How Cozy Mysteries Changed My Life

Awhile back—don’t ask me how long ago because I’ve forgotten—I was on a panel titled “How Cozy Mysteries Changed my Life.” As you can guess, the topic was about writing cozies, although I don’t remember directly addressing the question mentioned in the title. Still, it did start me thinking about how they’ve affected me, both as a reader and a writer.

I’ve read cozies for most of my reading life, though I don’t think I’d heard the term “cozy mystery” until well into adulthood. I don’t know if that’s because it’s a newer term or if I was just oblivious to the different categories of crime fiction and what “everyone” called them until then.

I find reading cozies a very calming activity. There’s generally an interesting puzzle, characters and settings plus the killer is always identified and brought to justice. By the end of the book, the world is righted once again. Something that brings me great comfort and doesn’t always happen in real life.

I’ve also learned new things. I wrote a post for Chicks on the Case awhile back titled Unexpected Influences where I talked about how reading has influenced me to learn about things I would either never have known about or never have thought to study. You can read the full post here.

While I love reading, I never intended to be a writer, particularly of mysteries. I always thought it would be too hard. But when I woke up one morning with an idea for a book, I immediately thought it would make a good cozy so I decided to give it a shot. I believed because I’d read so many that I understood what made them tick. While that was partially true, I soon realized I still had a whole lot to learn. Still, if I hadn’t read a lot of cozies, I wouldn’t have had the courage to try my hand at writing one.

Writing cozies has changed the way I read them. I still get immersed in the stories and characters and enjoy them, but now I also notice things—how a book is structured, how a character is described. Sometimes I jot down interesting lines and paragraphs so I can study them later to see how the writer works their magic.

Probably the biggest change is that I get out of the house more and attend local events. I’m pretty much a homebody. I live near the beach because I prefer the weather, not because I’m into swimming, surfing or sunbathing. I’m not super fond of crowds, either. Here’s where you ignore my love of Disneyland and Las Vegas, which tend to attract lots of people. Somehow, I’m not as bothered by them in those two places, although I do avoid the busier times of the year.

Since my series takes place in a beach city similar to the one I live in, I like to put in events in the books similar to the ones that happen in my area. It’s fun to create my own version of a fair or festival. But to do it justice, I feel I need to see what the real events are like, which often means attending them. Sometimes I can get enough info from videos on YouTube or pics on a website, but that can only take you so far. It’s not the same as attending the event itself. Some I would have gone to anyway, but others I probably would have avoided if I weren’t writing my series.

When I found out my city holds a pumpkin race every year, I knew I had to go and see what that was all about. It’s a short walk from my house to downtown so we’ve attended a few times. The race is an all-day event. I’ve only seen bits and pieces of it, but enough to create my own version for my book Designed For Haunting.

An event that I probably would have avoided because of the size of the crowd was our annual pier lighting ceremony. I was writing a Christmas book at the time so I decided I needed to see what it was like. The husband and I walked down to the beach so I could get a feel for it. I’m glad I did. I got a lot of good ideas from attending, things I wouldn’t have known about or thought of if I hadn’t been there. My own version of the pier lighting ceremony appears in Ghosts of Painting Past and is one of my favorite scenes in the book.

When I was in junior high and high school, I was a “joiner”. In junior high, I was in FHA (Future Homemakers of America, now known as Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA)) plus I worked on the student newspaper and yearbook. In high school, it was FBLA (Future Business Leaders of America, now known as FBLA-PBL where the PBL is Phi Beta Lambda), student government, worked on the yearbook for one year and was part of the Bicentennial Quiz Team. (Not hard to guess what year that was.) But in college I was too busy studying and working to join anything.

But when I started writing, I decided it was important to join a group of like-minded people so I joined my local chapter of Sisters in Crime, which led to my being on the board for six years as Recording Secretary, Vice President and President. It also led to my co-chairing the California Crime Writers Conference in 2011 and doing a stint as We Love Libraries! coordinator for SinC National. I wouldn’t have had any of those experiences if I hadn’t started writing cozies.

