Serious Wednesday: Details on Writing a Mystery

Mystery books--I do believe--are my favorite books. I've loved them from childhood to the present time, and even try my hand at it. It's a work in progress for me, and I hope someday to be a great mystery writer. Time will tell about that!!

What are some of the details that need to be used when writing mysteries? Here's a short, but important list:  

• The culprit's character needs to be concealed. No one--not the reader and not the detective--should know who this person is until...revealing time.
• Create revelations of clues in a chain of events, etc. Most of these should be important but not necessarily blatantly obvious.
• A nice touch is to sidetrack your sleuth. Send them down a wrong path which means they may have to backtrack or that wrong path will give them facts to lead them to the true path they are searching for. 
• Show (allow) intriguing actions without any type of explanation. In other words, sometimes an action may not register with the sleuth until much later in the book. Some happening, a word, an action, etc., may bring to mind that earlier bit of action and bind together with the present.
• Write with intention in your sentence construction to build the suspense that leads to the answer of the mystery.
• Watch your dialogue. Use suspenseful, mysterious sentences to build the tension.

Most of all, practice, practice, practice (which I'm doing!) 

Would you like to share a short scene--no more than 100 words--in a current mystery novel you're creating?

And have fun! 

What Would You do...? Christmas Thoughts

What Would You Do…?

Posted on December 22, 2017 by Carole Brown

by Carole Brown

…if someone wanted to kill your baby? 

• Mary and Joseph fled.
• In the Redemption of Caralynne Hayman, Cara is mad with grief and anger at the death of her oldest daughter. A tough read? Yes, but well worth seeing what happens to this sorrowing mother.

…if you had to give up your business in a hurry? Or face destruction?

• Joseph did. He and Mary had to flee to Egypt to escape the wrath of the King and begin again in his carpentry business.
• In Sabotaged Christmas, Toni DeLuca must find the person casting doubt on her beloved father before her business is ruined and Christmas won’t be coming to Appleton, WV for her employees.

…if you were told you were having a baby, but you had no idea (at first) how it’d happened?

• Mary did. She heard the angel’s proclamation, but told no one and kept everything hidden in her heart, pondering.
• Starli Cameron was always told she couldn’t have a baby, but was it the truth? Only time would tell…after the struggles from the past vanished.

…if valuable items were given to you by kings?

• Baby Jesus was visited by the three Magi and given precious gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
• Caroline‘s friend, Andy, had valuable paintings, but Caroline disdained them. When one is stolen, she’s pushed into a mystery that proves how valuable paintings (and relationships) can be.  

…if you were suspicious of three foreign kings who visited you?

• King Herod was, afraid that a new baby would take his place someday.
• Tyrell Walker in With Music in Their Hearts had a reason to be suspicious of so many in the boarding house. After all, there was a foreign spy determined to wreck havoc to the U.S.

…if you were about to lose what you loved?

• Mary and Joseph were. Baby Jesus was a precious gift from God. They were assigned a duty to raise him, and they would do anything to keep him safe.
• Jerry and Josie thought they were losing each other, and both were determined to battle the war for their lives and their souls. 

Interest peaked?

Read St. Luke Chapter 2 to find the answers to the above questions.

Go here to find my books that hopefully will keep you reading and warm through the coming winter! 

Amazon Author Page

Merry Christmas!