Very mysterious! Everything appears a bit different!
Okay, mystery solved: I confess. I changed the blog's background and template. And, I would have gotten away with it, if it wasn't for those meddling kids. (See what happens when I write with Scooby Doo playing in the background!)
Soooo, how do you like the new look?
With summer around the corner, old schedules and routines have seen better days. My once quiet Tuesday mornings set aside for posting are no longer quiet. But, never fear, the blog will go on. There'll still be amusing anecdotes of my family life, random interesting facts, updates on my adventures in self-publishing and, as in this week's post, featured authors.
In this month's edition of "Help a Writer Sister (pronouced sis-tah) Out", I present you with a mystery. Who is Patricia Rockwell? Hmm. Very mysterious.
Interviewer: Patricia Rockwell, can you tell us about your two cozy mysteries—SOUNDS OF MURDER and FM FOR MURDER?
Answer: Yes, these are the first two books in my Pamela Barnes acoustic mystery series. Pamela is a Psychology professor and acoustics expert and she is drawn into the investigation of various murders that have a “sound” component because of her knowledge and expertise in this field.
Interviewer: Sound? That’s a rather strange hook for a mystery.
Answer: Yes. In many cozy mysteries, the amateur sleuth often has an occupation or hobby that allows the character to use their knowledge to solve a crime. As far as I know, no other cozy mystery author has an amateur sleuth who uses acoustics to solve crimes. Actually, one critic told me that I’d never find more than a few plot lines where sound could be a viable clue to a murder, but I’m writing my fourth Pamela Barnes’ book at the moment and I’m still imagining more plots with sound.
Interviewer: Patricia, not only do you write cozy mysteries but you also publish cozy mysteries with your company Cozy Cat Press. Why this fascination with cozy mysteries?
Answer: I’ve always loved reading mysteries ever since I was a child and read every Nancy Drew I could get. I guess I’ve always loved what are called cozy mysteries. However, it wasn’t until the last few years when I retired from my career as a college professor and started writing, that I actually realized that the specific type of mystery I like to read—and write—had a name—cozy mystery. I just know that I have always preferred mysteries where the emphasis is on the detecting and the solving of a puzzle—not on the main character getting out of jeopardy. In truth, whenever I read mysteries of the thriller variety, when I come to segments that involve chase scenes or fights or a character trying to avoid some sort of catastrophe—I skip ahead to what I consider the more interesting parts of the book. I guess that’s why I like Agatha Christie, Sherlock Holmes, and the array of wonderful cozy mystery writers today who focus on the “figuring things out” aspect of mysteries.
Interviewer: So, does that mean that none of your characters ever meets an untimely end?
Answer: Oh, no! Murders occur in my books. They just happen to characters whom the reader doesn’t care about much—or at least I hope they don’t care about them.
Interviewer: Would you say, then, that in cozy mysteries that character is more important than plot?
Answer: No, I wouldn’t say that. I’d say they are both equally important.
Interviewer: You say you are retired from a career as a teacher. I bet you have incorporated some of your job experiences in your books, haven’t you?
Answer: Absolutely! My main character Pamela Barnes works at a small university in the south just as I did. The other characters in my books all are based on various scholarly types who I encountered during my many years in academia. And, even though, no murder ever occurred where I worked, many of the sub-plots are drawn from my real life experiences with students, administrators, and colleagues.
Patricia Rockwell is a featured author in this weeks “E”ndependent Publishers $2.99 Ebook Club enewsletter. http://www.doubleedgepress.com/Endependent-Publishers-Coalition.html
Book Cover Link(s):
http://cache.smashwire.com/bookCovers/d0af0b489f860c602a4ee09eb5251c401d266380-thumb Book sales page(s):
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/41345
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| Jinkies! Another mystery solved! |
Fun interview. I'm going to look into the ebook world. Seems full of change.
ReplyDeleteBest part for me was learning the term "cozy murder." Sub-genre? I love the Skandinavian mysteries, nothing cozy about those. Does Agatha Christie count as cozy?