As a mentor in Seton Hill University’s Writing Popular Fiction, MFA program, I often recommend “craft” books for students in the program. This means I get to read a lot of books about writing. As a cozy mystery author, I feel it’s important to read not only other cozy mystery books to stay abreast of what’s going on in my genre, but it’s also important to read craft books for my personal development as a writer. So, I was thrilled when I learned that Melissa Bourbon had a new craft book. If you like cozy mysteries and you’re not familiar with Melissa Bourbon, just head over to Amazon and check out her book list. Melissa Bourbon is the author of over thirty-five books. YES, you read that right. THIRTY-FIVE!!!! So, she’s someone who knows her stuff. So, I read her latest book, WRITING A COZY MYSTERY CASE FILES: A STEP-BY-STEP FIELD GUIDE.
The advertisement for the book promises a lot, but unlike a lot of craft books, this one delivers. The best part (IMO) are the examples and practical exercises. Bourbon not only explains a concept, like how to develop your cozy mystery hook. She gives you examples of cozy authors and books where the specific hook is done well. Then, she gives you an exercise to work through how to develop your own hook. If you’re looking for a craft book on how to write a Cozy Mystery, check out Writing a Cozy Mystery Case Files: A Step-by-Step Field Guide by Melissa Bourbon.
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Understanding the many elements of a cozy mystery is like putting together a jigsaw puzzle. How do the sleuth, victim, villain, and suspects work together in the context of a cozy mystery plot? How do you mine the news for story ideas, and then mold them into something original? What are red herrings and how do you misdirect the reader while hiding the villain in plain sight?
Writing a Cozy Mystery: Case Files, a Step-by-Step Field Guide will help you:
~Become a book sleuth
~Create dossiers for your sleuth, victim, and villain
~Populate your sleuth’s world with suspects
~Develop your cozy hook
~Build your setting
~Come up with a punny title
~Craft the crime
~Master clues and red herrings
~Build the investigation
~And more…
Melissa Bourbon, National and #1 Amazon Bestselling Author of more than 30 mystery novels and the founder of WriterSpark Academy has taken her experience and proven process to create Writing a Cozy Mystery: Case Files. Get ready to commit murder…