Debra H. Goldstein's Blog, page 2

Will They or Won’t They? By Maddie Day/Edith Maxwell

Thanks so much, Debra for having me back to your blog.

My next Cozy Capers Book Group Mystery, Murder at Cape Costumers, releases August 26th. It’s the seventh in the series of stories that take place in fictional Westham on upper Cape Cod. Bike shop owner Mac Almeida and her Cozy Capers book group sometimes never get to the cozy mystery of the week because they’re too busy investigating murder.

As I was writing it, Cape Costumers was the last book under contract. I didn’t know whether my publisher would renew the series for more books or if the seventh would be the last.

I’ve been in that position before. I wrote book three AND book five in the Local Foods Mysteries without knowing about a contract extension. Both times I left Cam Flaherty and her friends at the farm in a good position. If the series ended there, I’d be satisfied, but I didn’t burn any bridges to prevent it from continuing.

It did end with book five, and the books have been re-released as ebooks authored by Maddie Day.

Ending my seven-book Quaker Midwife Mysteries series was my business decision.

I was also in charge of deciding to finish the Country Store Mysteries at book thirteen, despite knowing how much I’d be disappointing dedicated fans of Robbie Jordan and her gang in South Lick, Indiana.

With both those series, I left everybody with all loose ends tidied up and the characters in a good place.

But with the Cozy Capers Book Group stories, I wanted the series to continue, except I didn’t know if Kensington would offer me a contract for more. 

I’m not much of a plotter, and as the book went along, I realized something big was going to happen in Mac Almeida’s personal life beyond the murder investigation. 

And it did. Once again I ended the book feeling satisfied that I could walk away from Mac and Tim and her family and the Cozy Capers book group and Mac’s Bikes if I had to.

But I didn’t have to! I was offered a contract extension.

I’m now polishing book eight, Murder at the Toy Soldier. It’s my fortieth novel, so yay, me! I’m not sure what’ll happen in book nine, but I’ll figure it out. I always do. 

Readers: Have you been able to end a job, a project, or a chapter in your life to your own satisfaction? I’ll send one commenter a copy of the new book (toward the end of the month after I get my copies).

Just in time for Halloween, a new costume shop has opened on Main Street in Westham, Massachusetts. Cape Costumers is a cut above the usual seasonal pop-up stores with their flimsy mass-produced outfits and cheap plastic masks, mostly due to co-owner Shelly, a former Broadway costume designer. But when Shelly discovers her elderly boyfriend Enzo—a Broadway star who retired to Westham—dead of unnatural causes, Halloween suddenly gets a lot scarier.

Sleuthing, Mac has found, is a lot like riding a bicycle: once you learn how, you never forget. Far from being spooked, Mac and the members of the Cozy Capers Book Group put down their weekly book selection and put their heads together to see past a bag of tricks and find a malice-making murderer who’s hiding in plain sight . . .

Maddie Day writes the Country Store Mysteries, the Cozy Capers Book Group Mysteries, the Cece Barton Mysteries, and the historical Dot and Amelia Mysteries. As Edith Maxwell, she writes the Agatha-Award winning historical Quaker Midwife Mysteries and short crime fiction. She’s a member of Mystery Writers of America and a proud lifetime member of Sisters in Crime. Maxwell/Day lives north of Boston with her beau and their cat Martin, where she writes, cooks, gardens, and wastes time on Facebook. Find her at her website and at Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen .

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Triangle Sisters in Crime – August 9

Triangle Sisters in Crime Chapter will host Debra on Zoom to teach a “Conflict” workshop

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Reading the World by Miranda James

I discovered juvenile mystery series when I was ten or eleven. My introduction to them was The Secret of Shadow Ranch by Carolyn Keene. I was immediately entranced. I eagerly looked for more Nancy Drew books, and I discovered many other series like the Hardy Boys, the Dana Girls, Judy Bolton, Biff Brewster, and another favorite, Trixie Belden. Not only did I get to enjoy exciting adventures vicariously, I began to learn in a number of the books about foreign countries and new (to me) parts of the United States (like Hawaii and Alaska). I believe that reading about these countries, along with studying them in geography classes, ignited my interest in travel.

