Maggie Pill Mysteries

I started my career believing I'd never write more than three books in a series, but I soon found out that publishers and fans always want more than that. When I began writing the Sleuth Sisters, the demand for "the next one" was great, and the ideas kept coming, so I did seven books. When I finally ended the series, a reader I know personally said, "Good. I was getting tired of that series." (Huh. Did anyone twist your arm to make you read them?) Anyway, my original point was that I believe a series has an arc. If a writer sees it as going on and on, great, but for me, it's pretty short: Introduce the main character(s), see them grow through their adventures, toss in some secondary characters who are fun, and solve a new crime in each book. While readers look forward to the next adventure, for me a series begins to feel repetitive at some point. How many times can the irritating character be irritating in new ways? How many daring rescues must the main char...

   A love interest is always popular in a series, even when the protagonist is over seventy. (I recently read a book where the woman fell in love at ninety-plus!) I'm not big on romance, so the character I invented to become Lorilee's friend is a puzzle. I have more fun with unique characters, like Kevin the Dancer, or irritating ones, like Mitzi Talbot. Lover or otherwise, I try to make characters real and interesting. Aside from the killers, they're not bad people, just unaware of their effect on others. A fun part with Mitzi is the insults Lorilee invents in her head, never spoken, but always there. I can't be the only person who would like to say things that she would never actually say.  This story had me looking up schemes used by con artists, which can be quite clever. As Peg Herring, I recently wrote another book about the con game (It's called FAKE and you can get it HERE ). As with all my books, the information I provide in this book and FAKE is real. ...

Sometimes an event gives me an idea for a book. The hurricane that hit the Tampa area in 2024 got lots of news coverage, and some of it focused on animals affected by the storm, often pets that lost their homes or their owners in the mayhem.  A running plot-line of the Cats & Crime series is that Lorilee can only have 8 cats, so she has to hide any extras that show up, as Esme does, on her doorstep. While cozies aren't particularly instructive for the most part, I have used them to highlight situations, so in this one, we learn about the re-homing efforts after the storm. I have great admiration for those who work to reunite pets with owners or find new homes if that isn't possible. Lorilee's empathy for homeless and damaged pets expands to concern for humans as well. Sometimes people who stay away from society do so because they care too deeply and must limit themselves to what they can handle. Raining Cats and Cats takes place after Hurricane Milton devastated the Ta...

Years ago, my sister wanted me to write a book about a "crazy cat lady" who solves murders. I never got around to it back then, and she's gone now, but I am right now finishing the final book of the five-part series she envisioned. The first book, like the series, is called Cats and Crimes. I began Lorilee's story when she's at a rather isolated point in her life, partly from circumstances, partly by choice. The series arc covers her return to society, at least as much society as Lorilee wants. All the advice we see today for older people includes calls for socialization. You'll be happier with lots of friends, they say. You'll stave off mental decline. You'll suffer fewer "old person" problems. The other side of that is becoming tired of large groups of people. Like Lorilee, I don't want to be part of conversations about how the world is falling apart. (It's always been falling apart. You just weren't paying attention forty year...

Here's where writers set themselves up. I liked the Once Upon a Trailer Park, Twice the Crime This Time , Third... idea in the titles, but that meant that the final book of Trailer Park Tales had to have THREE crimes. Talk about making work for myself! Throughout this series, I tried to showcase "types" of senior citizens (knowing of course that we are all unique and therefore never typical). One of our couples has been married forever, and they love each other dearly. That does not preclude anger at foibles, like leaving one's shoes in the way or spending too much time crafting. Another couple is newly married and still unsure of how to talk to each other. A third couple is dealing with the husband's decline in health, which changes a marriage in ways that can create stress. The fourth couple is adjusting to a new way of life after decades of working a farm, where there was always plenty to do. Secondary characters are the park complainers, those who think they s...

 Writer brains are weird. I had no intention of playing off the title of Book 1, Once Upon a Trailer Park, in the rest of the series, but it seemed inevitable to follow Once with Twice. That meant two crimes, so I came up with a cold case and a current one. Such stories require balance, so I needed lots of help to keep the details straight and both cases moving along. This is where long-time readers are a blessing. Many of them will read a rough (sometimes really rough) draft and make suggestions to help clarify events and pinpoint characters' motivations. It's hard to find readers who do this well. Many read purely for enjoyment, so they don't look for flaws in a story. A writer needs someone who reads with a critical eye--not to nitpick, but to tell her where the story cracks open because something doesn't add up. I read a mystery recently where a nationally known radio host revealed the name of a person she suspected of murder on her show without the slightest bit ...

