Not one book but Two coming soon

I’m delighted to announce that I’ll have two new books coming out soon. Early in 2023 the Indiana Historical Press will be publishing Hoosier Beginnings, a historical fiction novel that includes a history of The Whitewater Valley and also some early Indiana history. I’m hoping middle school students might enjoy reading about some of the adventures during The Revolutionary War that happened in this part of the country. I also hope readers will come to a better understanding of the culture of the Shawnee and Delaware and others who passed through this area to hunt prior to the development of towns and roads. It was originally scheduled to be published in 2019, but Covid and other delays conspired to get it off schedule.

I have also finally written that mystery that I’ve been thinking about for years. It’s called The Greyt Greyhound Rescue and – wait for it – features a Greyhound as well as an amateur sleuth, Rachel Chance. This will be the first time I’ve written a book for an adult audience. It’s a cozy mystery set in a town a lot like Richmond, but called Glen Falls. I enjoyed creating the characters and hope mystery lovers will enjoy trying to figure out who committed the murder along with Rachel – and her Greyhound Abby. I am working with an editor and a publisher currently and will let readers know whether The Greyt Greyhound Rescue will be available before Christmas or after.

I’ll say more about Hoosier Beginnings later this fall when I revisit my research and work with an editing team to get it ready for publication. In this post, though, I want to say something about the mystery.

I have always loved reading mysteries and wondered how writers were able to keep me turning the pages. Part of it, of course, is building in the suspense. Putting characters in danger. Putting obstacles in their way. Giving them too little time to figure things out. But for me it still comes down to characters. I knew I had to create characters that readers would care about. Not much point in creating suspense if a reader doesn’t really care whether a character succeeds or fails. So characterization was on my mind every step along the way – first making sure I cared about my characters because if I lost interest, surely my readers would as well.

One of my biggest challenges was deciding on tone. I wanted to write a cozy mystery, so I tried to balance some light moments with some tense moments. I wanted readers to smile, maybe even laugh, in some places, but be on the edge of their seats worrying about the fate of a favorite character in other places. I’ll be anxious to find out whether I was able to strike a nice balance or not. Who knows? If I did strike a nice balance, perhaps Rachel and Abby will have more adventures in the future.