By Elaine L. Orr
This week's Cozy Crime Weeky newsletter (by Marian at CozyMystery.com) talked about authors moving from cozy mysteries to other genres, and said she would miss them but wished them well. Then she added: "Now, if you treat cozy mysteries like the minor leagues, just a place to hone your skills before you move onto bigger and better, we’re going to have a whole different conversation."
Several times through the years, someone has asked me when I planned to write tougher mysteries or more complex mysteries. I don't punch their lights out (not much violence in my books), but I do find it insulting.
I like amateur sleuths, though it can be hard to find a good reason for them to be involved in crime solving sometimes. Do they live in a crime capital? Are their lives so dull they look for trouble? Cozy mystery writers will sometimes joke about the Cabot Cove Effect, a reference to the long-running TV show with Angela Landsbury as Jessica Fletcher ("Murder She Wrote").
The show's writers would take her out of Cabot Cove sometimes. A segment took her to New York City where she taught a writing class for a season. Her immersion in other people's lives seemed almost seamless. And that is what it takes or watchers (and readers) would say she was a nosy biddy.
At some point, she became someone residents or the (bumbling) local sheriff turned to for help. That moved her closer to a professional investigator, but not quite.
I plan to stick with cozies and have been exploring different settings. I've learned it's hard to leave the characters I like, so I need to keep writing in the existing series. Plus, as an entrepreneur, it's important to give readers more of what they've liked.
As a reward as I wrote the second book in the Bay View Harbor Mystery Series, I've started the sixth in the Family History Mystery Series. Take a look, and feel free to send comments.
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To learn more about Elaine's writing, visit her website or sign up for her newsletter.
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