I'm pleased to let Victoria Hamilton take over Cozy Up With Kathy today. Victoria writes the Vintage Kitchen Mystery series. Sieve and Let Die, the eleventh book in the series will be released tomorrow.
Keeping Series Characters Consistent
By Victoria Hamilton
I’m excited that Vintage Kitchen Mystery #11, Sieve and Let Die, is coming out tomorrow! I can’t believe it: eleven titles in the series so far, and that’s all due to wonderful readers who buy the books, allowing me to keep writing.
You, those readers, buy and read multiple mystery series. And you write letters, emails and comments to writers. Those notes are a real boost. Other authors feel the same way. Did you know that when I do hear from readers about forthcoming books, the most common comments are that they’re looking forward to revisiting the place, yes, but more than that, the people.
My people. The people I created, who now live and breathe on their own in the towns of my creation. I can picture Queensville so well, but the Queensville in your mind is likely different than the one in mine. And that’s how it should be. But the people I’ve created need to be recognizable to all of us, writer and readers alike, maybe not physically, but emotionally, and in their personalities. There should be a common understanding among us of what this or that person in the books would do.
Vintage Kitchen Mystery series consists, so far, of eleven books. In Jaymie Leighton Müller’s universe it has only been about three and a half years or so. A lot has happened in Jaymie’s life in three and a half years, and it’s so different than it was when I first introduced her in A Deadly Grind in 2012. But for me it’s been eleven years. In that time I’ve changed and the world has changed. Reconciling the two, writing a series over many years, can be tricky.
When I started to write Sieve and Let Die, I realized that I had been so busy with other projects that I hadn’t written a Vintage Kitchen Mystery for two years! Two years! I put aside that thought and got to the writing, then turned the book in to my editor. I received a note back from him; he expressed concern about my depiction of key characters. When I went back to edit the book, I understood what he was saying. I was failing at one of the most basic duties of a writer, keeping the characters consistent. Something was off, and it took my editor to spot it!
So what did I do? First, I went back and reread my own work, past Vintage Kitchen Mysteries. Aha! I started to see the problem. Jaymie and her friends and family have had some wonderful things happen to them in the last while, and I wasn’t celebrating that as I ought. She is a smart capable woman, with a husband she loves, a daughter she adores, and friends and family she relies on. A good life, but I wasn’t showing all of that in their interactions.
Thank goodness for editors! Mine steered me back onto the straight and narrow and so I rewrote the whole book. I’m so glad I did, and I’m so proud of the outcome. I think readers will enjoy it too.
On my never-ending voyage of discovery as a writer I have come to realize that I need to speed up my writing, not because I need to put the books out faster – though that won’t hurt; I don’t want to leave so long between books! – but also because it helps me keep in touch with my characters, their personalities, and their lives. Speed equals immediacy for me, I now understand. So I’m already writing the next Vintage Kitchen Mystery! And having great fun doing it.
I’m so very happy that I went back and rewrote the book, finding my ‘friends’ again: Jaymie, Jakob, Jocie, Val, Becca, Mrs. Stubbs, and even huffy Georgina Brevard, Becca’s sister-in-law! Not to mention Hoppy, Lilibet and Denver, their animal companions.
I hope my wonderful readers feel the same.
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Sieve and Let Die – Vintage Kitchen Mysteries #11
In the new Vintage Kitchen Mystery from the author of A Calculated Whisk, Jaymie’s not sure who to believe when every suspect’s alibi has as many holes as a sieve . . .
Vintage cookware collector Jaymie Müller is stunned when an irate woman accuses her pharmacist friend Val of tampering with her prescription. When more unfounded accusations follow, it seems clear the woman has a personal grudge against Val. But before they can figure out why, Jaymie and Val stumble upon the woman’s dead body on the steps of Val’s pharmacy. Given her altercations with the woman and the location of the body, the police naturally suspect Val.
Jaymie has heard rumors that the victim had become forgetful and erratic, but could that explain her death? And why was Val being framed as her murderer? Determined to find the clues that connect the woman’s strange behavior to her death, Jaymie begins questioning the people in her life, and soon suspects that the culprit is among them. But she’ll have to be careful about who she confronts, because while solving murders is hard work, there’s a killer on the loose who finds committing them all too easy . . .
Includes a vintage recipe!
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Watch for these books in 2024:
Lady Anne and the Haunted Schoolgirl – Lady Anne Addison Mysteries #5
Thanks for Muffin - Merry Muffin Mysteries #8
And #12 in the Vintage Kitchen Mystery Series: Cat Got Your Tongs
About Victoria Hamilton:
Victoria Hamilton is the pseudonym of nationally bestselling romance author Donna Lea Simpson. Victoria is the bestselling author of four mystery series: the Lady Anne Addison Mysteries, the Vintage Kitchen Mysteries, the Merry Muffin Mysteries, and A Gentlewoman’s Guide to Murder Mysteries. Visit her website at victoriahamiltonmysteries.com and sign up for her newsletter to keep up with all the latest in her mystery world!
Visit Victoria online:
Website: http://www.victoriahamiltonmysteries.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VictoriaHamiltonMysteryAuthor/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MysteryVictoria
Thanks so much for hosting me, Kathy!!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for stopping by!
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