OCCRWA Proudly Presents:
February 13 - March 11, 2012
Kiss Me Or Kill Me:
Writing Cozy Mysteries 101 for Romance Writers
with Linda O. Johnston
About the Class:
All romances contain some suspense – i.e. will the hero and heroine resolve conflicts by the end and live happily ever after?
All cozy mysteries contain suspense, too, but do they always involve romance? Not necessarily, but the best ones do! Those romances seldom reach HEA by the end of the book, though. Cozies are usually parts of a series, and the suspense of romance can continue through subsequent books — even though the mysteries in each book must get resolved by the end.
What other similarities and differences are there between romances and cozies? They’ll be addressed in Kiss Me Or Kill Me: Writing Cozy Mysteries 101 for Romance Writers.
The class will also address the basics of writing cozies: choosing a protagonist and deciding how she’ll get involved solving mysteries; choosing a theme for the series; introducing and following through with a love interest (or not); throwing in a corpse or two, plus hiding clues for solving the murders; planning a series; and much more!
There will be online class discussions and writing exercises, too. Kiss Me or Kill Me will also contain enough basics on writing cozies that non-romance writers will learn a lot as well.
About the Instructor:
Linda O. Johnston's first published fiction appeared in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and won the Robert L. Fish Memorial Award for Best First Mystery Short Story of the year. Since then, Linda has published more short stories, plus eighteen romance novels, including the Alpha Force paranormal miniseries for Harlequin Nocturne. Alpha Force is a covert military unit of shapeshifters, and the most recent book in the series is GUARDIAN WOLF. She has also published three Nocturne Bites e-novellas and is additionally writing a novel for Harlequin Romantic Suspense.
Linda is also the author of the Pet Rescue Mystery series from Berkley Prime Crime which debuted in March 2011 with BEAGLEMANIA, followed by THE MORE THE TERRIER in November 2011. The next in the series will be HOUNDS ABOUND, to debut in April 2011. The series centers around Lauren Vancouver, the dedicated administrator of a successful private, no-kill animal shelter who also finds herself having to solve murders. In the Pet Rescue Mysteries, “no-kill” means pets, not people! The Pet Rescue series is a spinoff from Linda’s Kendra Ballantyne, Pet-Sitter, nine-book mystery series, also from Berkley Prime Crime.
Additional info:
Website: www.LindaOJohnston.com
Blog: www.KillerHobbies.blogspot.com (Linda blogs on Wednesdays)
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LindaOJohnston
Enrollment Information
Enrollment for this class has closed.
For a listing of other OCCRWA online classes, please click here.
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Site updated February 15, 2012
