A completed book, all shiny and new with an enticing cover, meticulously edited didn’t just happen by a wave of a wand or a snap of the fingers. The second Ned McNeil cozy mystery was a cozy that almost wasn’t. My friends in my critique group, The Cozy Critters, had a lot to do with its completion.
I wanted to write a second Ned McNeil Moonlight mystery, following Moonlight Can Be Murder. I had the title already, By the Fright of the Silvery Moon. It sounded suitably chilling. That was the starting point–I wanted to write it. But, it wasn’t all that easy. I wrote the opening scene and read it to the Cozy Critters. I knew it didn’t sound the way I wanted it to sound; it didn’t have that special oomph. But, I didn’t know why. I watched my friends’ reactions.
“Sounds good,” someone said.
“Yes, I like it,” somebody added.
“You usually open with something exciting happening,” said another.
I detected a note of near-enthusiasm, of encouragement, of hoping that maybe it would get better. So, later, back at my computer, I deleted the whole thing and re-wrote it. Nope. Still too blah.
Doubts, which were never too far away from my ear, crept in. Maybe I wasn’t really cut out to be a writer. Maybe having five cozy mysteries on Amazon and other online sites was to be enough. I had reached my zenith and bottomed out. I was finished. Fizzled. Ka-put.
I wrote three more openings that I didn’t like.
But, I decided to try one more time and would read it aloud at the next meeting of my critique group.
One of the Cozy Critters has the most interesting dreams. Some are nightmares, some are not, but they are not boring. Like a flash, it came to me. The opening scene would be Ned McNeil waking from a terrifying nightmare. A very real, clutching at your throat kind of nightmare. So, that’s the way I began the book. The opening sentence was: The nightmare jarred me awake.
I read this newest effort to my critique group. They liked it! They sat on the edge of their chairs. When I finished, they were suitably scared and asking for more.
Of course, that opening scene was not the only hair-raising happening. In each chapter, tension builds and leads into the next. That’s the way I like to write. When my story scares my critique group, then I know I’ve found success.
Feeling good about the second Ned McNeil moonlight mystery, I wrote a third, Moonstruck and Murderous. And, now, would you believe, I’m writing the fourth book, Murder By Moonlight. The input of a discerning and honest critique group is a wonderful thing!
Moonlight Mysteries
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