Keeping a Series Fresh - A Guest Post by Diane Weiner

There’s nothing like a binge-worthy cozy mystery series. The mystery element tugs at curiosity and drives the reader to the end of the book. The setting is comfortable, like a worn sofa or a cup of hot tea. The characters become our friends. We become invested in them as they face challenges and growth throughout a series. Authors work hard to keep the stories fresh and appealing because readers become invested in their work and we don’t want to disappoint. How can it be done.

 Protagonists as well as readers learn by exposure to different people, ideas, and locales. 

In Murder is Medical, book 10 in the Susan Wiles Schoolhouse Mysteries, retired teacher turned sleuth Susan Wiles teams up with a new friend, and they become two peas in a pod. Both have detective daughters who warn them to stay out of police business, both are grandmothers, and both possess intelligence, curiosity, and gumption. By observing the actions and quirks of her new friend, Susan discovers truths about herself.

This book takes place in St. Louis, a change of venue for Susan’s crime solving. The city environment and the fact that she’s a guest in her son’s home, add a freshness to the series. Additionally, when Susan’s husband faces a life-threatening health challenge, she has to take on a new role. Readers watch her navigate this serious challenge—one many of us are called on to face at some point in our lives. 

Speaking of challenges, in my new release, The Tainted Course, Emily and Henry Fox have recently become parents to a moody, eye-rolling teenager. When their new daughter faces harm, it brings out the wild cougar in Emily and a fiere protective instinct in Henry that throws him off kilter.

Maddy pulls her new parents into challenges that their careers in medicine and crime reporting have failed to prepare them for. Eating dinner at the Outside Inn, Maddy recognizes a new school friend and the Foxes invite her and her family to join them at their table. The waitress deliberately spills diet soda on the woman’s white pants, while Coralee’s new boy Friday spews venom at this woman for ruining his sister’s life. Someone hates this woman enough to spike her cheesecake and murder her. It may be one of those two, but the suspect list grows as Emily and Henry help the detective dig deeper.

I find myself drawing current events into my books. While writing The Tainted Course, the bribe for admissions college scandal and the propensity to throw illegal aliens out of the country were hot news stories. Working these events into the series infuses it with vitality. 

Adding characters and working in a back story help keep writing fresh. Since the beginning of the Sugarbury Falls series, I’ve hinted at the mystery of Emily’s sister. In each book, I’ve kept the suspense brewing in the background of the primary mystery. At the end of The Tainted Course, a clue propels the mystery into the next book, The Muddy Course, where answers will finally be obtained. I generally alternate writing for each series, but I felt with the bit of a cliffhanger at the end of The Tainted Course, I owed it to my readers to write the next in this series, and to write it quickly! I’m aiming for a fall release.

Emily’s mother comes to town. Being Maddy’s mother is a learning curve, but dealing with her own is about to steer her right off a cliff! Readers will see another side of Emily and gain a better understanding of her character. While the charm of a series lies in its sameness, the addition of new characters and challenges keeps it fresh.

Characters, like all of use, have personal demons, doubts, shortcoming, and self-inflicted obstacles. Over the course of a series, we can empathize with a character facing many of the challenges that we or our loved ones might face. Our interactions with others, new experiences, and the challenge of overcoming vulnerabilities is a catalyst for growth both for the reader and the for the protagonist. 

Both series are published by Cozy Cat Press and available on Amazon.com and through Barnes and Noble. For more information, visit Diane's Facebook page (dianeweinerauthor), website (www.dianeweinerauthor.com), and twitter (dianeweinerauth).