My first international trip was to Mexico the spring of my junior year in high school. My Spanish teacher and her husband, an anthropologist who had been a part of important archaeological digs in Mexico, put together a trip, and I was lucky enough to get to go. I loved my Spanish classes, and I ended up getting a minor in Spanish in college. After that, I never looked back.

There are so many countries I would love to visit, given the money, good health, and time. The two destinations dearest to my heart are the United Kingdom and Ireland, perhaps because much of my ancestry is English, with some Irish and Swedish thrown in, as well as Norman French (the Conquest, you know). But I have also traveled to Mexico, Jamaica, Aruba, Bonaire, the Bahamas, Colombia, and Costa Rica in the Americas, and in Europe, France, Greece, and Turkey.

That brings me to my new book, Something Whiskered, which is set entirely in Ireland, chiefly in County Clare, where I have visited twice. I was nervous about setting a book in a foreign country, but I felt so at home in Ireland, I decided to give it a go. My series character, Charlie Harris, is on his honeymoon (spoiler alert) with his wife Helen Louise Brady (originally O’Bradaigh). Diesel, thanks to a relaxation in the laws about bringing in cats and dogs, accompanies them. They are visiting Helen Louise’s Irish family, her grandfather’s cousin Finn, Baron O’Bradaigh, along with his grandson Lorcan and his family.

Charlie, Helen Louise, and Diesel get a rough welcome to Castle O’Bradaigh, however, because when they drive up to the castle, a body falls from the roof right in front of them. This scene came to me immediately when I started thinking about the book. Then I had to decide, of course, who dies. Then I had to figure out the rest of the story.

I did a fair amount of research, including diving into Irish slang and common phrases. Among my favorites are gombeen, eejit, and craic. I use these words throughout the book, because I wanted my Irish characters to sound Irish. I don’t think I overdid it, but I had fun with it. The Irish are a colorful people, and I hope I managed to portray that. I don’t know that I’ll ever set another book in a foreign country, but I hope my readers will enjoy the one I did.

Miranda James is the pseudonym of retired medical librarian Dean James. His books have made the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists. He currently resides in the Jackson, MS, area along with three cats and thousands of books.

Website: www.catinthestacks.com 

Buy links:

Murder by the Book: https://www.murderbooks.com/book/9780593199558  (signed copies) 

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/something-whiskered-miranda-james/1146487399?ean=9780593199565 

Indie Bound: https://bookshop.org/p/books/something-whiskered-miranda-james/00ced5f0bc5ab3c9?ean=9780593199565&next=t 

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The Joy of the Amateur Sleuth by Valerie (V.M.) Burns

Cozy mysteries almost always feature an amateur sleuth. These individuals aren’t trained members of law enforcement and aren’t getting paid to solve mysteries and bring down evil doers. Critics of the genre often disparage the use of amateurs to solve crime as “unrealistic.” But is it? 

I would argue that the most important skill needed to solve mysteries isn’t a knowledge of the law, weapons training, or physical fitness provided and enhanced at the police academy. Those skills are important, but aren’t critical. The biggest factor that will dictate success in solving mysteries is a heightened level of observation and critical thinking. Police officers are trained to observe details. A trained observer will notice even the most minute objects present as well as what’s missing from a crime scene. In addition, police are trained to observe behavior. Observation and critical thinking can be trained, but it can also be an innate skill that can be honed over time.

One of my favorite cozy mystery sleuths is Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple. Miss Marple is an elderly spinster who lives in the village of St. Mary Mead in England. Miss Marple is a nosy, busybody who sees everything that goes on in her village. Her ability to solve mysteries centers around the fact that she has lived her entire life in a small village where she has observed human nature up close and personal. When introduced to someone new, Miss Marple observes and then associates that person with someone in her village with a similar nature. This isn’t unusual. We’ve all met someone who reminded us of someone else, either by the way they look or the way they behave.

