Today Maine Crime Writers welcome back Sylvie Kurtz, our New Hampshire neighbor. Last year, Sylvie’s guest post dealt with two Yuletide novels she set in the fictional town of Brighton, New Hampshire, Christmas in Brighton and Christmas by Candlelight. She is also the author of A Little Christmas Magic. Now she’s gone back to Brighton to celebrate a different holiday, and ventured into a new length and a new genre, as well. Here she is to tell us how all that came about.

When Life Gives You Pumpkins . . .

When news of my mother’s death came, I was in the middle of writing a light, summery novel, featuring a strawberry festival and a baking contest. Then I found I couldn’t write. At. All. I just couldn’t find the joy needed to write a snow globe-type of novel. For six months, I tried to go back to the story. Nothing flowed. And I was getting frustrated.

I needed something to disrupt the stuckness.

When I came across Natasha Sass’s cozy novella writing course (https://the-indie-writers-workshop.teachable.com/p/halloween-cozy-novella-workshop), something urged me to try it. I love reading cozies but never planned on writing one. I’m not sure why. A novella is short, so if it didn’t work to unstick me, I hadn’t invested too much into it. And I’d wanted to learn to write shorter for a while.

So, two stones, one course.

We all write in a different way. Some of us need to know every detail before we start. Others feel if they know the story before they write, there’s no point in writing it. I’ve always fallen somewhere in between. I need a few road signs but still want the story to surprise me. So having a novella roadmap was helpful.

Before I knew it, I had a sleuth, a sidekick and a situation that fit right into my fictional Brighton world. The skeletons and spiders and spooky atmosphere were just the thing to get me unstuck. The darker mood didn’t feel disrespectful. The words didn’t exactly flow, but there were words on the page. The more I wrote, the easier writing got. By the end, I was having fun writing again.

I’d accomplished both of my goals: I got unstuck and I wrote something shorter than my usual 80,000+ words. I enjoyed writing the cozy so much, Ellie and Page might just see another sleuthing adventure.

Of Books and Bones (https://sylviekurtz.com/of-books-and-bones) is the result of my unsticking experiment.

Brighton, New Hampshire, is known for its festivals and fun . . . not for murder.

Ellie Hamlin is looking forward to early retirement and travel with her chief-of-police husband. Then her world turns upside down when an expansion at her sister-in-law, Page’s, bookstore uncovers bones.

Ellie’s daughter becomes falsely implicated in the murder, and her husband has to leave the investigating to someone else. With her daughter’s freedom on the line, Ellie can’t stand back. And Page, who’s always wanted to sleuth, insists on tagging along.

With Ellie and Page’s investigation, the number of suspects rise…and so does someone’s fear of discovery.

Then a terrible accident happens, redoubling their need to find the killer.

Amid a slew of tricks and treats and things that go bump in the night, can Ellie and Page solve the crime and bring a murderer to justice before one of them becomes the next victim?

Welcome to Brighton, a picturesque New Hampshire small town steeped in family, food, friendships and festivals. And now its first cozy mystery.

The lesson for me in all of this is that an old writer can still learn new tricks, and trying something new can widen the horizon.

Merry post-Christmas and Happy New Year!

Sylvie writes stories that celebrate family, friends and food. She believes organic dark chocolate is an essential nutrient, likes to knit with soft wool, and justifies watching movies that require a box of tissues by knitting baby blankets. She has written 25 novels in various genres. Visit www.sylviekurtz.com for more information.