Barbara Ross's Blog, page 10

Why We Do What We Do

by Barb on a gray day in Portland, Maine

It’s been a tough week that followed a tough month that falls in a tough year. Let’s face it, it’s been tough.

Which makes me wonder why I sit at my desk and write stories-stories that by all definitions are light entertainment, intended to take people away from both their daily concerns and their existential angst.

I was having one of those moments of doubt when I happened to read a New York Times Magazine article about The Good Place, a TV show I like very much because it is both smart and intelligent, which happens to be its dichotomy, the tightrope it walks.

The article revealed, among other things, that the showrunner, Michael Schur, has this quote from David Foster Wallace in his office.

“Look, man, we’d probably most of us agree that these are dark times, and stupid ones, but do we need fiction that does nothing but dramatize how dark and stupid everything is? In dark times, the definition of good art would seem to be art that locates and applies CPR to those elements of what’s human and magical that still live and glow despite the times’ darkness.”

I try not to let Wallace’s suicide color my feelings about the words, nor the fact that I am not writing, and will never write, a 1000+ page postmodern encyclopedic novel that will be hailed as one of the great works of the last hundred years. Despite all these caveats, Wallace’s quote captures what I’m trying to do with my little books, the message that is at the heart of them.

(The quote is longer, and the article is obviously longer, and I recommend it. “The Ultimate Sitcom,” New York Times Magazine, by Sam Anderson, October 2, 2018.)

I’ve also been thinking about the words of Richard Curtis, the writer Four Weddings and a Funeral, Love Actually, About Time, Notting Hill, and so many other romantic comedies. I am an unabashed fan of these movies. The first three might be on my top ten list. Curtis has made this statement other times in slightly different ways, but I found this particular quote on YouTube from a Screenwriters Lecture he gave for the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) in 2014.

“I’m sometimes puzzled by the fact that when I write films about people falling in love they are critically taken to be sentimental and unrealistic. Yet, four million people in London are in love tonight and today, all around the world, hundreds of thousands of people will fall in love. But when someone writes a film about a soldier going AWOL and breaking into a flat and murdering a young pregnant woman, something that has happened twice in history, that film will be described as ‘searingly realistic.’ I don’t see how that’s true.”

This bit begins in the video at 27:06. The quote is longer and the whole video is worth a listen. Writers may particularly enjoy the writing tips he gives at the end.

And finally, below is a conversation that appeared on my Facebook wall last December, just a few days before Christmas. I have blanked out the names because it was obviously a very personal conversation.

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This, then, is why we do what we do. And why we need to keep doing it, even when we are disheartened and discouraged and distracted and feeling like we should do something more important. Sometimes the human thing is not to focus laser-like on what’s wrong, but to look to the good. To focus on our common humanity.

My life experience has told me that the vast amount of people I have ever met or dealt with are good. Not everyone, by any stretch, but most. They are not without travails, burdens, fears, car-sized blindspots and canyon-sized flaws. But they try, in the best ways they know how, to be good.

That goodness is what I choose to reflect in my little pieces of art.

#Giveaway–Steamed Open–Maine Clambake Mystery #7

by Barb, back from Bouchercon and catching her breath

Hi All! Advance Reader Copies for the seventh Maine Clambake Mystery, Steamed Open, are here. Comment below to enter to win one of two signed copies.

I’m excited about this new book which focuses on the tasty mollusk for which the clambake is named. Also, Maine coastal property rights. (Not what you expect them to be.) And, we finally get more of Julia’s boyfriend’s Chris’s family story.

Here’s the blurb:

[image error]It’s summertime in Busman’s Harbor, Maine, and the clamming is easy—or it was until a mysterious new neighbor blocks access to the beach, cutting off the Snowden Family Clambake’s supply. Julia Snowden is just one of many townspeople angered by Bartholomew Frick’s decision. But which one of them was angry enough to kill?