From an author’s perspective, the amateur sleuth provides a vast opportunity for intrigue and mischief. Amateur sleuths are not professionals and rarely get from beginning to end without mistakes. In fact, it would be unrealistic if an amateur behaved perfectly with no missteps. Unlike the police, an amateur sleuth isn’t bound by rules of law. They boldly go down paths where a trained professional would never tread. Ignorance often places the amateur in some very sticky situations. However, it’s those situations which can be the most entertaining.

Amateur sleuths in cozy mysteries represent average people who are capable of extraordinary feats. Even without extensive training or specialized skills, the average person can use their wits to solve mysteries. Maddy Montgomery is a social media influencer and fashionista who inherits a bakery. Even though she can’t bake, Maddy uses her skill set so that Baby Cakes bakery not only survives, but thrives. In the fourth Baker Street Mystery, Maddy and her friends use their unique skills to solve the murder of a wedding planner at a bridal expo releases July 29, 2025. Preorder your copy today.

Valerie (V. M.) Burns is an Agatha, Anthony, Edgar, and Next Generation Award-finalist. Writing as V. M. Burns, she is the author of the Mystery Bookshop, Dog Club, and RJ Franklin Mystery series. As Valerie Burns, she writes the Baker Street Mystery series. She also writes the Bailey the Bloodhound Mystery series as Kallie E. Benjamin. In addition to writing, Valerie is an adjunct professor in the Writing Popular Fiction MFA Program at Seton Hill University in Greensburg, PA. Born and raised in northwestern Indiana, Valerie now lives in Northern Georgia with her two poodles. Connect with Valerie at vmburns.com.

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Animals in Cozy Mysteries by Sharon Marchisello

One of the tropes in cozy mysteries is a furry pet, likely a cat or a dog. More often than not, the animal appears on the cover, signaling to the reader that there’s a feel-good story inside about a kind person, and no animals will be harmed. (But a human will probably die.)

Sometimes the animals have magical powers. Sometimes they can talk. Some of them even solve crimes or at least provide essential clues for their human sleuths. But the animals are almost always pets.

My latest mystery, Trap, Neuter, Die, the first in the DeeLo Myer cat rescue mysteries, contains many elements of a traditional cozy: small town, amateur sleuth, clean language. No explicit sex or graphic violence on the page. And there’s an adorable cat on the cover.

But most of the felines in my story are feral cats, not pets. After a traffic infraction, DeeLo is sentenced to community service with a local animal rescue group and assigned to their Trap, Neuter, Vaccinate, Return program (TNVR). TNVR has proven to be the most humane method of controlling the overpopulation of free-roaming cats. The reader learns about how the program works and its benefits along with DeeLo.

However, not everyone likes cats, especially not feral ones, and not everyone agrees that TNVR is a good idea. Some of these cat haters threaten people who feed or otherwise try to improve the lives of feral felines.

On DeeLo’s first night of TNVR duty, she finds the strangled body of a feral cat caretaker and local bookstore owner. Several of the suspects are cat haters who have threatened the victim and the felines.

DeeLo soon learns that the way the county’s animal ordinance is written, the practice of TNVR is illegal. Like many local laws throughout the country, the ordinance in my fictitious Pecan County assumes all cats are pets and thus have owners. Therefore, a rescue volunteer or Good Samaritan who feeds feral cats and/or traps them to be neutered and vaccinated is considered their owner. Pecan County has leash laws and restrictions on the number of “pets” a person can “own.” And, when they release the sterilized cat back to its outdoor home, they are guilty of “animal abandonment.”

Most Pecan County citizens are not aware of the draconian ordinance, and neither the director of Animal Control nor her predecessor have any intention of enforcing it. But one local cop, who has a grudge against DeeLo’s mentor, Catherine Foster, uses the animal abandonment clause to arrest Catherine.

DeeLo is appalled at the law’s stupidity and makes it her mission to get it updated. But the quest for legislative change is harder than she thought it would be. As she seeks allies among Pecan County’s most prominent citizens, she encounters some who might have motives for murder.

