modern looking, more attractive website developing. I still have to do some major revisions on my free story page before the new version goes live.

  The bad news is that I've gotten precious little promo for my stories done. ... Or, is that good news too? I don't know. I do know I have to get my various display sites updated, especially now that I've got the new version of my Nobel Prize winner story up--Doom Comes for a Sold Soul, aka The Ignoble Nobel Prize Winner.

  Then, there's The Ghostcrow. It's going to the copy editor next week!!!! This time around I'm going to try some pre-publication promo. Goal is for pre-orders in March and publishing on April Fools, aka April 1st or my brother's birthday. I'm in the process of gathering reviewers. If you'd like a free PDF copy of my estory, I'll soon be starting a list [as soon as someone requests to be on it] and plan to send out PDF copies in March.

  One of my organizational changes is working out. I'm writing new stuff [mostly] in the mornings. Currently, I'm working on a sequel to Noticing Jamilla. Yeah, Cassy Mae in on the run and changing as she accepts her abilities to work with the supernatural. I anticipate a third estory where The Markham finds Cass and tries to exact revenge for the killing of her niece.

  Oh, I've got a Highgrim and Allsdipp story in the works too. Doom Comes for a Sold Soul isn't the end of their line. Unfortunately, Hear That Damn Owl? was the end of the line for Crayton ... and I've been taking some flak for that.