Everyone has a story to tell by Joan Havelange

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I am fortunate to live in a town with a vibrant library. The newly renovated library has a gallery where local artist can show their art. The artist’s display changes every month. On Wednesday evenings, the library hosts an open mic in the gallery. Open mic evening is a hoot. People are limited to 7 minutes and can read an excerpt from a book or read a poem. Or just tell a story of their own. It is great fun. The evening is an hour. Cookies, coffee, and tea are provided.

On alternate Wednesdays, the library hosts a guest speaker. The guest speaker has the floor for an hour. I was very pleased to be invited. And I was so delighted to have a crowd to share an excerpt from my newest release, Moving is Murder. I read the first chapter and received a great response.

After, I fielded questions from the audience about my writing journey. One of the questions was how did you decide on what genre you would write in?

I told the audience I had a thought while watching an old Agatha Christie movie. What if my main character wasn’t as refined or clever as Miss Marple? My protagonists, Mabel and Violet, were born. I wrote my first mystery, ‘Wayward Shot.’ This was in 2019. And now, 6 mysteries later, here I am.

I was also asked about writer’s block. Fortunately, I have never had that. I read that if your story stalls, it’s because you are taking your story in the wrong direction. After writing Murder Exit Stage Right, I thought I’d done all I could with Mabel and Violet. So I went in another direction and wrote my first thriller, Moving is Murder.

A review regarding ‘Moving is Murder.’

Great mystery with such realism... the story is more than a cozy category as there is a consistent threat of violent danger to the protagonist - the antagonist is quite sweet on the outside and truly evil on the inside (well-written). As I got deeper and deeper into the story, I read the chapters faster and faster. Every chapter had a last-line catch that yanked me into the next chapter. I finished the last 9 chapters (including the epilogue) in one day because I absolutely needed to know the ending.

This review made my day. The next story I’m going to tell is a historical mystery. After that, who knows? It may be a whodunit mystery. Or it may be another thriller. Stay tuned.