Marilyn's Musings

When I decided to write a mystery series, one of the things that I was determined NOT to do was to write the same book all the time. In my Nora Tierney English Mysteries, American children’s book author Nora has solved murders in Oxford and the Lake District.  However, all three, starting with The Blue Virgin , through The Green Remains and The Scarlet Wench , have been “Whodunits,” as I’ve wanted to explore what would made a person feel it’s reasonable to take another human’s life. When it came time to plot the fourth, The Golden Hour , I wanted to do more than vary the setting. I decided to veer into new territory for me, and instead wrote a “Cantheystophim” mystery, featuring a psychopath named Viktor Garanin, whose life’s goal is to destroy the English people. There are scenes in Brighton, Cornwall, and Oxford with a hefty dose of action taking place in Bath. The theme of this book revolves around “what is family and home.” We see Nora and her partner, DI D...

                                    Writing a series is a bit like forecasting the weather: you don’t really know if what is forecast is going to happen. When I set out to write the Nora Tierney Mysteries, I created a vague story arc for my protagonist’s life over six books to track her growth and changes. In another life I swear I lived in the UK and wanted to set my series there after my travels always made me feel like I was coming home. But I knew I had to allow myself to deviate from this outline to keep Nora fresh and alive. First I created a “bible” for my recurring protagonist. Nora is an American living in the UK because I thought it would be interesting to see how she adjusted to a place with different traditions and slang from what she was used to, things that would go beyond learning to drive on the other side of the car and road. I gave her a background I was familiar with, an...

"In her stunning, debut mystery novel set in Oxford, England, Marni Graff keeps the reader guessing who-done-it. Her sophisticated literary style together with her compelling plot and cast of characters made the book impossible to put down. P.D. James step aside...." --Joan Seliger Sidney, Body of Diminishing Motion Marni (Marnette) Graff Marni Graff was born on Long Island and lived there for most of her life before moving with her husband and youngest son of three to North Carolina fourteen years ago. Buying property on the Intracoastal Waterway in rural Hyde County, Graff’s family was looking for a change from the fast pace they were used to, and found that on the shore of the Pungo River. For the first two years at Montgomery Point in northeastern NC, Graff wrote a column for the Beaufort-Hyde News called “Southern Exposure,” about a Yankee’s adjustment to living in the south. Graff started writing poetry in junior high and kept on writi...