 

Beachcombers, lighthouse buffs, and clammers are outraged after Frick puts up a gate in front of his newly inherited mansion. When Julia urges him to reconsider, she’s the last to see him alive—except the person who stabs him in the neck with a clam rake. As she pores through a long list of suspects, Julia meets disgruntled employees, rival heirs, and a pair of tourists determined to visit every lighthouse in America. They all have secrets, and Julia will have to work fast to expose the guilty party—or see this season’s clam harvest dry up for good.

The book comes out December 18. But for now, two lucky winners will get an early peek. Watch also for later giveaways on my Facebook page here, and on Goodreads, here.

Good luck and thanks for entering!

Readers: Leave a comment to be entered to win one of two Advance Reader Copies of Steamed Open. Giveaway closes September 15, 2018 at midnight EDT. US and Canada entries only. Thanks!

A Giveaway–Advance Reader Copies of Yule Log Murder

by Barb, rushing to go on vacation next week

[image error]Yes, it’s that time of year–advance reader copies of Yule Log Murder are here, and I’m giving away two copies, one each to a lucky commenter below.

Yule Log Murder is a holiday novella collection with stories by Leslie Meier, Lee Hollis, and me, each one centering around a Bûche de Noël, the traditional Christmas Yule log cake. I had a blast writing mine, which focuses on an eccentric neighbor, a glorious, light-filled Christmas display at the Botanical Garden, and an incredibly complicated recipe.

Here’s the full description:

Fresh-baked cookies, pies, and cakes can warm even the frostiest Christmases in coastal Maine. But there’s little room for holiday cheer when murder is the new seasonal tradition . . . 

YULE LOG MURDER by LESLIE MEIER

Lucy Stone is thrilled to be cast as an extra in a festive period film—until the set becomes a murder scene decorated in blood and buttercream icing. Returning to her role as sleuth, Lucy dashes to restore peace to Tinker’s Cove, unwrap a cold-hearted criminal’s MO, and reveal how one ornate Yule log cake could possibly cause so much drama.

DEATH BY YULE LOG by LEE HOLLIS

Hayley Powell’s holidays aren’t off to a very merry start. Not only has her daughter brought Conner—an infuriatingly perfect new beau—home to Bar Harbor, but a local troublemaker has been found dead with traces of her signature Yule log cake on his body. As Conner becomes the prime murder suspect, Hayley must put aside her mixed feelings to identify the real killjoy.

LOGGED ON by BARBARA ROSS

Realizing she can’t make a decent Bûche de Noël to save her life, Julia Snowden enlists the help of her eccentric neighbor, Mrs. St. Onge, in hopes of mastering the dessert for Christmas. With everyone in the old woman’s circle missing or deceased, however, it’s up to Julia to stop the deadly tidings before she’s the next Busman’s Harbor resident to meet a not-so-jolly fate.

Kick back with something sweet and indulge in three bite-sized Yuletide tales too good to resist!

Readers: Do you have a holiday recipe you particularly treasure? Comment below for a chance to win.

The Real Cabbage Island Clambake

by Barb, enjoying the most beautiful day on the coast of Maine

My kids and their kid gathered with us in Boothbay Harbor for the Fourth of July this year. One request from them all was a visit to the Cabbage Island Clambake, the inspiration for the Snowden Family Clambake in my Maine Clambake Mysteries.

I’ve written before about the difference between the real Clambake and my fictional one. You can read about that here.

But this year there wasn’t a hint of a research trip. It was a happy day with family. I thought I’d take you on a photo tour below.

Friday started out rainy and windy, but it was the only day all seven of us were available, so we pressed on.

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The crowd lined up in the rain and ready to get on the Bennie Alice

But then the sun came out just as we got to the island.

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We grabbed a table under the covered porch, but plenty of people wiped off picnic tables and settled outside.

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People getting their food

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The clambake meal

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After the meal

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Badminton on the lawn

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One of the island cats–there are four

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Employees up on a platform washing the trays the meal come on

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The little house the the dock. (The one in the books is slightly bigger.)

