Elizabeth Spann Craig
Bestselling Cozy Mystery Author
by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethspanncraig.com Complex murder schemes might seem clever, but they often backfire with readers who prefer believable motives and realistic methods. The best mysteries feel like they could actually happen. [...]
by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethspanncraig.com Timeline errors can derail even the best mysteries. When your sleuth interviews a suspect on Tuesday but refers to it happening on Wednesday two chapters later, readers notice. [...]
by Shannon Symonds ,@shannonsymonds7 I love creating a killer, even if he is a cozy killer. I believe the why behind your bad guy can make or break your story. To show you how [...]
by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethspanncraig.com The most satisfying mysteries offer readers that amazing “I should have seen it coming” moment when the killer is finally unveiled. For a mystery writer, one of the [...]
by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethspanncraig.com Sidekicks are important characters in cozy mysteries. They keep our sleuth from having a lot of interior monologue about suspects and motives, for one thing (which can get [...]
by Jenna Maeson The paranormal is a big deal in books right now. Like a really big deal. And it seems to be infiltrating all genres, even the ones that don’t usually include [...]
Planting Seeds for Your Mystery’s Solution by Elizabeth S. Craig The most satisfying mystery solutions can hinge on details that were hiding in plain sight all along. Mystery writers are constantly walking the [...]
by Elizabeth S. Craig If you’ve written cozy mysteries (or read them) for any length of time, you’ve probably encountered this common character dynamic: your amateur sleuth is busily investigating a murder while [...]
By Joanna Campbell Slan, @joannaslan Writing Through the Pandemic: Why I Decided to Include COVID-19 in My Cozy Mysteries By Joanna Campbell Slan When I began writing Mask or Raid: Book #17 [...]
by Katie East A well-crafted crime and the ensuing investigation are at the heart of any good crime fiction story. When that crime involves a mysterious death, incorporating accurate forensic anthropology can [...]
by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig I’ve read several mysteries lately that have surprised me. For a while, I’ve thought all mystery writers understood that mysteries are meant to be interactive affairs. The reader [...]
by Mike Martin, @mike54martin Where do stories come from? That’s a question I get asked a lot. So do other writers. The simple answer is that we get our stories from everywhere. Sometimes [...]
by Elizabeth S. Craig There’s something to be said for making mysteries less complicated. It’s no fun for the reader when the murderer is revealed, and they’re not sure who the character [...]
by Sierra Cross, @SierraCrossBook Hi all! I’m Sierra Cross, author of the Blue Moon Bay Witches series, and I’ve been writing about magic since the early 2000s, when the dominant trope in urban [...]
by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig I’ve written here before about cozy mystery victims and how tricky the process can be. It’s tough to make the victim a genuinely good person when you need [...]
by J.R. Lancaster, @jrlauthor For those of you who don’t know me yet, mysteries are my jam so there couldn’t be a more perfect topic for me to chat about. More so, let’s [...]
by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig Today I’ve got a quick tip for mystery writers to help keep readers questioning the killer’s identity until the end of the book. It’s a pretty simple one, [...]
by Kate Darroch, @BooksBonanza For the first time in decades, BISAC has recently created a new Book Trade Category: Cozies. It’s easy to see why that choice was made, and many would say [...]
by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig I have the luxury now of uninterrupted reading time, when I didn’t as much when my kids were little. But I still notice that I have the ability [...]
by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig Happy Halloween, everybody! On this day of spooky celebration, I thought I’d take a quick look at scares in cozy mysteries, known as being gentler reads than other [...]
by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig Hi everyone! I’m guest posting at David Farland’s blog today on the process of writing a Christmas cozy mystery. Hope you can pop over and join me! Tips [...]
by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig Cozy mysteries offer a very quiet approach to death for mystery readers. The crimes are never described in gory detail. The methods aren’t ordinarily very grim (I’ve [...]
by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig After writing about fifty cozy mysteries, I think I’ve used just about every story opener possible. I’ve opened with the dead body a few times. Sometimes I’ve had [...]
By Debbie De Louise (author of the Cobble Cove and Buttercup Bend cozy mysteries), @Deblibrarian Cozy mysteries are popular among those who prefer less graphic books with clean language and quirky characters. [...]
by Mike Martin, @Mike54Martin Greetings to our American cousins and many thanks to Elizabeth for giving us the opportunity to tell you about an exciting event happening north of your borders. From [...]
by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig I started reading the cozy mystery master Agatha Christie at a very impressionable age and loved the construction of her books and the characters she created. There were [...]
by Elizabeth Spann Craig, @elizabethscraig Cozy mysteries have a host of different settings, but one of the most popular, for writers as well as readers, is the small-town setting. It’s fun to have [...]
by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig I spend a lot of time reading blog posts and sharing them. I’ve noticed there are tons of posts on crafting better story openers. The posts usually talk [...]
by Elizabeth Spann Craig, @elizabethscraig I realized a couple of years ago that any time I’m interviewed for a podcast or anytime that a writer asks me about writing cozies, I immediately try [...]
by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig You probably wouldn’t think of funerals in cozy mysteries as having an important part in the story. But I know the time I left funerals out of a [...]
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