MOOSE HITS NY TIMES EXTENDED BESTSELLER LIST!

As the snow flutters down here in Fogelsville today, we are reminded of the quaint seaside village of Cape Willington, Maine, setting of the national bestselling Candy Holliday mystery series.

Author B.B. Haywood just did it again with the latest in the series, TOWN IN A WILD MOOSE CHASE. The book hit the New York Times Mass Market Fiction Bestseller Extended list at #33!

This book is set in winter in Cape Willington--and trouble is about to walk right into Candy's life. First, town hermit Solomon Hatch stirs things up by claiming to have seen a dead body in the woods with a hatchet in its back. Then, a mysterious white moose starts appearing around town in the strangest of places...

Take a look at this book--it's a great winter read!

TOWN IN A WILD MOOSE CHASE!

Our authors Rob and Beth Feeman (a.k.a. B.B. Haywood) just redesigned their website. The timing is great as the third book in their Berkley Prime Crime cozy mystery series, Town in a Wild Moose Chase, will be published next week.

If you liked the first two books, you'll love this saga of life in Cape Willington, Maine during the winter. Of course there is a dead body and a celebration and Candy and Doc Holliday. But this time there is also a mysterious moose and lots of other exciting features. The book is available everywhere!

Check out the website and read a chapter!

TOWN IN A WILD MOOSE CHASE

Feeling hot and bothered this summer? Take a look at B.B. Haywood's new book, Town in a Wild Moose Chase. It should make your temperature drop. Candy Holliday and her friends are at it again in the third book in the Berkley Prime Crime series, this time during Cape Willington's winter carnival! The book will be published, appropriately, in the winter of 2012. Read it to see how a cozy is put together!

DO PUBLISHERS LIKE "ON DEMAND" BOOKS?

On March 19 “Mystery Writer” sent us the following comment:

“I have written a cozy mystery and am trying to get an agent with no luck so far. The ‘On Demand’ publishers are calling me and tell me that most publishers expect authors to publish ‘on demand’ before they will consider them. Is this true? What do other people think?”

It’s an interesting question and one worth discussing. I’d like to know which on demand publishers are saying these things. (I make the assumption that you all understand that “on demand” publishers charge the author for their services and the finished books and the price can be high.) My experience is that self-publishing (the old word for on demand) can work against a new author. Many agents and publishers do not want a book that has already been “out there,” preferring to work with new material. Having said that, the first two non-fiction books I sold had been self-published prior to their sales to big New York houses. Both of these authors were high-profile and media-savvy and their self-published books were selling very well.

So there is no right or wrong answer to this question. I have a feeling though, that many new fiction authors self-publish or go with on demand publishers for the wrong reasons. They’ve worked long and hard to finish their novel only to find that their work has just begun. It’s often harder to land an agent and a publisher than it is to write a book. So authors give in to the “instant gratification” and lure of the on demand publishers. “Hey, kid. Come with us. You’ll have a real book with your name on the cover in no time! You’ll be an AUTHOR!”

The self-publishing option works better for some non-fiction authors who often are building a platform and can sell their books when they travel the country, teach courses or give presentations. Their self-published book can help elevate their status and can attract the attention of agents and publishers who are looking for a non-fiction author with a large following.

But “Mystery Writer” is the author of a fictional work. I’d advise her to concentrate on making her book as good as it can possibly be. Hire an editor if you can or have a trusted literary friend give you feedback. Join a writer’s group and go to writers conferences where pros will often give you good advice. When your work is as good as you can get it, begin working on your query. Investigate blogs and websites to discover what works best in a mystery query. Then try again. After all, if you can’t find an agent you can always take the on demand bus at a later date. What do you all think?

WILL THE REAL B.B. HAYWOOD STEP FORWARD? An Interview with Bob & Beth Feeman

Today we're celebrating Town in a Blueberry Jam--again!

It's such a great feeling when one of our books becomes a reality. I'm tickled with Berkley/Prime Crime's treatment of Town in a Blueberry Jam, especially the fact that it's so well distributed. Let me know if you see it in your local bookstore?