Time to go.

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The owners, brothers Bob and Wayne Moore see the Bennie Alice off

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On the boat ride home

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Passing the egret’s nest

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Good-bye Cabbage Island

Readers: Did you do anything fun for the Fourth of July?

Enter to Win: The Wickeds Summer Reads Giveaway

To celebrate the start of summer, the Wickeds are giving away a beach bag stuffed with beach essentials and twelve Wicked books!

[image error]YOU can win

These wicked good reads…

* STOWED AWAY by Barbara Ross

* DEATH OF AN AMBITIOUS WOMAN by Barbara Ross

* BLUFFING IS MURDER by Tace Baker

* CALLED TO JUSTICE by Edith Maxwell

* DEATH OVER EASY by Maddie Day (Advanced Reader Copy!)

* TAGGED FOR DEATH by Sherry Harris

* I KNOW WHAT YOU BID LAST SUMMER by Sherry Harris

* JUST KILLING TIME by Julianne Holmes

* WHISPERS OF WARNING by Jessica Estevao

* WHISPERS BEYOND THE VEIL by Jessica Estevao

* MURDER IN AN ENGLISH VILLAGE by Jessica Ellicott

* PURRDER SHE WROTE by Cate Conte

[image error]Plus this cool beach stuff

…a beach tote, beach blanket, waterproof cell phone case, water bottle, cover up, flip flops, and sunglasses!

Follow the link to fill out the form to enter

We’re running the giveaway a little differently this time. To enter, please click on the link and fill out the form here.

(If the link doesn’t work, your can cut and past the url. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf3KOA_to8G-khCFUMszYlHSUlurmhYmH5gXh7bcK_uxtvNdQ/viewform

Please, one entry per person
The contest ends at midnight EDT on Wednesday, June 20.
The winner’s name will be announced on the blog and via social media on Thursday, June 21.

Wherever you do your summer reading–on the beach, by the lake, in the mountains, by the pool, or in a comfy chair by an open window, the Wickeds promise you hours of happy reading. Good luck!

I Just Can’t Talk to You

by Barb, in Boothbay Harbor on a gorgeous spring day (finally)

I’ve noticed lately that many of my relationships are defined by technology preferences–both my own and those of the people I communicate with.

[image error]I am an e-mail person–pure and simple. I’ve written before on the blog about how much I hate the phone. Phone calls require synchronous communication–both people have to be on at the same time for meaningful information to be transferred–which means it interrupts whatever you are doing when the call happens, and I hate to be interrupted. I accept that this is a personality quirk. I hate sudden changes of plan, too. I have the whatever the opposite of ADD is. Also, I hate that when you’re talking on the phone, you can’t see the other person’s face and judge it for comprehension, attention, acceptance and so on.

So I hate the phone. And unfortunately, has caused many of my relationships with my phone-preferring friends to drift away. I’ve stayed closest to the distant people in my life who prefer my main mode of communication.

[image error]To me, e-mail was a miracle. It doesn’t have to be synchronous and, as a writerly person, I have time to craft my message. The pressure is off in all kinds of ways. When we first got e-mail, there was quite a long period, over a decade, when it could only be used for internal communication at work. It was a huge improvement over copying memos and sticking them in people’s physical mailboxes, and later a great way to communicate with far-flung colleagues. Then, miracle of miracles, e-mail moved outside the company so we could communicate with customers, suppliers, investors. Fantastic! My social use of e-mail increased on a pace with my use of it at work.

[image error]In a final miraculous step, e-mail appeared on my phone. That formerly loathed device. As a Chief Operating Officer at two higher ed technology companies, Customer Support ultimately reported to me. As you can imagine, our busy season was at the start of the fall semester in the northern hemisphere. From early August when many state college systems in the American south went back to work, through the end of September when the UK universities came online, I was virtually chained to my desk. But when I could follow the long e-mail support threads on my phone to monitor what was going on, I could go anywhere and do anything as long as no real emergency was taking place.

