Lainey Quilholt Mysteries

Hello to all of you who stop by here (whether you make a comment or not, that's fine, but I love to hear your thoughts).

Today, I thought I would touch on a new project I'm working on. This is one of those things where, as a writer, you're working on aspects of the possibility of a new novel (or story). I've had this in the back of my mind for a while. It's only begun to take shape.

In fact only today I came up with my MC's last name. I'd already settled on Lainey. But the last name had to sort of be unusual. One that could be memorable. I was reading an article--totally unrelated to anything. I saw the name Leona Spray Quilhot. I liked the last name but as I said it I wanted to put that extra 'l' in it. Thus, Quilholt was what I settled on.

I've got the beginning two pages, which will be worked on, of course. But the gentleman who walks into the store had to grab interest.

I've always wanted to write a mystery. I've been working on studying how they are done. Here's a link on 15 tips for writing a murder mystery by Elizabeth Craig. This has been something I've been working on for a while, so the post is a few years old. But the tips are excellent.

And here is the sub-genres of mysteries. (scroll down to "mysteries", this has all sub-genres, if you want to look into any other genre, like horror, sci-fi, etc.) I had no idea there were so many sub-genres of mysteries, but when you read each one it makes sense. Mine, the Lainey Quilholt Mysteries will be teen or YA.

I'll need to keep notes on a number of things--like suspects (you don't want more than 5, because it's too hard for readers to remember them all), and, of course, Red herrings.

The one thing I haven't settled upon is the murder itself, and the motive. I'm leaning toward jealousy, and the murder of either a wife, or the current husband/lover. That sort of thing. Lainey Quilholt lives in a small river town in Iowa. Why Iowa, I don't know, but at the moment, it's what I'm going with. I want to have it in the Mid-west, but not in Illinois. I actually have a small, river town in mind, but need to do more research--and go and see it and get more detail about the layout and such. 

I've put up a facebook page for this series. There, I'll be posting/have posted pages I've been writing, if you want to take a look. I've just posted the first page of the first chapter there. It's really raw, and will probably, as I said, change with rewrites, but it's at least a start.

Have you been thinking of writing something different, or in a different genre than you normally write? 

And Fade to the Now...

Tah-dah!

As you may have learned, I've signed on with a new publisher, Creativia. And this is the new book cover for the first book of my Sabrina Strong series (previously, "Vampire Ascending"), 

Ascension. 

Beautiful, isn't it? And although I wanted something less seductive, my publisher felt this was A#1. So, I put it up on facebook, to see how other people felt about it. I got a resounding "Wow!". I couldn't argue with those who are my friends, can I?

In my last post here, I delved into my writing past. My trails and missteps, you might say. I've been with Creativia for about two months. The first three books have new covers. I'm waiting on the fourth book's cover to be revealed to me, so you'll know what it will look like as soon as I will.

Meanwhile my other titles are being "brought over into the fold", you might say. They'll still have the same covers and so forth. Like my ever popular

  "Holy Devil" 

As I've said before, I've never wanted to become "Indie". It just seemed to me like too much work doing all the extra little things. My dream was to be a well-read author. I don't know if that will ever be realized. We'll see.

In the meantime, I'm working on the rest of the books--books five through eight, of the Sabrina Strong series. After #8, I want to take a break and work on other fiction that is either begun, or nearly done. 

Here are links to the other three books in Sabrina Strong series:

Oh, and if you do buy from Amazon, I do hope that after you've read it, you'll go back and leave a review, and these links will help with that [smiley face]. Thanks!

Trill

Nocturne

Caprice

(old cover)

Here is link to my other novel, 

Spell of the Black Unicorn

And for those of you who like non-fiction... and love cats, this one might be enjoyable:

The Cat Whisperer

Have you checked it out? I've got a contest for a signed copy of Ascension going on if you live in the US. Please go to Lorelei's Muse to see what you need to do to get in on it!

Thanks for stopping by.