Like other cozies, Trap, Neuter, Die actually does feature a pet cat as well as feral felines. DeeLo ends up adopting Manny, the formerly feral cat who lived with the bookstore owner. Manny was the sole witness to his owner’s murder, and, as DeeLo discovers, he’s an excellent judge of character.

Sharon Marchisello is the author of the DeeLo Myer Cat Rescue Mysteries, beginning with Trap, Neuter, Die (2024) from Level Best Books. The second in the series, Trapped and Tested, is scheduled for a September 2025 release. Her other mysteries were published by Sunbury Press: Going Home (2014) and Secrets of the Galapagos (2019). Besides novels, Sharon has published short stories in anthologies and online magazines; one was a Derringer finalist. She has written travel articles, training manuals, screenplays, book reviews, and a nonfiction book (Live Well, Grow Wealth - 2018). She earned a Bachelor's degree in French from the University of Houston and a Master's in Professional Writing from the University of Southern California. She is an active member of Sisters in Crime, the Atlanta Writers Club, and the Hometown Novel Writers Association. Retired after 27 years with Delta Air Lines, Sharon now lives in Peachtree City, Georgia. She serves on the boards of the Fayette Humane Society, Hometown Novel Writers Association, and the Friends of the Peachtree City Library.

Website: sharonmarchisello.com

https://www.facebook.com/SLMarchisello 

https://twitter.com/slmarchisello 

https://www.instagram.com/slmarchisello/

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A Foolproof Plan by Judy Penz Sheluk

For those of you who don’t know me, I’m an author. I’m also an editor, as well as the owner of the independent publishing imprint, Superior Shores Press (SSP). Part of what I publish under the SSP umbrella, beyond my own work, are multi-author anthologies. Number five, Midnight Schemers & Daydream Believers: 22 Stories of Mystery & Suspense, launched on June 18th. 

Here’s the thing. In addition to selecting 20+ stories out of 80+ submissions, I also include a story in each collection that I’ve written. You might think that makes my story a sure win. After all, I’m unlikely to send myself a rejection letter, right?

Okay, fine, if you must know, there was that one time, when I was the volunteer intake coordinator for Bouchercon Toronto’s anthology, Passport to Murder, when I had to send myself a rejection letter. 

Humbling? That goes without saying. But with the judge’s feedback and a few revisions, it eventually found a good home. 

Fast forward to my story, ‘A Foolproof Plan’ in Midnight Schemers & Daydream Believers. It began life as a third-person account of a woman, Amanda, plotting her escape from an unhappy marriage. The title, depending on where it was in the revision process, alternated between ‘Running  Away’ to ‘The Second Last Supper’ to ‘Just Ten More Minutes.’ 

After a couple of well-deserved rejections, I put it in my WIP folder and forgot about it for the next five years. Except I hadn’t, not really. When the time came to write something for Midnight Schemers, and pulled it out of the bin and dusted it off. 

I wish I could tell you that my first attempt at revival was a rousing success. Instead, my beta readers were far from enthusiastic. As for my longtime editor (because here’s a head’s up, even editors can’t edit their own work), she was considerably more forthright: “This is a great ending that deserves a much better story.’

Another writer might have given up, but I’m an optimist. I focused on “great ending” and went back to the keyboard.

I started by changing the point of view from third person to first. That helped, because instead of being an observer on the sidelines, it got me into Amanda’s head. A half-dozen revisions later, and I was ready for another round of feedback.

My editor still liked the ending. My beta readers, not so much. “This is going to be the last story in the collection,” one of them lamented. “Do you really want to leave readers on such a downer?”

I thought about that. True, the ending I’d written, the one my editor had found “great,” was dark. But was there a way where it could be, if not all sunshine and roses and wrapped up in a tidy bow, at least a bit more hopeful? I thought there was, though it would mean bit more tinkering to make it work.