 We winter in an RV park in Florida, and when residents there found out I was an author, I heard time and time again, "You should write about this place." So I did. An RV park is a strange microcosm of the nation (though our population is mostly from east of the Mississippi) in that people come from many different locales to escape winter weather. We're a mix of Canadian and U.S. We aren't Floridians. Most of us stay 3 to 5 months and then go back home. In the park people meet and mingle daily, but for most of us, that doesn't continue for the rest of the year. That means that you see people every day for say, four months, and then have no contact with them until your return next fall. I tried to recreate that feeling in Trailer Park Tales, my three-book mystery series. The events are seen through the eyes of four couples. That means eight narrators, which is a lot, so I give readers lots of hints as to who's who.  Using multiple narrators was purposeful, sinc...

  The final book of the Sleuth Sisters series didn't start out to be final, though I was aware that I was tiring of the adventures of Barb, Faye, and Retta. The appeal of a series is that readers eagerly await the next book, and I still have bookstore owners tell me that readers ask when there will be another one. The downside for a writer is that series have the tendency to become formulaic. Everyone knows the characters. We know the basic setting. All that's required is to invent a murder and solve it in the next installment. That can come to a point where it's no longer fun, and that's where I was.  What clinched the end of the series for me was that one of my sisters died. It seems wrong now to write happy tales of the sisters sniping at each other. I chose to move on, though I did finish this one, #7. I moved the setting to Green Bay, Wisconsin, which was fun. I let Retta's undisciplined dog Styx be part of the rescue. And I tied up the loose ends as best I cou...

  Any series that includes dogs is likely to touch on puppy mills at some point. It's a hard topic to deal with in a cozy mystery, because it's such a horrible, sad subject, but the reality is that people need to recognize that such places exist and that they play on animal lovers' naive beliefs. As I write books that include pets, I find myself visiting humane societies all over my area. The people who work there are amazing, from the volunteers who play with the kittens to the managers who puzzle out how they're going to afford to feed the animals in a given month. After seeing the bare bones operation at some places, I joined my local humane society and support their work by getting the word out when I can.    One of the hardest times a local humane society faces is when a site is discovered where animals are abused, such as a puppy mill. They have to rescue and care for animals that are often in bad shape. They have to find homes for them (once the court says the ow...

  Setting a book in your home area is common for authors. It's easy, because we know a lot about it already. In addition, we can showcase what we love about the place. I live in northern Lower Michigan, so for the Sleuth Sisters, I invented and inserted a county along the Lake Huron shoreline, between Alpena and Presque Isle Counties. In this book, the sisters go west to visit the Leelanau Peninsula, noted for charm, vineyards, and tourists. Michigan has two very different coastlines in the top half of the "mitten," the Lower Peninsula. On the east side (where I live), the land is flat and the coastline fairly regular. On the west, Lake Michigan side, one finds dramatic rises, inlets, and other interesting geographic features like steep sand dunes and long, narrow peninsulas. Over the last few decades, growers have begun vineyards along the western shores, and that combined with the visual beauty brings in visitors with lots of money to spend. One of the things I notice l...

  One of the great things about cozy mysteries is their humor, and I had fun with this one because I grew up with chickens and can attest to humorous moments with these critters. They're fluttery and feathery, and they have minds of their own. On the serious side in this story is the criteria for judging an elderly person's competence. We have all heard of cases where a family member pushes to get control of grandma's estate for their own benefit, but the question must be asked: How crazy is crazy? When does a person's right to independence become dangerous to their health and even the health of others? A word about the covers for the Sleuth Sisters series. I absolutely fell into a pot of gold when I went online and hired a young woman from Singapore to do covers for me. She was fast, she was creative, and she listened to what I wanted. She drafted a theme for the books, the fence with three rails, each with an object that represented a sister. First she used shoes, the...

As you might have noticed, I don't post much when I have nothing to report. Just my philosophy, but I see no point in writing about nothing. 

 If you're a newsletter subscriber, you already know that Once Upon a Trailer Park is the giveaway on Bookfunnel right now, but only until August 11. If you're not on my newsletter list, you can still get your free e-copy HERE It's Book #1 of the Trailer Park Tales series, followed by Twice the Crime This Time and Third Crime's the Charm. If you've ever lived in any type of closed community, you'll enjoy the characters who show up in these books. I'm at work on Book #3 of the Cats & Crimes series, Have Cats - Will Crime-Solve. Lorilee and Jess have new adventures when a stranger moves into the neighborhood with the help and interference of Ditzy Mitzi and her son Nasty Greg.   The book goes on sale October 1, 2024, and you can pre-order it HERE .

BEFORE I FORGET YET AGAIN: Now is your best chance to find my entire ebook collection for a promotional price at @Smashwords as part of their Annual Summer/Winter Sale! Find my books and many more at https://www.smashwords.com/shelves/promos/ all month! #SWSale2024 #Smashwords.  I tell myself I'll be better about blogging, but...I probably won't. I do try to keep readers up-to-date on where the next book is in the pipeline, so here it is. Have Cats - Will Crime-Solve, Book #3 of the Cats & Crimes series starring Lorilee Riley, is with the content editor (That's the person I pay to make me frustrated). Content editors tell authors what needs to be changed in a book. People often ask, "Do you have to do what she says?" No, I don't, but when an objective, well-read editor says, "Look at this again," a writer should do that. Editors point out where we repeat ourselves, where we don't explain enough, where the plot gets hinky, and where charac...