What about you? How has writing the kinds of books you write or reading the kinds of books you read changed your life?

More Christmas Favorites

I enjoyed Thomas’ post on Monday about favorite Christmas movies and books, though I have to admit I’m always taken aback when someone names Die Hard as their favorite Christmas movie. I don’t really think of it as a Christmas movie. I think of it as a great action flick. But, hey, what makes a Christmas movie, anyway? It is set around Christmastime so I guess that’s good enough.

I read my share of Christmas cozies. Any time there’s a Christmas-ish cover on a mystery I check it out so I was pretty excited when I got a chance to write my own mystery set around Christmas, Ghosts of Painting Past. It’s the latest (and 5th) installment in my Aurora Anderson mystery series.

My personal favorite Christmas book is Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. I try to read it around this time every year or at least have Patrick Stewart read it to me. Not in person, alas, but he did record a wonderful audio version years ago when cassette tapes were still common. I believe it was reissued on audio CD in the early 2000s.

Not surprisingly, my absolute favorite Christmas movie is a version of the story: The Muppet Christmas Carol from 1992. Michael Caine is great as Scrooge and you can’t beat Gonzo as the narrator, Kermit as Bob Cratchit and Miss Piggy as Mrs. Cratchit. Plus there are some nice songs. My second favorite is Holiday Inn which Thomas also mentioned. I've seen both of them more times than I can count.

We can’t forget those TV specials, though. I grew up on A Charlie Brown Christmas and Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer, both of which debuted in the 1960s. I have them on DVD and still enjoy them to this day.

Then there’s the Christmas music. I have a huge selection of holiday music from Big Band versions of songs to Bing Crosby to Chris Botti’s Christmas album to Lindsey Stirling and Barry Manilow and Michael Buble and, well you get the picture. But my favorite Christmas album of all times is one I remember from my childhood, one that my father picked up at our local Firestone tire store. Yep, tire store. Back in the 60s and 70s, both Firestone and Goodyear produced some great albums that they either gave away or sold in their stores for $1. Firestone produced 7 volumes. The one we had was Volume 4, which included songs by Julie Andrews, Vic Damone, The Young Americans and Dorothy Kirsten among others. I played it over and over again growing up. Two songs in particular that I love are on this album: Julie Andrew singing The Bells of Christmas and Dorothy Kirsten and the Young Americans singing I Wonder as I Wander.

I hope you all are having a wonderful holiday season and get a chance to enjoy your own favorite books, movies, TV shows and music with your friends and family.

5 in 5

Monday marked 5 years since my first book, Fatal Brushstroke, was released. Tuesday was the release day for my 5th book, Ghosts of Painting Past. That’s 5 books released in 5 years. Hard for me to believe sometimes.

When I signed the first 3-book contract, part of me doubted that I could actually get the books completed in the time frame given, but I knew I had to try. The second book was particularly hard for me. It took me 10-15 years to write the first one and I had 9 months for the second. Yikes! Let’s just say that things did not go well. I did eventually finish Paint The Town Dead a few months late thanks to my publisher for hanging in there with me. For whatever reason, book 3, A Palette For Murder, was much easier to write. I still think it was a tight schedule, but that one seemed to flow out of me.

That goes to show you that every book is different.

I wasn’t sure I wanted to sign that second 3-book contract, but I knew I wanted to write Halloween and Christmas themed books and I wanted as many as possible on audio, so I signed it. I’m glad I did, but I admit to being very exhausted. I still have book 6 to complete. For whatever reason, it’s been much harder to figure out this story than books 4 (Designed For Haunting) and 5 (Ghosts of Painting Past.)

I think I’ll be like Scarlett O’Hara and worry about that tomorrow. Right now I’m celebrating the release of my 5th book and everything I’ve accomplished in the last 5 years. Happy Book Birthday to me! (Okay it was yesterday, but I can still celebrate!)

A Little Rebellion, A Little Fun

I’ve been feeling a little rebellious lately. And annoyed. And frustrated. So I went to visit those rebels in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland yesterday.

