The Ideal Audience
Last night I was the guest of one of the book groups in my town. They had read MURDER, SHE KNIT. It's the first in the Knit & Nibble series and several more are out now, but if readers don't already know about the series it's fun to start with the first one--and that's what the group's leader had decided they would do.
They all recognized that Arborville is a thinly veiled version of the suburban New Jersey town where we all live. I don't base my characters on specific people and I only include the sorts of events common to any town like mine: church rummage sales, town festivals, little theater productions, and the like. But my town has a flock of wild turkeys, which is not a feature of every typical suburban New Jersey town, and the group enjoyed recognizing them in MURDER, SHE KNIT.
One group member asked me if I killed the mayor in any of my books! I imagine she was thinking of our particular mayor, who is unpopular in certain circles. I actually do kill a mayor in A FATAL YARN--but not for any of the reasons my fellow townspeople might imagine when thinking of our current mayor, whom I know barely anything about.
The group also had many ideas about local institutions I could focus on in subsequent books. Apparently the town pool festers with cliques and resentments--which I had no idea of. I haven't been near the pool since my son was about nine and I used to sit in a lawn chair and read while he swam. He just turned forty.
So I'm pondering. Should I make Pamela decide she needs more exercise and swimming would be ideal? Should I have her enlist Bettina and Wilfred in her fitness quest? A pool setting would offer a very obvious method for murder--but how could I bring knitting into the story?
They all recognized that Arborville is a thinly veiled version of the suburban New Jersey town where we all live. I don't base my characters on specific people and I only include the sorts of events common to any town like mine: church rummage sales, town festivals, little theater productions, and the like. But my town has a flock of wild turkeys, which is not a feature of every typical suburban New Jersey town, and the group enjoyed recognizing them in MURDER, SHE KNIT.
One group member asked me if I killed the mayor in any of my books! I imagine she was thinking of our particular mayor, who is unpopular in certain circles. I actually do kill a mayor in A FATAL YARN--but not for any of the reasons my fellow townspeople might imagine when thinking of our current mayor, whom I know barely anything about.
The group also had many ideas about local institutions I could focus on in subsequent books. Apparently the town pool festers with cliques and resentments--which I had no idea of. I haven't been near the pool since my son was about nine and I used to sit in a lawn chair and read while he swam. He just turned forty.
So I'm pondering. Should I make Pamela decide she needs more exercise and swimming would be ideal? Should I have her enlist Bettina and Wilfred in her fitness quest? A pool setting would offer a very obvious method for murder--but how could I bring knitting into the story?
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