Picking a Profession for a New Sleuth

Elaine L. Orr

For my mystery series I have used a variety of sleuths. The long running Jolie Gently series has a real estate appraiser. I deliberately picked that so the job would put my amateur sleuth among people from all walks of life. Not just her homeowner or small business customers, but also real estate agents, local government officials who dealt with property law, merchants, and almost anything else you can think of.

For early stand alone books I learned lessons about limitations of given professions. For example, A teacher is tied to a classroom much of the time. Archeology is a fascinating profession, but it requires a lot of research on the writer's part. I like to do research, but I also like the story to flow easily.

The landscaper in the River's Edge series and the graphics artist in the Family History mystery series are also involved in many aspects of their communities. I like rural communities and I'm a family historian myself, which made those series especially interesting to me. 

Cozy Mystery readers expect an amateur sleuth. My two series without them are the Logland Mystery series, which features a female police chief in a small college town; and the Shore Shenanigans series, which introduced a private investigator (a man!) in a Jersey Shore town. Both of these series have many features of a cozy mystery series -- the murders occur off screen, the sleuth is involved in the community, and there's a fair bit of humor.

I learned that even though these two series are essentially cozies with a professional crime solver, readers aren't as likely to pick them up. I actually find them easier to write because the police chief and private investigator have a reason to delve into the crime. The amateur has a harder route to crime solving. But, I have to think hard about writing more books in the series. I love to write but I also love to sell.

As I was creating the Bay View Harbor series I needed a sleuth who had reasons to interact with a lot of people and yet had flexibility in her schedule. I always avoided professions that involved cooking, crafts, or (believe it or not) books. So no bakeries, yarn or other craft stores, or libraries or bookstores. I thought there were so many options already, and I also have no talents or cooking, sewing, or anything else that requires true talent. Libraries and bookstores seemed redundant -- I'm in them all the time.

In a small Maryland Eastern Shore town there aren't as many options as in a larger community. Thus came a former event planner turned bakery owner. I set it up so that she has a partner, which makes it easier to get around town, and the partner is actually a talented cook. I finally realized that a baker can get into as much trouble as a real estate appraiser or landscaper. I don't really have to know how to cook. I do have to like what I'm writing about, and Maryland's Eastern Shore is one of my favorite places on the planet. So, here we go.

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To learn more about Elaine's writing, visit her website or sign up for her newsletter.

Watch Out for Weak Words

By Elaine L. Orr

Some authors write gently, even with deep drama. I'm thinking of Ann Tyler. Others pack every metaphorical punch with swinging fists. Think James Patterson or John Sandford.

What's not good for either style is diluted text, especially verbs. "I was walking up the stairs after work" connotes a clearer image as, "I trudged up the steps after a long day at work." 

Another generic verb is look. We can look at a piece of paper or study it. Look at the sky or glance at it with deep concern. I now do a word search for 'look' at the end of my first draft. 

For my writing style, gerunds have a specific purpose. I like to use them to convey immediacy -- "walking into the deserted house confirmed my fears" puts you with the character more than "I walked into the house feeling fearful." You can edit either of those sentences, but I think constant use of gerunds dilutes their sense of immediacy, perhaps even intimacy, with a character.

My critique mate, Sue, pointed out that I used 'and' a lot. I didn't think so until I counted -- almost 200 times in one chapter. I had some longer sentences that could be separated without making the text choppy. But a big part was using 'and' rather than infinitives. Any style can work, but overuse becomes apparent.

I'll use another blog post to talk about how much more a colorful word conveys than a neutral one. Dropping to the floor is one thing. Crashing is something more. And louder.

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To learn more about Elaine's writing, visit her website or sign up for her newsletter.

From Both Sides of a State

By Elaine L. Orr

I'd written for decades before I decided to set a mystery series in Maryland, the state where I grew up and lived until my mid-forties. I didn't make a conscious choice to avoid my state of oceans and mountains. I suppose other venues seemed more interesting because I didn't know them as well.

Now I have not one but two series set in Maryland. The Family History Mystery Series is in Garret County, as far West as you can get. Living in the DC suburbs when I was a kid, people went to Garrett County to ski. I have friends who live in the Rockies who think 4,800 feet is not much of a mountain, but it's pretty tall when you're standing on a couple of pieces of wood going downhill. 

You don't have to go to the top of a mountain. One of the best ways to view the county is on the Capital Limited, the train that runs from Chicago to DC's Union Station. You ride along the water, seeing vistas that hikers or white water rafters could access -- but not the rest of us!

My hobby of genealogy research led to creating an amateur sleuth who is an active family historian and active with other local historians. What's been fun is to get to know the region and its Civil War history better. That isn't part of every book, of course. The Maryland battle of Antietam early in the war stopped the Confederate Army advance into Maryland, essential to prevent Washington DC from being surrounded by enemies of Lincoln's Union.

Heading to Maryland's Eastern Shore

The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States. If you're on a boat in the middle of the bay you might as well be on the ocean -- no shore in sight. 

The Western shore is readily accessible from the DC suburbs, which is why a friend and I bought a cottage there in the mid-1980s. It's beautiful, but has a sense of being anchored to the land that you don't get from the Eastern shore.

I selected Talbot County for the fictional town of Bay View Harbor. It's midway down the western part of the Eastern shore with plenty of shoreline. Lots of history to learn about, and I like to blend local history into much of what I write. I planned to spent time re-exploring the area, but a back injury marred the plans. I have a strong sense of the culture of the places from past visits and now a good excuse to spend more time there (with a healed back).

The books are cozy mysteries and the focus of town life is a bakery. I never thought I'd pick that profession, but when I was looking for a job for a new sleuth, it offered a way to interact with a lot of people and still have time to get into trouble and investigate. The Handyman's Last Bite comes out in May. 

I'm excited to work on The Art Critic's Last Forgery, I love art museums and relating artwork to the history of the period. If you look at the covers, you'll see they show the interior of the bakery with the harbor in the background. Now, on to learning more about forgeries.

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Elaine now has two mystery series set in Maryland. To learn more about Elaine's writing, visit her website or sign up for her newsletter.