‘A Foolproof Plan’ may bear little resemblance to its earlier iterations, but it’s finally found its way out of the WIP bin and into a book. And all it took was five years and fifteen revisions.

READERS: What’s your favorite sort of ending and why? 

About Midnight Schemers & Daydream Believers: 22 stories of Mystery & Suspense

Desire or desperation, revenge or retribution—how far would you go to realize a dream? The twenty-two authors in this collection explore the possibilities, with predictably unpredictable results.

Featuring stories by Pam Barnsley, Linda Bennett, Clark Boyd, C.W. Blackwell, Amanda Capper, Susan Daly, James Patrick Focarile, Rand Gaynor, Gina X. Grant, Julie Hastrup, Beth Irish, Charlie Kondek, Edward Lodi, Bethany Maines, Jim McDonald, donalee Moulton, Michael Penncavage, Judy Penz Sheluk, KM Rockwood, Peggy Rothschild, Debra Bliss Saenger, and Joseph S. Walker.

Find it at www.books2read.com/midnight-schemers/

Find out more about Judy Penz Sheluk at www.judypenzsheluk.com

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Curious South – Or Five Weird Things About My Writing by Lexi George

Hi, I’m Lexi, and I write fantasy and southern-fried paranormal romance set in Alabama. While there is no right or wrong way to write, here are a few odd things about my so-called process:

Supernatural oddities: In book one of the demon hunting series, Demon Hunting in Dixie, there is a talking dog and a fairy cat. In book two, Demon Hunting in the Deep South, there is a demonically possessed Chihuahua. Book three, Demon Hunting in a Dive Bar, has a vegetarian zombie (a secondary character), and book four has a sentient car. There are six books and a novella in the demon hunting series, and every book has what I call critters, some based on mythology, and others strictly from my imagination. Hannah, the fictional town that is the setting of my books, is a magnet for supernatural creatures.

Hair fetish: I had no idea when I started writing that I apparently have a hair fetish. In book one, Addy, my heroine, gets a supernatural do-over and her hair turns platinum blonde. In Demon Hunting in a Dive Bar, Verbena Skinner, a downtrodden and woefully mistreated secondary character, gets a new “do,” after her hair is ruined, or rurnt, as we say in my neck of the woods, by her evil sisters. Even the pampered debutante heroine in book four, Demon Hunting with a Dixie Deb, cannot escape my follicular obsession. Poor Sassy gets fairyfied, and a side effect of her transformation is glittery hair that sparkles whenever she gets upset. Told you. Hair fetish. 

Food: Anyone who reads my books quickly figures out that I like food, and I like to eat. The local watering hole in my imaginary town is The Sweet Shop, and I enjoy describing Southern food in great detail. Fried chicken. Mashed potatoes swimming in butter. Cornbread with a crunchy crust. Ribs. Pies piled high with lightly toasted meringue. Food is important, and my mama never had to call me to supper twicet. 

Crater: The source of the supernatural woo-woo in my small town is a crater created millions of years ago when a meteor smashed into earth. It so happens there’s a similar crater (without the magic, unfortunately) in the small town where I live, and people come from all over to study the impact site. When I was looking for a reason to explain the woo-woo in my fictional town, the crater seemed a feasible explanation. Write what you know, right?

Characters sometimes just “appear”: I’ll be writing along, thinking I know where the story is going and wham! A character will show up with no warning. It happened in the novella The Bride Wore Demon Dust. My heroine finds out on her wedding day that her husband is an immortal demon hunter. To add insult to injury, she also discovers that the “mugging” he’d saved her from hadn’t been a mugging at all. She’d been attacked by a demon (the demons in my books are interdimensional wraiths, not the biblical kind), and she’s no longer human. Understandably rattled by these revelations, she jumps into a Mary Kay car and runs away from her wedding. A few miles down the road, she has a sugar craving and darts into a convenience store, and that’s when the Random Character Distribution Network kicked in, and the woman behind the counter appeared, fully formed and without any conscious thought on my part. Nicole, AKA “Mullet Woman,” turned out to be such a fun character to write that I brought her back in other books. 