[image error]Alas, as with all technologies, the world has moved on. I know that if I send an evite to a family event, I have to text all my nieces and nephews to GO LOOK AT YOUR E-MAIL, because they never check it. My son, in his mid-thirties, was complaining that the youngest member of his Dungeons and Dragons group, in his early twenties, has asked that they not communicate about dates and places for games via e-mail because he doesn’t know how to use it.

And the number of ways people reach out is a problem for me. Sometimes I have to search all over, through my Facebook private messages, my Facebook fanpage private messages, Twitter and Instragram direct messages, and my Goodreads mailbox, looking for a message from a fan I know I want to get back to. Don’t get me wrong, I love getting fan mail, but it always puts me in mind of Drew Barrymore’s lament in He’s Just Not That Into You:

I have learned to text a fair amount, though I’m not good at keeping my phone by my side at all times, which my family finds mega-frustrating. I’ll adapt. I’ll learn, but I think I’ll always default to technologies that support my personality and don’t fight it.

Readers: What about you? Do you have a preferred mode of communication? What and why? Do you find it hard to keep in touch with people who have different preferences? Spill it all here.

A Double Cover Reveal!

by Barb, on her first full day back in Portland, Maine

I’m excited to reveal two, count-em two new covers to you today.

The first is the cover for Steamed Open, Maine Clambake Mystery #7, coming December 24 (or 25–Amazon has one date for the mass market paperback and another for the Kindle version), 2018. Either way, an auspicious date, just in time to cozy up in front of the fire as the holiday madness dies down.

[image error]Here’s the description.

It’s summertime in Busman’s Harbor, Maine, and the clamming is easy—or it was until a mysterious new neighbor blocks access to the beach, cutting off the Snowden Family Clambake’s supply. Julia Snowden is just one of many townspeople angered by Bartholomew Frick’s decision. But which one of them was angry enough to kill?

 

Beachcombers, lighthouse buffs, and clammers are outraged after Frick puts up a gate in front of his newly inherited mansion. When Julia urges him to reconsider, she’s the last to see him alive—except the person who stabs him in the neck with a clam rake. As she pores through a long list of suspects, Julia meets disgruntled employees, rival heirs, and a pair of tourists determined to visit every lighthouse in America. They all have secrets, and Julia will have to work fast to expose the guilty party—or see this season’s clam harvest dry up for good.

The second cover is for Yule Log Murder. This is a collection of three holiday novellas, by Leslie Meier, Lee Hollis and me, the same trio who wrote novellas for 2016’s Eggnog Murder.

[image error]Here’s the description.

Fresh-baked cookies, pies, and cakes can warm even the frostiest Christmases in coastal Maine. But there’s little room for holiday cheer when murder is the new seasonal tradition . . . 

YULE LOG MURDER by LESLIE MEIER

Lucy Stone is thrilled to be cast as extra in a festive period film—until the set becomes a murder scene decorated in blood and buttercream icing. Returning to her role as sleuth, Lucy dashes to restore peace to Tinker’s Cove, unwrap a cold-hearted criminal’s MO, and reveal how one ornate yule log cake could possibly cause so much drama.

DEATH BY YULE LOG by LEE HOLLIS

Hayley Powell’s holidays aren’t off to a very merry start. Not only has her daughter brought Connor—an infuriatingly perfect new beau—home to Bar Harbor, but a local troublemaker has been found dead with traces of her signature yule log cake on his body. As Connor becomes the prime murder suspect, Hayley must put aside her mixed feelings to identify the real killjoy.

LOGGED ON by BARBARA ROSS

Realizing she can’t make a decent Bûche de Noël to save her life, Julia Snowden enlists the help of her eccentric neighbor, Mrs. St. Onge, in hopes of mastering the dessert for Christmas. With everyone in the old woman’s circle missing or deceased, however, it’s up to Julia to stop the deadly tidings before she’s the next Busman’s Harbor resident to meet a not-so-jolly fate.

