Striking a balance in a cozy mystery

 Writing a cozy mystery is a joy. What could be more fun than leading a reader through a mystery that doesn't involve blood or gore, and makes them laugh? If done properly, the reader never knows about the author's hours of research, sweat, gut-wrenching self-doubt, characters who refuse to speak when I'm trying to write their dialogue, and the worry that what's being written isn't funny and the mystery is so thin that it's unbelievable.

Yep, that's what writing a cozy is all about. 

Fortunately, I have a muse, a tuba player who we will call Brian Johnson, to hide his real identity. Never mind that his real name is Brian Johnson, and he does play the tuba. Brian planted the seeds that grew into the Whistling Pines cozy series. I have to do the actual writing, but Brian sows a field full of fictional characters, events, and places for me. My job is to select the choice bits of his crop, then to separate the chaff from the seed, arrange those bits in a cohesive plot, while sprinkling in zany characters and improbable events. No problem, right?

Luckily, I have a cast of characters who've inserted themselves into the series over the years. Chief among them is a Whistling Pines character who I've named Hulda Packer. Please ignore the fact that I have an outspoken Aunt named Hulda, who possesses many of the characteristics of the Hulda character. Also ignore the fact that Hulda's children are (happily) convinced that their mother IS the character. Trust me, even if I gleaned a couple of Aunt Hulda's endearing characteristics, I have created a caricature of Aunt Hulda by expanding her idiosyncrasies to a much higher fictional level. 

Then, there is Peter Rogers, the Whistling Pines protagonist, who is the anchor for the series. He's not based on anyone but an image in my mind. He's a peace maker and calming influence. A voice of reason among the zany oldsters living in the Whistling Pines senior residence. He becomes the target of the humor by having to deal with the craziness of the senior citizens and Two Harbors residents.

For example, Brian Johnson suggested the arson plot in Whistling Fireman. That's in part because of Sparky, the fictional Two Harbors fire chief's arrival in Whistling Artist. The Sparky character is so perfectly imperfect, that he had to carry over into the next books in the series. Yes, he will be back in the 2024 Whistling Pines cozy, too. Sparky provides the humorous sparks in Whistling Fireman. From his newfound and rapidly evolving romance with Wendy, to his homespun efforts to feed Peter home cooking from a lunch bucket while on a stakeout, I tried to make Sparky's innocence an amusing twist in a serious mystery. 

The challenge is finding the balance between the serious mystery plot, and the humor. For instance, Peter and Sparky are on a stakeout after apparently determining the arsonist's next target. That's key to the resolution of the arson plot. The tension builds as Sparky opens his lunch bucket and offers Peter items prepared by his elderly, doting, mother. Yes, Sparky's mother has prepared a meal of pork ribs and sauerkraut for two men who are going to be trapped inside a car for hours.

Couple that with Alpaca bingo in the park (Betting on which pre-marked square the nervous Alpacas will poop in) and the firing of untested pumpkin cannons, what could possibly go wrong? Or right?

Whistling Fireman will be released October 1st. You'd might as well go to Amazon and pre-order your copy now just to learn the answers to those questions.

Hovey, Dean - BWL Publishing Inc. (bookswelove.net)