Blog Tour Guest Post from Joy Preble: Crafting the Mystery

Soho Press, May 2014.

Writing THE SWEET DEAD LIFE series, which includes THE A-WORD, definitely required understanding how to craft a mystery. Some readers assumed in book one that the main mystery was Casey becoming an angel. And although that was definitely part of the suspense, the real unknown is what has been happening to the Samuels family and why and how it connects to something larger and more nefarious that will inform the global conspiracy in both books. Jenna, it turns out, might have a very important role in things to come. So important that there are powers that might want her out of the picture, if only by disrupting her life. That larger series arc combines with numerous more personal mysteries: Where did Jenna’s father go in book one? How did Amber Velasco – Casey’s angel boss—actually die? Who’s behind the weaponized memory drugs? What motivates new, head honcho angel Bo Shivers? And lots more.

Thus my biggest job in these two books was to make sure that the character and individual novel arcs meshed with the series arc and that everything paced itself to keep the reader’s attention. Plus in THE A-WORD, we have a love story: the budding relationship between Jenna and Ryan Sloboda, juxtaposed against a number of failed or failing love relationships. Casey’s doomed love with cheerleader Lanie Phelps. Lanie’s rebound love with football player Donnie Sneed. Amber Velasco’s former relationship with Terry McClain. Bo Shivers’ sad romantic past. The failing marriage of Jenna and Casey’s parents.

I loved working with so many threads! And the trick, I think, is to outline. ‘Pantsers’ beware: if you don’t know where you’re headed in the end of a mystery, chances are you will write yourself into a corner before you get there. You want to plant clues, but they can’t be too obvious. You want to misdirect on occasion –a bigger issue in my forthcoming FINDING PARIS (Balzer and Bray, 2015). I don’t worry so much about readers figuring out the bad guy as much as I do that his/her motivations and secrets are set up and achieve a satisfying payoff. And I did feel that first person past tense was the best POV for these books because the narrative could be immediate but with that extra bit of distance that allows Jenna to ponder a bit in her signature journal entries.

I hope everyone enjoys THE A-WORD as much as I enjoyed writing it!

Joy Preble. Photo by Toppel Photography.

Joy Preble is the author of the popular and highly acclaimed DREAMING ANASTASIA series as well as THE SWEET DEAD LIFE, the prequel to THE A-WORD. A former English teacher, Joy grew up in Chicago and is a graduate of Northwestern University. She is now a full-time writer and lives with her family in Texas, where she has learned to say “y’all” without any hint of irony.