Kick back with something sweet and indulge in three bite-sized yuletide tales too good to resist!

Readers: What do you think of the covers? I loved writing both the novel and the novella and hope you enjoy them.

Hit Lit

by Barb, winding down her days in Key West

[image error]I’m reading a fascinating book called Hit Lit by Edgar-award winner James W. Hall, the author of fourteen mystery novels featuring Thorn, an off-the-grid loner in Key Largo. Hall teaches writing and literature at Florida International University and he was one of Sherry Harris’s first writing teachers. Knowing that, I went to hear him speak at the Key West Library last year.

His latest book is a thriller with a female protagonist and is published by Thomas and Mercer, the Amazon imprint. I found both of these choices interesting–the female protagonist and the publisher. But I found the premise of his book Hit Lit: Cracking the Code of the Twentieth Century’s Biggest Bestsellers even more intriguing. Over years of teaching popular fiction, Hall and his students investigated what elements made a book a mega-bestseller. They took the books apart and put them together again, looking for commonalities and differences.

In Hit Lit, Hall examines twelve of them. None of these books are ordinary bestsellers. Most have sold tens of millions of copies. They are

Gone with the Wind, 1936, Margaret Mitchell
Peyton Place, 1956, Grace Metlalious
To Kill a Mockingbird, 1960, Harper Lee
The Valley of the Dolls, 1966, Jacqueline Susann
The Godfather, 1969, Mario Puzo
The Exorcist, 1971, William Peter Blatty
Jaws, 1974, Peter Benchley
The Dead Zone, 1979, Stephen King
The Hunt for Red October, 1984, Tom Clancy
The Firm, 1991 John Grisham
The Bridges of Madison County, 1992, Robert James Waller
The Da Vinci Code, 2003, Dan Brown

So already the list is interesting, right? Because some of these giant bestsellers are still with us, whereas others I would guess are rarely read. Despite the inclusion of The Da Vinci Code, Hit Lit, which was published in 2012, focuses on bestsellers of the 20th century, which is perhaps why there is no mention of J.K Rowling. Or maybe Hall didn’t think it would be interesting to have his students analyze books they probably already knew well. In fact, there’s no fantasy on the list at all, though The Dead Zone is about pre-cognition and The Exorcist is about satanic possession.

Hall finds twelve features that all these books have. I won’t go through them all, just a few that I found the most interesting.

The “protagonists share a high level of emotional intensity that results in gutsy and surprising deeds. These actions may not always take the form of swashbuckling heroics, but rest assured, not one of these heroes or heroines sits idly on the sidelines pondering or strikes endless matches to watch them burn while stewing about the great issues of the universe…Our heroes and heroines act. They act decisively.”

This isn’t much of a revelation and indeed it’s one of the early observations of the book. Almost a gimmee. I’ve thought about this a lot in the context of cozy mysteries. I have noticed in my own writing and in others that once the protagonist commits to the hunt, the book comes alive. Her relentless forward motion drives the same in the book. When I critique manuscripts for unpublished writers the most common issue I see is an amateur would-be sleuth wandering through her day, “observing” things that will later become clues, but not driving the action of the story. These manuscripts are always flat.

The idea of relentless forward motion goes along with Hall’s twin observation about emotional intensity. The protagonists in these books believe in something intensely and are willing to fight for it. We may not agree with Scarlett’s romantic notions of antebellum plantation life, but we get the idea of home and why that’s worth fighting for.

These books tell a human story set against a sweeping backdrop. The story itself may be on a small scale–an immigrant family making it in the new world, a young girl coming of age in a small southern town, a top Harvard Law grad starting his first job. But while the story is small, the canvas is big–organized crime, racial upheaval, the “greed is good” ethos of the 1980s.