  First, here are the answers to the quiz in my May newsletter. A.         26 Letters of the Alphabet B.          7 Wonders of the Ancient World C.          1001 Arabian Nights D.         12 Signs of the Zodiac E.          54 Cards in a deck (with the Jokers) F.          8 Planets in the Solar System G.         88 Piano Keys H.         13 Stripes on the American Flag I.          32 Degrees at which Water Freezes J.           18 Holes on a Golf Course K.         90 Degrees in a Right Angle L.          200 Dollars for Passing ...

 There's less than a week left to get Cats and Crimes as a free e-book from Bookfunnel either here: https://books.bookfunnel.com/cozymysteryseptember/viw7z3gxs5 or here: https://books.bookfunnel.com/cleancozybooks/vqudav7vmv The way Bookfunnel works is that readers are offered free e-books of a certain genre, bundled together to suit the reader's taste. I signed up for two cozy mystery giveaways this month. Clicking on the link will get you a list of free cozies you can choose from. Cats and Crimes is the first of the Cats & Crimes Mysteries, and the second, Raining Cats and Cats , is available for purchase all over the place. https://books2read.com/u/mK7JAV   They're both also in audio from Amazon (Audible). If you'd like a code for a freebie on either, I have them, in hopes (of course), that you'll submit a review somewhere when you're finished listening. Oddly, the fourth book of the series is banging around in my head, but not the third. Not sure what I...

 I try to blog monthly, and the "experts" advise blogging weekly. Yeah, right. No way is my life that exciting or my advice that critical to world peace. I will say that CATS AND CRIMES is doing well. I've had compliments on the cover and the characters, particularly the cats. If you're getting desperate for Christmas gifts and you have a mystery/cat lover on your list, buy it HERE . On the philosophical side, I've been considering why cozies are so popular. I think there are several reasons: they're funny, they're not scary, and, possibly most important, the bad person gets punished in the end. We live in a world where the guilty get away with far too much. (No, I don't believe it's worse now than it was before. We just get it shoved in our faces all day, every day.) The guilty have often escaped punishment with their money, their fame, lies and deceit, and, for whatever reason, the inaction of the rest of us.  But in a cozy, some amateur with not...

I found a better image online of my imagined version of Albert, a cat shaped like a soccer ball, but I couldn't reach the rights holder to get permission to use it, so here's my second choice. He's based on a combination of cats I've known, some large, some black, and some too lazy to move. Albert is huge. We've all seen a cat like him, one that looks more like a blimp than a pet. Albert's weight makes him lethargic, which creates a loser's circle: too heavy to move around much, the only exercise he enjoys is eating, overeating adds to his weight problem. Lorilee, the protagonist in Cats and Crimes , blames Albert's former owner, who equated food with love. Once any being, cat, dog, or person, gives in to gluttony, it's very hard to change. I guess what I'm saying is that Fat Albert will never be svelte. Once again, here's the link to the book. Pre-order now or buy it on November 15, 2022: https://books2read.com/u/3LVEz7

 Cat lovers hate to admit it, but there are cats who are just plain mean. I submit they have reasons for it, some of which we can figure out, some we can't.  My daughter adopted a cat in Bahrain that was a perfect example of meanness. Like Professor Higgins in Pygmalion, he hated everyone. The reason, she was told, was that he'd been kept in a box for the first few years of his life, and probably mistreated as well.  He was beautiful, much like the cat in the photo above, though he was a gray. My daughter was good to him, and he learned after a few months that he could move around the house (He spent a long time hiding in a closet.) and trust her not to abuse him. This led the cat (Taz, short for Tasmanian Devil) to bond with her AND HER ALONE. The rest of us were fair game. If we walked along the upstairs hallway, he was liable to be lurking, and he'd jump out and slice our ankles bloody. If we came too close, he hissed and growled like a movie monster. And we knew never...

 Cats and Crimes is a labor of love in that the cats in the book are animals I remember from a lifetime of being a cat lover. While I never had a one-eyed cat, I had friends who did, so I shamelessly borrowed him for the book. The protagonist, Lorilee Riley, adopts cats that others won't take, since she doesn't mind adapting to their disabilities. In the story, Mayson is a kitten (his mother is May, get it?) who's deaf and has only one eye. He makes life interesting by making up his own rules, as kittens tend to do. Mayson wants to be outside, but like many youngsters, he doesn't think very far ahead, so if and when he gets his way, he find reality more difficult than expected. Like Tigger in the Winnie-the-Pooh stories, he's lovable but sometimes exasperating. In case I haven't mentioned it often enough, here's the link to pre-order Cats and Crimes, which releases in print and e-book Tuesday, November 15, 2022. https://books2read.com/u/3LVEz7