This unplanned character manifestation happened again in Demon Hunting with a Dixie Deb. Grim, my hero, wakes up in the woods after going on a chocolate bender. Turns out my tough, macho demon hunters are impervious to alcohol and drugs, but they get totally smashed on chocolate. A few M&Ms, and the big guys are toast. Grim wakes up feeling like death warmed over and accidentally sets the woods on fire. Ching! The Random Character Distribution Network does its thing, and Taryn Kirvahni, a female demon hunter, appears. Taryn is supercilious and condescending and generally annoys the stew out of Grim. Sibling rivalry at its finest. I’d been kicking around the idea of introducing female demon hunters for quite some time, but I had no idea Taryn was going to make an appearance...until she did. 

 So, there you have it, a few curious things about my writing!  

Lexi George writes fantasy and sexy, snarky paranormal romance set in Alabama about hunky, immortal demon hunters and the Southern women they love. There are six full-length novels in the series, plus a novella. The latest book in the series is Demon Hunting with a Southern Sheriff. She is currently shopping an urban fantasy about an expatriate elf named Gill who runs security for a casino. The casino caters to humans and supernatural types, and things really go sideways when a Regency vampire appears on Gill’s doorstep one night seeking protection from the Bloodfather. Lexi’s books are available at Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, BooksaMillion.com, and indieBoßund.org. Demon Hunting in Dixie, the first book in the demon hunting series, and the novella, The Bride Wore Demon Dust, are also available on Audible. Visit Lexi at her website:  www.lexigeorge.com

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Family Ties and Writing Inspiration by Ann Michelle Harris

As writers we want to tell compelling stories to keep readers turning the pages. One way to do that is to use universal themes to connect emotionally. Whether your primary story is violently intense or adorably cozy, relatability is an important way to drive a reader’s psychological investment.  Family is one of those elements that everyone can relate to—for better or worse. Exhausting sibling rivalries, close ties to a grandmother, an overbearing parent, intense protectiveness of a child, the lack of a family, or the creation of a found family, are all story elements that evoke strong emotions in real life and, consequently, a strong emotional investment in a story.  

Family ties can provide a powerful motivation for either committing or solving a crime. In Wanda Morris’s All Her Little Secrets, the protagonist is a high powered corporate attorney who gets caught up in a murder mystery, but a key element of the character is her relationship with her brother. In my short story “Drive,” a quiet woman’s weekend getaway takes a turn when her famous younger brother goes missing. Audrey prefers a peaceful life in the shadows while her younger brother Joshua is an outgoing and popular musician. Although they couldn’t be more different in personality and life choices, they grew up together and they love each other. When Joshua goes missing, Audrey’s intense search for him has heightened emotion because of the sibling connection. “Drive” is part of the Eighth Guppy Anthology, Gone Fishin’: Crime Takes a Holiday. Since the theme of the anthology is crime on vacation, several of the stories feature variations of family ties or family dysfunction.

Absence of a family or the use of a fake family can also be a useful theme. In my short story, “Changeling,” Shane, a grifter, uses a little homeless girl as a prop to con money from people at a fancy hotel. Shane initially treats the girl as an object for profit, but as the day progresses, she gradually begins to feel a connection to her, as if they really were the mother and daughter they are pretending to be. The story resonates with readers because of the poignancy of the inverted, iconic mother-child relationship.

The idea of a found family is one of my favorite tropes. A found family is a group of unrelated people who grow to love and rely on each other as if they were a family. Found families have an extra layer of comfort, vulnerability, and intentionality. In my novel North, family is a distant memory for the orphaned protagonist and, when he is taken in by a powerful household, he feels like a fish out of water. But soon his new friends become his real family. This adds complex emotions to ground the action and adds depth to the characters.

When stuck for inspiration, you may want to think about family ties in all of their various forms. Family connections can create powerful motivations for the core crime. Or, they can also add much needed complexity and authenticity to characters, whether it’s a cynical police detective with a doting grandmother or an overly curious amateur sleuth with a sister who tries to keep her out of trouble. For better or for worse, family, in its many variations, is a concept to which all readers can relate.