I thought this was a fascinating observation. It reminded me of a more recent bestseller, Gone Girl. The book is inextricably anchored in the aftermath of the recent recession. Both lead characters are journalists, and junk journalists at that. The dislocation of the move from print media to digital, accelerated and exacerbated by the recession, results in both losing their jobs at the same time Amy’s parents lose their money and hers. Since both main characters are journalists, they knew how to manipulate the media, as it goes through its own changes. Small story. Huge backdrop.

The Golden country. The idea of a beautiful home, a beautiful time and an inevitable exile. Tara before the war. Michael Corleone in Sicily. Scout’s innocent summer days with Gem and Dill.

The Eden story is never far away, and all of these books include an element of it. I wondered how, in more recent books, where the action must start right away, authors painted this picture. As Hall tells us, in The Firm, Grisham begins with the protagonist Mitch McDeere’s wife returning to their law school student apartment. He tells her of his great (too great, as it turns out) job offer. They eat Chinese food and drink white wine. This all happens in a few paragraphs. The call back in the book to this Eden is a single sentence, when Mitch says to his wife, “I think we were happier in the two-room student apartment in Cambridge.” It’s brief, but it is there.

In cozies the Eden is our communities before the murder, which may play out in chapters or a half a scene. The murder upends that and the hero must find the snake and chase him out. Though we know things will never quite be the same.

As you can tell, I really enjoyed Hit Lit and may have more things to say on it another time. It’s written in a highly accessible style and packed with examples. At times, Hall really has to strain to prove all twelve books have all twelve elements, but I forgave that because I was buying what he was selling.

Readers: What do you think? Do mega-bestsellers have common elements? Remember it’s not about whether you liked the books, it’s about why they sold.

Cover Reveal and a Timeline Problem

by Barb, who’s enjoying a relaxing time in Key West with fellow Wicked Sherry Harris and her husband Bob

[image error]First of all–a cover reveal. Here is the artwork for Yule Log Murder, the holiday novella collection I’m in with Leslie Meier and Lee Hollis coming out October 30, 2018. I really like the cover, especially the effect with skeleton in the yule log cake.

If anything my name is even harder to read than on the first anthology cover, which Amazon, depending on the view, says was written by “Leslie Meier and Lee Hollis” or by “Leslie Meier, Lee Hollis and another author.” (Note: There are fewer letters in Barbara Ross than in “another author.” It might as well say, “and another less famous author.”)

I joke, I joke. I really do like the cover.

[image error]When Kensington asked me to write the first holiday novella, “Nogged Off,” in Eggnog Murder, I was thrilled. Fortuitously, I had planned a gap between Fogged Inn, which takes place the week after Thanksgiving, and Iced Under, which takes place in February. “Nogged Off,” slid right in, putting Christmas between November and February, as it so often is.

With “Logged On,” my story in Yule Log Murder, I wasn’t so lucky. It will come out after Stowed Away, which takes place in June, and before Steamed Open, which takes place in August. I think I’m even going to slide another book, Maine Clambake #8, in after that, which means Yule Log Murder will be published before Steamed Open and Maine Clambake #8, but will take place after the events in those books.

I THINK I have avoided major spoilers. I hope that dedicated Maine Clambake readers will get a tiny, tantalizing glimpse into the future. Of course, a lot of the readers of these novella collections aren’t my regular readers. They are fans of Leslie Meier or Lee Hollis or fans of Christmas-based stories, or of novellas. So they won’t be bothered by the timeline issues. And a lot of my regular readers won’t read the novella, so they’ll be fine, too.

My biggest challenge is how to position the story in places that give lists of series books in order. I characterized Eggnog Murder as Maine Clambake 4.5, which it truly was. But should I position Yule Log Murder as Maine Clambake 6.5 or 8.5? And do I have to wait until 7 and 8 come out for 8.5 to make any sense?

For those of you who are dedicated series readers, do you have “feelings” about this? Should I address the timeline in the readers’ letter that comes at the end of the novella? (It’s sort of like the Acknowledgments in the books.) How should I position the story?

