By Blanche
Day Manos
In
the vast ocean of books, what will make your book special, snag the reader’s
attention, and cause her to read past that first line? It’s the opening
sentence, surely. Start out with a bang that causes your readers to want to
know more.
Each
chapter in my books is a scene with an opening, a middle point, and an ending;
however, the chapters end in such a way as to make the next chapter imperative,
all the way through the book until the ending. And even then, hopefully, the
story was so intriguing that the reader feels she wants to read the next book,
and the next.
Writing
is a time consuming, emotional process. Compensation comes in knowing I have
done my best to bring the reader into a world of my own creating, in getting
the reader to see, feel, and hear the things the protagonist sees, feels, and
hears. The only way I know to do this is to be that person who lives within the
pages of my book, even when she takes a nose dive in her car, down one of the
steepest, most dangerous hills in Ventris County, or finds a dead body on top
of a brush pile in Goshen Cemetery, or speeds across a flooded bridge with a
killer close behind.
Darcy
Campbell and her Mother Flora Tucker, who inhabit the four mysteries in my
first series, and Ned McNeil, heroine of the Moonlight series, get into some
perilous situations and it’s up to me to get them out. That is never easy, but
that’s what makes the story interesting.
My
cozy mysteries are all written first person. I stay inside the head of Darcy
Campbell in the mother/daughter sleuth series and Ned McNeil in the moonlight
series. The reader looks at all that’s happening only through the eyes of these
women.
I
use dialogue a lot in telling the story. It is always more fun to listen in on
conversations between two or more people, rather than just telling the reader
what is happening. Even when Darcy is alone, she sometimes talks to herself and
Ned can be heard quite often confiding in her cat Penny.
Colorful
verbs help keep interest high. “I trotted to Daisy’s side
and dropped to my knees.”
I grabbed one
of my boots, scrambled to my feet, and let fly.”
Sometimes
just the right word plays hard to get and tries to elude me. But, finding it is
worth the hunt.
More
satisfying than the monetary reward of writing is the knowledge that I’ve told
a story to the best of my ability. I’ve opened with a bang, ended each chapter
with a lead-in to the next, used vibrant action verbs, and tied up all the
loose ends by the time the book finishes. I like my protagonists even if they
do lead me into some strange and dangerous situations. I want cozy mystery
readers to know and like them too.
___________________________________________________________________
Blanche Day Manos is the author of the Darcy and Flora series about a mother and
daughter sleuth team: The Cemetery Club, Grave Shift, Best Left Buried, and
Grave Heritage. She also writes the Ned McNeil mysteries, following courageous
heroine Nettie Elizabeth (Ned) McNeil through breath-taking scenes in Moonlight Can Be Murder and By the Fright of the Silvery Moon. Blanche has been
writing mysteries since she was big enough to hold a pencil. In addition to her
cozy novels, she has been published in children’s magazines, educational
magazines, and Christian periodicals. She welcomes visitors to her daily blog
site. Her “Mysteries with an extra shiver” are cozies, but not the kind you
might want to read at night when you are alone or need a good night’s sleep.
Each book has many shivers, cover to cover. A native Oklahoman and retired teacher, Blanche now lives in bustling and
energetic Northwest Arkansas. Her mysteries are set in the small towns she
knows so well. You can find out more about Blanche at her website, http://www.blanchedaymanos.com/ where
she writes a daily blog, on https://twitter.com/BlancheManos, and https://www.facebook.com/blanchedaymanos.author
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