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All Aboard the Coral Queen: Why a Cruise Ship Makes the Perfect Murder Mystery Setting

Every great mystery series needs a great setting. Think of the Orient Express, sealed and snowbound. Imagine the English country house, its inhabitants stranded together by social obligation. Then there is the small village where everybody knows everybody else's business — and everybody has something to hide. And then think of a cruise ship. It is, when you consider it, the perfect mystery setting. Thousands of people, drawn from every walk of life, thrown together in a floating world of extraordinary luxury and going absolutely nowhere. There is no getting off. No slipping away into the crowd. No quiet exit through the back door. The sea stretches out in every direction, indifferent and enormous, and the Coral Queen moves steadily through it while her passengers eat, drink, swim, argue, flirt, scheme and, in a Rachel Prince mystery, occasionally turn up dead. A World Unto Itself The Coral Queen is not just a backdrop. Over fifteen books, it has become one of the great settings in contemporary cosy mystery fiction as vivid and familiar to devoted readers as Agatha Christie's St Mary Mead. The ship has its own geography: the Lido Deck with its pools gleaming in the Mediterranean sun; the Jazz Bar, where the band plays and champagne flows; the Martini Bar, where the conversations get dangerous the later the hour; the medical centre on deck two, where Sarah and the medical team hold clinics and trouble reliably presents itself; the sweeping corridors lined with passenger cabins that could contain almost any secret. In Honeymoon Cruise Murder, the Coral Queen arrives at the story freshly returned from six months dry dock in Scotland, refurbished from bow to stern. New décor throughout. A brand new crew pool, complete with Jacuzzi, replacing the one with the perpetually blocked pumps. An extended bar with more seating. Even the cabins shared by…

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Read more about the article Cozy Mystery Writing Conventions

Cozy Mystery Writing Conventions

Genre Fiction I’m a mystery writer with my fiction falling into the cozy/cosy crime niche. I've now published seven books in one series with an eighth on the way. Cosy mysteries and the majority of detective novels fall into the category of writing known as genre fiction and on the whole, follow a defined set of conventions. Agatha Christie Monument These conventions/rules developed out of the Golden Age of Crime novels. Authors such as Arthur Conan Doyle, Margery Allingham, Dorothy L Sayers and Agatha Christie created the widely recognised genre. The cosy mystery has evolved over the past few decades as new writers attempt to stretch boundaries, although many still adhere to the Decalogue or ten commandments described by Knox in 1929.  Escapist Literature I admit to being challenged by proponents of literary fiction and literary debate such as Albert Camus, but I prefer to write books to enable people to escape from the reality of life. This is one of the reasons I write books where the criminal is always found and justice is served. The popularity of genre fiction could highlight the need for people to feel safe while - at least in terms of crime fiction - being given the opportunity to experience vicarious excitement. The excitement comes through readers exercising their brains to solve the puzzle, working alongside the sleuth.  As a former nurse, I studied Maslow's Hierarchy of Human Needs in great detail. He described the need to feel safe in the hierarchy. He postulated human beings needed to satisfy certain needs in order to grow, mentally and physically. Maslow’s definition of safety was more about protection from external elements. Such safety requires a person to have shelter and security of body and mind; order in the world outside; laws that reinforced safety; stability in work and…

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Read more about the article Crime Writers’ Daily Writing Habits

Crime Writers’ Daily Writing Habits

Crime Writers’ Writing Habits I thought it would be fun to select a few crime writers and discuss their writing – or not – habits! Much emphasis is placed on ritual and routine when it comes to art, but as these few examples show, every writer is different. Ian Fleming (1908-1964) Ian Fleming described himself as a writer rather than an author and writing in an article on the topic or writing he suggested that writing 2,000 words per day, five days a week for six weeks enabled him to produce his first draft for his Bond novels. The novels he produced were around 60,000 words which is acceptable in series writing even to this day. Agatha Christie (1890-1976) Agatha Christie didn’t have a special room to write in and carried notebooks around and jotted down plots, labelling her notebooks. She wrote longhand and then typed it up later. In later life she dictated her books. She never had a daily routine of writing and would nip off to write when the opportunity presented itself it. Strangely, it appears that Agatha Christie was the only one of these four to admit to having difficulties writing with the process causing her much stress at times. And yet it is Christie’s works that are among the world’s top bestsellers with her estate claiming she is third only to Shakespeare and The Bible. Her books are still enjoyed today with Miss Marple and Poirot being crime mystery staples. I remember seeing The Mousetrap on stage in London, the longest running play in London still enjoyed by so many readers today. Dorothy L Sayers (1893-1957) Dorothy L Sayers wrote at night as she worked full time for a London advertising agency. I couldn’t find  anything written about her habits but would assume that as one of…

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Read more about the article Writing a Memoir

Writing a Memoir

By Dawn Brookes, bestselling author of  Hurry up Nurse: memoirs of nurse training in the 1970s. Recently I gave a talk at a local church to an interesting group of people, most of whom could write great memoirs if they had a mind to. We all have a story to tell, so if you've ever considered writing your own memoir but don't know where to start, read on... Memoir or Autobiography First of all you need to decide whether their focus is on your whole life story (an autobiography) or on one aspect of your life, bringing in themes, memories and anecdotes that highlight that theme (a memoir). To be honest, unless you're famous or writing for posterity, a memoir is likely to be more readable that an autobiography! Having said that, who knows? Reasons for Writing People have different reasons for writing a memoir or autobiography, some of which are listed below: Personal–writing for posterity, familyAs branding –e.g. running a businessTeach somethingPublishing–writing to publish You don't have to be famous, but it helps! This was a screenshot of the top 17 books listed in the bestseller list of Amazon's memoir/biography section at the time I prepared my talk. Spot the famous people! That said, there are some who weren't well-known prior to writing their biography or memoir. When you niche down, it makes a difference as shown in this screenshot of the bestsellers in nursing category where two of my books feature in the top 18! If I'd taken a screenshot of the US Amazon store, niching down, my book would be top, where it has been for the past 16 months, but hey, that's just showing off! My point is, you can do well within your area of expertise if you're writing a memoir. This only matters if you're considering publishing of course.…

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Writing a Book Outline

Writing a Great Book Outline and Writing to Target I have recently finished my debut novel so don’t consider myself an expert on this but I was greatly helped by using a system for writing the book. This system kept me to time and was just what I needed. The system I used I have adapted from one I learned from a course on Udemy called Reverse Engineer Riveting Fiction The first thing I need to say is that I did veer off but not hugely and you will see what I mean when I explain it. Storyline Obviously before you can develop a plan there needs to be a story in your head. My story evolved but I had the basics of the plot before I started writing. I had a main character (initially it was 2), sub-characters important to the plot, a scene (set on a cruise ship), a theme – murder mystery (initially thriller but turned out to be cosy as I don’t do graphic), a beginning, a middle and an end (I had two in mind). Word Count The next thing was to decide on a rough word count. There is some debate over words needed but in general they are as follows: Word Counts are not written in stone Depending on what you read there are different opinions on how long a book should be so I have gathered a few together but they are just guides. Publishers will have minimum and maximum word counts for different books and generally frown on shorter novels and those that are too long. Novel 40,000 words or over (generally 60,000 for mystery, 90,000+ for non-series novel). Some authors and publishers recommend 50,000+ with a maximum of 120,000 but Harry Potter and the order of the Phoenix is over 250,000 words!Young…

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