I loved writing this story. I like working in the novella length and Christmas is my absolute favorite holiday. I hope you enjoy it, too. Whatever order you read it it.

I Write Cozies, Not Cutesies

by Barb, in Key West where it’s been “freezing”–50s at night–and all the locals are bundled up in parkas and –shock of shock–wearing socks!

[image error]If you follow me here or in other places, you know I’ve always waved the cozy flag loud and proud. It wasn’t a choice I consciously made, but when I found out my second published novel, first in the Maine Clambake Mystery series, would be positioned as a cozy, I decided to embrace the label and not try to dodge it as I’d seen some other authors do.

The phrase in the title of this post was proclaimed by Jessie when the six Wickeds were together for a long outdoor lunch on a beautiful day in October, discussing the plight of another cozy author. (Important note: Not one of the Wickeds.) Despite years of success, she’d recently moved to a new publisher, as so many have over the past couple of years.

The editorial comments she was getting from her publisher (Important note: Not any of the Wickeds publishers) were challenging to implement, but more important, were insulting to the entire concept of cozies. With every “note” her book was becoming less–less nuanced, less layered, and much less interesting.

We’ve all heard rumors of these cozy “rules” for years, but I had never seen them consciously deployed. To wit:

1) There can only be one body.

2) The victim must be annoying, sneaky or shifty so they “deserve” it. (I reject this one completely. No one deserves to be murdered, particularly not for cutting the line at the Post Office or criticizing someone’s baked goods.)

3) There must be a sidekick and the sidekick must be funny.

4) You can’t have multiple points of view, multiple timelines, or multiple anything besides suspects.

5) The vocabulary must be simple, dead simple. Readers should never encounter a regionalism or understand a word from context.

It seemed like our friend’s editor had a stereotypical idea of the cozy. Worse, it seemed like the people at this publishing house had a condescending attitude toward cozy readers.

It is true that cozies are the comfort food of the crime fiction world. But like good mac and cheese, cozies don’t have to be bland, or made the same way by everyone, every time. And it’s not true, in my experience, that cozy readers read the books because they are incapable of reading anything “more challenging.” They choose to read the books, often in times of stress or simply at the end of a long, busy day. On most cozy online boards when fans discuss the other things they read, it runs the absolute gamut.

So what makes a mystery a cozy?

Those of you who’ve followed me know I don’t like seeing the genre defined by what’s NOT in the books. You know–little swearing, no graphic violence or sex. After all, before I write a word, my books contain none of those things. Yet my editor won’t accept 300 blank pages. There have to be words that add up to a story. It’s true that some readers are specifically looking for the absence of such elements, but most readers are looking for the presence of something, not just the absence.

What are these readers looking for? And, important to my writing journey, what am I trying to do? To say?

The answer came to me as I listened to a podcast where Tom and Lorenzo tried, with difficulty, to describe their love for the movie, “The Big Sick.”

At the beginning of their very positive review, Tom says, “At it’s heart it’s just a light family medical drama.”

But later, after some analysis, responding to Lorenzo, he says, “I feel bad saying it’s light. I think you’re right. I say it, too. But I think it makes it sound like it’s not nuanced. I think when we say light, we mean deeply humanistic. Everyone is afforded some level of dignity and voice. It’s a really pleasing experience for the soul.”

(You can find the entire review here. The part about The Big Sick starts at 46 minutes.)

When I heard this, I thought, “Yes!” Everyone afforded their own dignity and voice. A pleasing experience for the soul.

I haven’t quite achieved that yet, especially the “everyone” part, but that is where I’m trying to go.

As far as I’m concerned, my contract with my readers is this: There will be a crime. There will be a solution. You will want to turn every page. It will be a pleasing experience for your soul.

Everything else is up for grabs.

Readers: Discuss. Cozies. Cozy readers. Reader expectations. The Big Sick. Go!