Ann Michelle Harris is a lawyer by day who writes crime, romantic suspense, and fantasy. She was a finalist for the Eleanor Taylor Bland Award from Sisters in Crime. Her crime short stories are featured in the 2023 grifter crime anthology Hook, Line, and Sinker and the 2025 vacation crime anthology Gone Fishin, Crime Takes a Holiday, both from the Sisters in Crime, Guppy Chapter. Her YA fantasy novel North debuted January, 2025. Find her at annmichelleharris.com  

Buy Links:

Gone Fishin’ Crime Takes a Holiday, The Eighth Guppy Anthology 
Hook, Line, and Sinker, The Seventh Guppy Anthology
North

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ShortCon – June 7 – Alexandria, VA

Debra will be attending a special workshop for short story authors.

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Writing Under The Gun by Cindy Goyette

When I wrote my first book, I did so with a gun on my hip. I worked at the New York/Quebec border for ICE (although it wasn’t called that then). I routinely volunteered to work the least favorite shift: midnight to 8 a.m. because I could squeeze in some writing. We had what we called “out ports,” which were small crossings only manned by one person during the night. Traffic slowed after midnight, and once I completed paperwork, I had nothing else to do. This was the late eighties, and I brought my word processor (yes, I’m old) with me and a small black-and-white TV. The TV played Perry Mason reruns. I didn’t watch them, but the noise helped distract me from the unexplained noises coming from the creepy basement. 

That first book is in the closet where it belongs, but I’ve been writing ever since. Not always. I left that job in 1990, and work and family obligations often had to come first, leaving me little writing time. But I wrote when I could. After producing two more closet books, I started a series about my job as a probation officer. After about twenty years of fits and starts, I had something that resembled my 2024 release, OBEY ALL LAWS, A Probation Case Files Mystery. I signed with an agent who ultimately could not find a publisher. Once we parted ways, and in one last ditch effort, I submitted the manuscript to Level Best Books. And, to my surprise, they offered a 3-book contract for the series. Then, they offered me a 3-book contract for my cozy mystery series as well. Book 1: DIAMOND IN THE RUFF, A Wiggle Butt Manor Mystery released in May 2025.

So, after taking my sweet time, even twenty years on one book, to produce a manuscript worthy of publication, I now have…. DEADLINES! What a scary word for something so big, so complex, as a book. And having two series running at the same time means I now have to produce two books a year. I had to change my procrastinating ways.

It helped that I recently retired from my day job. I quickly learned that I needed a schedule. That means butt in chair by a reasonable hour. How long I spend there depends on if I’m writing a first draft or editing. I can edit all day, but creating new content usually drains my brain after a few hours. Bottom line, I need to be disciplined. I’m most successful when I stick to a schedule. My latest effort to be productive looks like this. Day starts at 7 a.m. Coffee and social media—I know, but it's a hard habit to break. 8ish I head to the gym 5 days a week. When I get home, it’s writing time for most of the rest of the day. If I’m not creating new content, I’m editing, reading stuff for my critique partners or the thing I hate most, marketing. I’ve stopped saying I’m retired because I’m working harder than ever. And, if I’m lucky, I’ll be doing this for the rest of my life. If it ever feels to be too much, I look at my reviews. Knowing readers are connecting with my stories makes it all worthwhile.

Former law enforcement officer Cindy Goyette loves dogs and the Pacific Northwest. She combines these things in her first cozy mystery, DIAMOND IN THE RUFF, A Wiggle Butt Manor Mystery. She’s also published The Probation Case Files Mystery series, OBEY ALL LAWS and EARLY TERMINATION and has a short story in the anthology LOST & LOADED, A Gun’s Tale. OBEY ALL LAWS won an award from PSWA for the best suspense and was a Lefty finalist for the best debut mystery. She lives in Washington State with her husband and two Cocker Spaniels.

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