I love writing my Malone
mystery series and working on a new book for the series is always exciting.
Plotting the story line, choosing the setting and showing how my characters
change and grow from one book to the next is a welcome challenge. My characters aren’t the only ones who grow
with each book though. As a writer, I learn new things about writing every day
and I constantly work to improve my craft. My goal is to make each book better
than the one before it.
My current WIP (work in progress) will be the fourth novel in my series. In it, Ann Malone Kern, the main character, and her two young children, Danielle and Davey, leave Cincinnati and fly to South Carolina for a much needed vacation. Ann’s older sister, Marnie, who lives in Mt. Pleasant, has rented a condo on Fripp Island for the four of them.
I chose Fripp Island because, having visited there, I felt it had the “atmosphere” for the story I’m telling. It's very important to me to "know" a place if I'm going to write about it. So, in addition to spending time on Fripp and taking lots of pictures, I’ve supplemented my knowledge of the island with research. Yes, my books are fiction but I want them to be accurate too.
In this fourth book,
Ann wants nothing more than to gaze at the ocean and to relax. I plan to give
her a little time to do that but I’m also placing her in the middle of solving
a murder. Sorry, Ann, maybe next time. Or, maybe not. After all, I do write
mysteries.
