A Different Kind of Cozy

"Secrets in Storyville," a small town mystery, is the first book in a new series and it's a different kind of cozy mystery. There is no murder. The mystery is the family secret the main character, Kate, discovers. The idea for the book came to me after I watched an episode of "Finding Your Roots" on PBS. 

Kate Morgan, a single mother, lives in the small town of Storyville, Ohio where she grew up. A want-to-be author, she works as a sales clerk in the town’s only department store doing what she describes as “a job a monkey could do.” Although she’s bored with her job, she’s reluctant to consider making any major changes in her life. However, she’s about to find out that change is inevitable.

When Kate’s ten-year-old daughter, Mandy, tells the family she plans to do a family tree for a school project, the negative reaction of Kate’s parents and grandmother shocks her but also arouses her curiosity. Why are they so against Mandy’s project? Surely her family is too “normal” to have any skeletons in their closet.

Kate decides to support her daughter even if that means defying her parents. As she searches for the truth, she discovers some long buried family secrets that, if she decides to reveal them, will change her life and the lives of the people she loves - forever. 

 

5 Star Reviews:

"Secrets of Storyville is a good read on a rainy day. Pat Gligor’s writing style captured me. I had to put the book down a couple of times but couldn’t wait to get back to it. There’s enough foreshadowing that the plots twists didn’t come as a surprise, but I couldn’t wait to see how the protagonist was going to react to them. I did love that character."
Dac Crossley

"Kate Morgan has uneasily settled for her life as a single mom, and has always thought she had the perfect parents. But when her daughter decides to do a family tree for her school project, things between Kate, her parents, and her grandmother begin to get tense, especially when she starts dating a handsome stranger. When her daughter drops the family tree project for another, Kate continues to do genealogy research on her own, and what she finds sets her on a roller coaster of troubled emotions.
I really enjoyed reading this novel. It was hard to put down. The characters are wonderful, but then, Ms. Gligor is great at characterization. I loved Kate’s romance. The novel was easy reading with a satisfying twist at the end. I highly recommend it to everyone who is looking for a mystery, without murder."
Evelyn Cullet

"From the opening, Patricia Gligor took me to Storyville through Kate's eyes. To be taken "there" is a really important aspect for me to enjoy a story, I could visualize Storyville even knowing nothing about Ohio. I was also immediately captivated by Kate and her family. Really liked them. And her job situations and predicaments seemed so real. The plot was interesting, because I think there are many secrets in many families, and the story is in how you address them when found out, if they ever are. Also liked the good feeling I had at the end. Well done and enjoyable book. Definitely recommend."
Madeline Gornell

Getting back to Writing

Now that the holidays are behind us, it’s time for me to get back to writing. Throughout the season, I’ve been jotting down notes for my next book but that’s as far as I’ve gotten. I know the title. I know the setting. And I know some of the characters. I even have a general idea of what will happen. Obviously, that’s just a start; I have a lot of work ahead of me in the months to come. Which means making my writing a priority.

I’m a morning person. That’s when I’m the most creative. As the day goes on, my ability to write a coherent sentence diminishes with each hour – or, at least, that’s how it feels to me. I love getting up each day and, after coffee and breakfast, plopping down in my desk chair and entering my fictional world, leaving the real world behind for a few hours.

Time flies when I’m writing and, before I know it, it’s time for lunch and time to attend to the other aspects/responsibilities of my life, the daily tasks we all have to do: shopping, paying bills, cleaning, laundry. . . . I do double-duty because, although, thankfully, my eighty-nine year old mother is doing great, she isn’t able to do a lot of the household chores, etc. she used to do.

By dinnertime, I’m ready to eat, watch TV and then read in bed until my eyes tell me it’s time to go to sleep. 

What all this means is that I need to use my time wisely if I hope to finish my book. I have to be careful to avoid what some refer to as “time sucks.” Social media can be time-consuming and, although I enjoy interacting with my friends on Facebook and other sites, I need to limit the time I spend on them. Writing a blog post takes time too and I’m considering posting at the end of each month, to summarize that month, rather than posting weekly. We’ll see how that goes.

So, until next time, I hope everyone had a great holiday season and that you are as eager as I am to get back to whatever it is you love to do.