Summer Reading

I have been buying more mysteries over the past few weeks. Even though I haven't read all of the ones I bought last year. Now I have been reading more recently. And some of the ones I bought were overdue. Like Beth's book, some by Maggie Sefton and the first Diane Mott Davidson--all Colorado mystery authors.

But it bothered me that I was spending more money on books, even though many were from Hooked on Books, the used book store near work. Then it hit me.

Summer reading. That's what I did every summer as a kid. I wasn't particularly athletic. Living in the country meant that often there weren't many kids around to play with. So I read. A lot. Now that it's June, my brain kicks into reading overdrive. So it's okay, even understandable, that I would make sure I have a lot of reading on hand.

Is there a particular time of year when you tend to read more or less? Why do you think that is? And when you do get in reading "overdrive", what do you like to read?

Figuring It Out

I recently finished reading a very good cozy mystery. Well crafted, some nice tension, realistic characters and humor--always a plus for me. But I knew who did it the minute the character was introduced. I kept hoping I was wrong, but nope.

Fleur says that's one of the problems with being a writer. We read books or watch movies and think, "What would I do here?" Movies with big twists are especially disappointing. About ten minutes into "The Others" I knew what was going on. That doesn't mean I'm particularly smart, just that I thought, "What would make this movie different from all the other ghost stories out there?"

So how do we avoid giving away what we're trying to hide and still play fair? Introducing a character on page 250 of a 255 page book and then declaring him the culprit is a cheat.

I guess, as with most things in this business, it comes down to the writing. Craft a story with all the elements I listed above, and the reader won't care that she figured it out. She may even feel good about it.