Characters Who Get Older--Or Not, by Lois Winston
When I began writing my Anastasia Pollack
Crafting Mystery Series, I failed to take the passage of time into account. Back
then, I hadn’t yet sold the series. I wasn’t thinking long term when I gave
Anastasia two teenage sons. Once I signed a contract for the first three books,
I realized I’d boxed myself into a tight corner. I should have made Nick and
Alex four and six, not fourteen and sixteen. I’d opened Assault With a Deadly Glue Gun, the first book in the series, in
January and set Death By Killer Mop Doll,
the second book, in May and June. If I continued to devote several months to
each story, Anastasia would be an empty nester in no time at all. I didn’t want
that to happen.
In Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series,
Stephanie hasn’t aged over the course of twenty-five novels, each written approximately
a year apart. The reader is really never quite sure how much time has passed
between books, but it’s certainly not a year. Stephanie’s adventures definitely
haven’t spanned twenty-five years; it’s more like twenty-five months.
The way those books are written Stephanie’s
life doesn’t have to conform to a realistic timeline, but I didn’t feel such a
loose framework would work for my stories. For one thing, I wanted a romance to
develop between Anastasia and Zachary Barnes, the photojournalist (or is he a
spy?) who rents the apartment above her garage. However, since Anastasia is
recently widowed in Assault With a Deadly
Glue Gun, I needed this relationship to progress slowly, which is why I had
drawn out the timeline of the first two books in the series.
I also wanted Anastasia to deal with the
financial realities of being a suddenly impoverished single parent at a time
when Alex is about to get his driver’s license and is getting ready to apply to
colleges. Whittling down Anastasia’s debt with various moonlighting jobs would
take time. I also wanted her much-married mother to continue to remarry.
I finally decided to condense my timeline as
much as possible, beginning with Revenge
of the Crafty Corpse, the third book in the series, but still maintain a
realistic passage of time. This book opens the beginning of July and spans
seven weeks. Decoupage Can Be Deadly
employs an even shorter timeframe, taking place over two weeks the end of
September and beginning of October. A
Stitch to Die For spans ten days at the end of October. A Scrapbook of Murder opens less than
three weeks later and takes place over two weeks. Finally, Drop Dead Ornaments, the latest book in the series, begins later
the day A Scrapbook of Murder ends
and unfolds over the course of two-and-a-half weeks in early December.
In-between I’ve shoehorned in three
mini-mystery novellas (Crewel Intentions,
Mosaic Mayhem, and Patchwork Peril), each only a few days
long. Much has transpired in Anastasia’s life over the course of not quite a
year, but I think I’ve solved my problem, at least for the time being. And I
still have six months before Alex graduates from high school.
A lot can happen in six months when you’re a
reluctant amateur sleuth.
Drop Dead Ornaments
An Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery, Book 7
Anastasia Pollack’s son Alex
is dating Sophie Lambert, the new kid in town. For their community service
project, the high school seniors have chosen to raise money for the county food
bank. Anastasia taps her craft industry contacts to donate materials for the
students to make Christmas ornaments they’ll sell at the town’s annual Holiday
Crafts Fair.
At the fair Anastasia meets
Sophie’s father, Shane Lambert, who strikes her as a man with secrets. She also
notices a woman eavesdropping on their conversation. Later that evening when
the woman turns up dead, Sophie’s father is arrested for her murder.
Alex and Sophie beg Anastasia
to find the real killer, but Anastasia has had her fill of dead bodies. She’s
also not convinced of Shane’s innocence. Besides, she’s promised younger son
Nick she’ll stop risking her life. But how can she say no to Alex?
Buy Links
Amazon https://amzn.to/2MBo1xS
Kobo https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/drop-dead-ornaments
iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/drop-dead-ornaments/id1431548050?mt=11
Nook https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/drop-dead-ornaments-lois-winston/1129345148?ean=2940161937181
USA
Today bestselling and
award-winning author Lois Winston writes mystery, romance, romantic suspense,
chick lit, women’s fiction, children’s chapter books, and nonfiction under her
own name and her Emma Carlyle pen name. Kirkus
Reviews dubbed her critically acclaimed Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery
series, “North Jersey’s more mature answer to Stephanie Plum.” In addition,
Lois is a former literary agent and an award-winning craft and needlework
designer who often draws much of her source material for both her
characters and plots from her experiences in the crafts industry.
Comments
This issue didn't seem like a problem at first while I was writing the original 17 Safe Harbor Medical Romance series, of which the mystery series is a spinoff. Each book had a different hero and heroine falling in love, etc. However, as I went along, the babies born or adopted early on grew older, and I had to track them. I ended up with a long file about ages, dates, etc. In the mysteries, Eric is now meeting some of those kids--one "baby" is now starting school. Argh! It almost makes me wish I were better with spreadsheets!
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