Guest Post: Defining a Series by Judy Penz Sheluk

 
Please welcome back author Judy Penz Sheluk to the bog today.  

 

Defining a Series by Judy Penz Sheluk

 

Defining a series is important, if for no other reason than to inform the reader of what they can expect, and it’s especially important if an author has more than one series. Are they the same? Or has your favorite cozy author veered into darker territory, maybe tried their hand at sci-fi or paranormal?

Back in 2019 at Left Coast Crime Vancouver, I was invited to be a participant in a “speed dating” author event, basically pairs of authors, each with two minutes to woo a tableful of readers. My partner in crime that day was the renowned cozy writer, Vicki Delany (who also writes as Eva Gates).

Being paired with such esteemed company was nerve wracking, to say the least. And while my Glass Dolphin series is decidedly cozy: an amateur sleuth (an antiques shop owner and a journalist who becomes a partner in the antiques shop business), set in the requisite small town, I needed something to set me apart from Vicki and the rest of the cozy authors in the room. I decided to define the series as “cozy mysteries without the cats, crafts, or cookie recipes.” It was catchy enough to work, and I’ve kept that definition to this day.

Defining my Marketville mystery series was a bit more difficult. Still leaning to the cozy side—no overt violence, sex, or bad language—but told in the first person, with slightly more ambitious plots, an amateur-turned professional sleuth, and cases that delved deep into the past. Work with that, I thought, and after a lot of mulling over, I had the answer: Cold Case Cozies.

Before There Were Skeletons, my latest Marketville book and the fourth in the series, finds my protagonist, Calamity (Callie) Barnstable hired to find a woman who disappeared in 1995. As Callie begins her investigation, she learns of two other missing persons cases, young women who disappeared in the same small town within weeks of one another. Coincidence? Callie doesn’t think so. Her client isn’t as sure. The last thing she wants is Callie investigating those cases on her dime. They come to an agreement, Callie and the client, but there are some tense moments before they do. Then there’s the two cold cases from 1978 that have Callie facing the skeletons of her mother’s past. But I’m getting ahead of myself here…

And yes, you guessed it. There’s not a cat, craft, or cookie recipe to be found. Maybe next book. After all, I have nothing against cats or crafts, and I’ve never tasted a cookie I didn’t like (okay, maybe gingerbread, I really don’t get gingerbread). I guess time will tell.

 

About Before There Were Skeletons

The last time anyone saw Veronica Goodman was the night of February 14, 1995, the only clue to her disappearance a silver heart-shaped pendant, found in the parking lot behind the bar where she worked. Twenty-seven years later, Veronica’s daughter, Kate, just a year old when her mother vanished, hires Past & Present Investigations to find out what happened that fateful night.

Calamity (Callie) Barnstable is drawn to the case, the similarities to her own mother’s disappearance on Valentine’s Day 1986 hauntingly familiar. A disappearance she thought she’d come to terms with. Until Veronica’s case, and five high school yearbooks, take her back in time…a time before there were skeletons. 

  

Judy Penz Sheluk ©2022

A former journalist and magazine editor, Judy Penz Sheluk is the bestselling author of two mystery series: The Glass Dolphin Mysteries and the Marketville Mysteries. Her short crime fiction appears in several collections, including the Superior Shores Anthologies, which she also edited.

Judy is a member of Sisters in Crime, International Thriller Writers, the Short Mystery Fiction Society, and Crime Writers of Canada, where she served as Chair on the Board of Directors. A longtime resident of York Region, she now makes her home in Northern Ontario, on the shores of Lake Superior. Find her at judypenzsheluk.com.