The Barnes and Noble University Village store recently held an event featuring Wendy Lyn Watson, Carole Nelson Douglas, Paula Larocque, Judy Alter, and Laurie Moore.
The panel answered a slew of questions such as:Why write mysteries?
How do you make the settings come to life?
How do you come up with plots?
Although most of the authors have a location in mind, the names of places are fictional. Carole Nelson Douglas tends to set her crimes in Las Vegas for her Midnight Louie series, but uses fictitious names for hotels as most hoteliers would not look too kindly on an author who planted a dead a body in one of their rooms. Judy Alter has based her books in the Fort Worth area and does pepper her cozy mysteries with names of actual restaurants and places.
The general consensus of the panel was that they write the ending of their novels first.
Carole Nelson Douglas told us of her experiences with traditional publishing and shared with us the beautiful covers she has designed herself for out of print books that she will be digitally publishing. With over 60 novels in print, Carole Nelson Douglas is a prolific writer.
Look at your local Barnes and Nobel events. Getting to know an author gives you a personal look at their work and a chance to get to know new authors. Although I have known Carole Nelson Douglas for many years and have met Laurie Moore at several writing workshops, the other ladies were new to me.
