What We're Writing @LucyBurdette #giveaway

LUCY BURDETTE: Another one of these writing weeks has rolled around, and I am in yet one more muddled middle. Last time I wrote a post for this event, I was very excited about all the possibilities for food critic #12. I am still excited, and maybe I even know who committed the murder, and I definitely know why. The problem is drawing the lines to connect the dots from that exciting opening to a satisfying ending. 

I participated in a Princeton alumni event last month with Nancy Herkness, a friend who writes romance novels laced with suspense. (You can listen to the YouTube video if you’re interested, we sure had a lot of fun!) You’ll meet her later this month. She was astonished to hear that as a mystery writer I don’t plot thoroughly in advance. I told her I would if I could! But the motivations and possible murderers simply don’t emerge until I write my way into them. Often as I get well into the book, it becomes easier to outline what I believe happened. And that helps me write the second half of the book faster than the first, with fewer revisions.

When I was a fairly new writer, I never would have guessed that my process would turn out this way. I felt very firmly that Mystery Writers should Plan Things Out. I understand in my writer's cortex that this would make things easier. But my writer's heart balks. 

For today, I will share a snippet from the middle of the book, in which Hayley and her neighbor Miss Gloria have revisited the scene of the crime. You'll notice that Hayley is asking many of the same questions that I am. And here's a photo of the actual shrimp tacos they ate, which were amazing...

The waitress returned with our dinners—huge platters of soft tacos smothered in salsa, cheese and sour cream, with a side of rice and black beans and a handful of homemade chips. I knew the crunchy Key West pinks waited for me underneath the toppings.

 “What else can I get for you? More drinks? Hot sauce? Napkins?”

“All set, thanks.” I bit into the first taco with anticipation. 

“These are incredible,” said Miss Gloria. We ate in silence for a few minutes, enjoying the view over the lagoon to the edge of the small trailer park. The cement retaining wall was lined with small motorboats. If you didn’t mind the noise of the bar and the music coming from the Fish Camp, it would be an idyllic place for a camper. I wondered if the Sheriff’s department would have canvassed all the residents about the murdered man.

“What do we know so far?” I wondered aloud when we were done with dinner. The waitress returned, and once again we declined a second round of drinks and I asked for the bill. “Davis confirmed what we already knew from reading the news over the past couple of years, that Gerald Garcia was a bully. I will be interested to meet his wife and extended family, if he has one.”

“How are you going to manage that?” Miss Gloria asked.

“I forgot to tell you, my mom and Sam want us to help with the funeral reception on Friday. It's at the Woman's Club.” 

“Put me down for that as well,” she said. “People always say more than they ought to at a funeral reception. Emotions are raw and every slight feels fresh. And filters seem to switch off in the face of grief.” Her expression grew distant and sad, as if remembering something in her past. She’d never talked much about the days and months following her own husband’s death. I waited a few beats to see whether she wanted to say more, but she remained silent.

“I would imagine this event will be quite tense since the guy was murdered and then buried on the beach. It wasn’t a death that the family would have expected,” I said. “I wonder how he was killed? I suppose it could have been accidental, but then why bury the guy? That makes me think it had to have been intentional. And what did they do, dig a big trench in advance because they planned to murder him? How the heck did the killer get the body to the beach? This person must have been strong, because Garcia was not a small man.” 

The vision of the two brightly colored kayaks that we'd seen next to the trailer down the road flashed to my mind. It wouldn't have been so hard if you brought the body under cover of darkness in a boat. Especially if you knew something about the tides. And what kind of evidence would be washed away by morning. 

How about you Red readers, are you suspicious of a mystery writer who doesn't plot ahead?

That's all from me folks! A SCONE OF CONTENTION is scheduled for its launch on August 10. And THE KEY LIME CRIME has been chosen for the WLRN Sundial Book Club for June. You can join that conversation here.

EXCEPT...to celebrate the impending release of Scone, Lottie and I have a lovely ARC to give away to one of our commenters today...

And one last thing, waiting for reviews is murder on a writer's nerves. So I'm psyched about the first big review of A Scone of Contention from Kirkus: 

A scone-by-scone tour of glorious Scotland. Foodies and Outlander fans will rejoice in the references to both in this not-so-mysterious paean to Scotland. –Kirkus