As promised, I vowed to reveal a surprise about the author, B.B. Haywood. Mr./Ms. Haywood is not one, but two authors--Bob and Beth Feeman. Here's what they have to say about the publication of their new book:

Q: Why do you use a pen name?
A: We get asked this all the time. We knew fairly early on we didn’t want to use our real names. There are a number of reasons why, but the simplest explanation is that our real last name is sometimes difficult for people to remember, and it gets misspelled a lot, so we thought we would create a name that’s easier to remember. Plus, since we’re co-authors, it’s shorter to use a single name rather than two. We hope the name we chose--B.B. Haywood--sticks in people's minds and they'll remember it when they see our future books on the shelf.

Q: Why did you set the book in Maine?
A: We’ve lived in Maine for almost a decade, and it’s a beautiful area of the country. It’s truly iconic in many ways, with the lobsters, lighthouses, vast blueberry barrens, and an amazing rocky coast. People come from all over the country and the world to visit Maine. So it seemed like a setting with a wide appeal. And there’s nothing quite like a New England village for a murder mystery.

Q: How difficult was it to create a mythical town?
A: It was actually surprisingly easy. Very early in the process, we debated whether to use an actual town or a fictional one. Novelist Sarah Graves, for instance, uses the actual town of Eastport, Maine, as the setting for her mystery novels. We wanted to do something different. With a fictional town, we could do whatever we wanted to make it fit the needs of the story. We designed it. We populated it. We molded it any way we wanted. We have, however, borrowed pieces of many actual New England villages in creating our fictional one. It’s based, in part, on Maine villages like Boothbay Harbor and Blue Hill. Even the name is a hybrid of three New England towns: Cape Elizabeth in Maine, Williamstown in Massachusetts, and Hopkinton in New Hampshire. Beth melded the three names together and came up with the name Cape Willington.

Q: How did you settle on the Candy Holliday character? Is she a compilation of people you know or a true "fictional" character?
A: Candy is a completely original character, and we have to say, over the course of writing the first book, and working now on the second one, we’ve both come to really like her. We think of her as a real person, and we care about her a lot. We knew the sort of person we wanted to create—an intelligent, hard-working heroine with a lot of common sense, and a certain amount of bravery. Candy’s very brave at times, which surprises us. The character who really surprises us, though, is Maggie Tremont, Candy’s best friend and our comic relief. Maggie literally came out of nowhere, and says things we never planned for her to say. She just speaks her mind, and we write it down. That’s why we love her. She’s a lot of fun to write.

Q: What's the most challenging aspect to writing this kind of book? Plot? Dialogue? Character development?
A: Believe it or not, the hardest part is continuity. Writing a book is a process stretched over days, weeks, months, and years. It may take days just to write few pages, and weeks to write two or three chapters. So when you’re writing something today, you have to remember what you wrote last week, or last year, and sometimes it can get tricky. Just getting the color of everyone’s eyes right, so it’s consistent throughout the book, can be a problem. Names get spelled different ways. Someone may pick something up in one scene, and you have to remember that person has that item in a future scene. It’s tricky. We have a complete character list now, and we’re trying to note various character traits as we write them so we’ll have them for future reference.

Q: There is another book in the Candy Holliday series. Can you give us a hint about the new book? Have you finished it yet?
A: We’re working on it right now, and it’s actually about two-thirds finished. It’s due to the publisher in March 2010, and will appear in bookstores in February 2011. It’s called TOWN IN A LOBSTER STEW, and involves an award-winning lobster stew recipe with a secret ingredient in it. As the book opens, it’s in the possession of Wilma Mae Wendell, one of Cape Willington’s senior citizens. But when the recipe is stolen from Wilma Mae’s house on the eve of the annual Lobster Stew Cook-off, she asks Candy Holliday to find out who’s behind the theft. What Candy doesn’t know is that there are people in town who want that recipe so bad, they’re willing to kill for it. In this novel, we’ll introduce Candy’s arch nemesis, as well as a number of new characters, and of course we’ll make sure many characters from the first book make a return appearance.

Q: How would you advise other beginning writers?
A: First, don’t give up. It’s tempting at times. We’ve been working at this for two decades, and there are many times we gave up. But the next day we started again. Just work on improving your craft, and write the very best story you can write. It also helps to keep an eye on the shelves in bookstores, so you know what’s currently popular. Mysteries are always popular, which is good for us.

