Sunday, August 26, 2018

What inspired me to write Secrets in Storyville?


As a reader, I’ve always loved a good mystery. Most of the books I’d read were standalone mystery/suspense novels. But, several years ago, I picked up a cozy mystery, which took place in a small town, and I was hooked on cozies. Now, I still love a good suspense novel but I find that I read more cozies than any other mystery sub-genre. Some are standalones and some are part of a series.

As a writer, I never know where inspiration for a story will come from. But it’s always from people, places and things that have crossed my path. Sometimes they’re recent and other times they emerge from my memory bank.

When I finished writing my fifth Malone mystery, Marnie Malone, I wasn’t sure what my next book would be. I’d spent so many years on the series and had become so involved in the lives of the characters. I knew I’d miss the Malones but I also realized it was time to end the series and to do something totally different.

My Malone mysteries are all written in the third person and they are set in real locations, places that really exist. An old Victorian in my neighborhood was the inspiration for the series.


For a long time, I’d wanted to write a cozy mystery in the first person and set it in a fictional small town. Now I had my chance. Secrets in Storyville is completely separate from and different than my Malone mysteries but the books have one thing in common: an old house inspired me. As it turned out, I didn’t use that house as the main setting in my new book but it is a secondary setting and important to the plot. 


The other elements of the book came to me in the usual way – bits and pieces that somehow eventually coalesced to form a book. A book that was so much fun to write!

I hope you enjoy reading Secrets in Storyville as much as I enjoyed writing it.