Yesterday was the first time I’ve seen Disneyland since the Star Wars “land” opened. My annual pass blocked me out most of the summer, which is fine because it’s too crowded and hot for me then anyway.

They did a good job on the look and feel as Disney always does. Disneyland was not terribly busy so you could just walk in and out without having to wait in line. When it gets busy, they give you a time when you can enter the new land.

Not a lot in the land, though. There’s one ride right now (Millennium Falcon) and one other coming in January. Then there’s a place to build your own droid and one with light sabers. As far as I can tell, those are both expensive. Then there’s Oga’s Cantina, the only place in Disneyland that you can buy an alcoholic drink. There was a line to get into that so I didn’t bother. There's a place to eat. And then there's something called "Milk Stand" where you can get non-dairy fruit drinks. No milk involved. Seems an odd name for the stand.

I thought you might be interested in a few photos.

What does this have to do with writing, you say? Well, I took the ARC of my latest book, GHOSTS OF PAINTING PAST, with me and did a little photo shoot. It’s been a tradition since my second book. Alas, my first has never been to Disneyland. I will have to rectify that one day.

The book will be out November 19th and is available for pre-order now. Or mostly available. That’s one of my frustrations. Pre-orders for the Trade Paperback at Amazon are lagging behind all of the others. One of these days the stars will align and everything will fall into place at Amazon.

Here are some pre-order links if you’re interested:

Amazon: http://henery.press/past
Barnes/Nook: http://henery.press/past-b
Kobo: http://henery.press/past-k
iTunes: http://henery.press/past-i

Before I get to those pictures I promised, I feel I should acknowledge that it's September 11th and remember all of those who lost their lives on that horrible day. I can't believe it's been 18 years. We were in Hawaii at the time, on the Big Island, so ended up having to spend a few extra days there. Not a bad place to have to wait to get home, but I still remember the shock and sadness and fright I felt.

Anyway, here are those pictures:

Excitement And Fear

Starting a new book is usually a mixture of excitement and fear for me. Right now I’m in the dreaded “why did I ever think I could write another book phase.” This lasts until I finally feel like I’ve figured out the general direction I’m going in. It usually takes me several months to make my way through this period of unease as I slowly figure out my characters and the story they want me to tell.

It’s a phase that feels a lot like designing software. You do a lot of thinking, head scratching, walking up and down the hallway, and drawing diagrams. It always feels like I’m not accomplishing anything. I have to constantly remind myself that I really am getting something done. That all of this thinking and tossing ideas back and forth in my head is actually accomplishing something. That it’s all part of the process.

Talking to other writers about writing helps to remind me that I’m not alone. That other people find the beginning of a project difficult as well.

I got the opportunity to talk with a lot of writers (some who I’ve known for a while, some who I just met) at the California Crime Writers Conference in Culver City, CA a couple weekends ago, two days of workshops and panels on topics related to crime writing. So many things going on at the same time that it was hard to choose what to go to.

I was on a panel called “Built to Last: Creating a Series” with Rachel Howzell Hall, Sheila Lowe, Keenan Powell and Faye Snowden. We had a great time talking about our experiences writing a series.

Ellen Byron interviewed Private Eye Nancy Swaim about her experiences. I also learned about Medieval Weaponry from Swordmaster Roberta Brown. And attended a panel with Joe Broido, Phoef Sutton, Gillian Horvath and Carlene O’Neil about Hallmark Mysteries. And, and, and...lots of lots of different things were available on the business side of writing, craft, forensics...

Plus we were treated to workshops and keynote addresses from Guests of Honor Tess Gerritsen and Catriona McPherson. And fed lots and lots of food. I admit that I ate way too much.

But probably the best part was the chance to hang out with fellow writers and talk about writing and the writing business.

The next CCWC will be in 2021. (It takes place every other year.) Consider going if you get the chance. It’s well worth it.

In other news, I now have the cover for Book 5 in my Aurora Anderson series, GHOSTS OF PAINTING PAST. It’ll be out November 19th, pre-orders start the week of August 28th. Thought you might be interested in seeing it. It takes place around Christmas as you can probably tell from the cover.