Everyone jokes about the little devil and angel

on their shoulders; my problem is that I actually

have them.--Nicole (First Line Contest)

INDEPENDENCE DAY

"Fireworks, who needs stinking fireworks?"

By the look of my inbox, lots of folks have taken off for the holiday weekend. (I emailed a press release yesterday to 200 health editors at newspapers and 20 bounced back as "out of the office.") We're not going anywhere this weekend, preferring to use the time here. Jon's got a stack of partials and manuscripts to read and so do I.

OK, even though Norton opposes it, we will go to a nearby park for the fabulous fireworks display brought to us each year by the local mortician. Yep, that's right, the mortician. Think about it--it's great PR! Blast off with us...before you blast off for good!!

Since it's the start of the holiday weekend, I have some random thoughts to air, some book-related, some not.

• On the query front--another "abused woman, greatest composer." When will it end?
• We've always asked for partials and manuscripts in hard-copy format. We're beginning to change that policy. I'm asking for manuscripts to be sent electronically and partials will follow soon, I expect. Jon is wedded to his hard copies, and he's not unlike a large ocean liner, difficult to turn around. But eventually, he too will be reading online I suspect.
• I want to get an electronic reader that allows me to load in partials and manuscripts. Any suggestions? Does Kindle do this?
• As I've mentioned before, I read constantly--not just partials and manuscripts, but books. I'm reading Hotel Paradise by Martha Grimes now. It was published over 10 years ago, but it is worth your time if you like cozies. Grimes is so brilliant in relating back story.
• I'm also reading an advance copy of a book I picked up at BEA called Friend of the Family, published by Algonquin. The author writes with a precision and flair that keeps me turning pages. She's not Jodi Picoult, but she's every bit as good. I'll give you her name in another post.
• Jon's off to Chicago next week. I'll be busier than ever here.
• When Jon returns we'll gear up for 3 days of grandsons Rob (age 4) and Max (age almost 2) while their parents go camping.

Happy Fourth of July everyone! Take a break from your writing. Eat a hot dog. ENJOY YOURSELVES!

WHAT IS A COZY MYSTERY, REALLY?

Our reader Debra asked the following question about "cozies":

In order for a mystery to be considered a "cozy," does it have to have a craft-type element? (Blueberry recipes, how to knit a 200-thread-count sheet in five easy steps, etc?) Or, is it just a strong female protag who is not in the crime field investigating one or more murders? The latter is what I've read as the definition, but it seems most cozies have a craft element.

I don't think the "craft" element is essential, Debra. But I checked with some experts. Here's what the "Cozy Mystery List" website says:

"I think that people who read Cozy Mysteries probably have their own unique ideas about what they think Cozy Mysteries should be... I know what I like, and look for in a Cozy.... I find that most of the cozy mysteries that I read take place in a small, picturesque town or village, with characters who I could envision having as neighbors or friends. (Of course, once I find out who the killer is, I wouldn't particularly want that person living next to me!) They are usually not zany people, although an eccentric or two might lurk here and there. On the whole, they are usually normal, every day characters you might have known at one time in your life. Cozies don't usually involve a lot of gory details or explicit "adult situations," either."

I think she/he is right on the money. Whenever I think of a cozy I think of the Miss Marple series written by Agatha Christie. Themis-Athena, one of Amazon's Top 500 reviewers, gave this information in her review of a recent new edition of the Miss Marple series:

"'Miss Marple instituted herself so quickly into my life that I hardly noticed her arrival,'" Agatha Christie wrote in her posthumously-published autobiography 1977 about the elderly lady who, next to Belgian super-sleuth Hercule Poirot, quickly became one of her most beloved characters. Somewhat resembling Christie's own grandmother and her friends, although 'far more fussy and spinsterish' and 'not in any way a picture' of the author's granny, like her, she had a certain gift for prophecy and 'though a cheerful person, she always expected the worst of everyone and everything, and was, with almost frightening accuracy, usually proved right.'"

Does this help, Debra?