Author of the Holly and Ivy cozy mystery series,
Sally Handley is also an avid reader and gardener and writes a monthly blog
entitled “On Writing, Reading and Retirement”. Learn more about Sally and her
books at her website.
A Cozy Christmas
The words cozy and Christmas just seem to go together like peaches and cream. Before I
retired in 2015, every Christmas, I used to drive with my dog from New Jersey
to South Carolina to spend the holidays with my family. I managed to stay wide
awake for the twelve hour road trip by eating candy bars, drinking Coca-Cola
and listening to audiobooks. I still remember my delight the Christmas I
discovered Deck the Halls, a collaboration by Carol Higgins Clark
and her mother, Mary Higgins Clark. Listening to that cozy mystery as I drifted
southward through the Shenandoah Mountains, was just the best warm-up for the
week ahead.
Book two
of my Holly and Ivy mystery series, Frost
on the Bloom, begins on Christmas Eve at the fictitious Skyview Manor, a
really cozy setting. The irony is that when I started writing my first mystery,
Second Bloom, I had never even heard
the term cozy mystery. Oh, I’d read
tons of mysteries, many of them cozies, but I’d never heard the term used to
describe an entire genre until I attended my first International Women’s Writing Guild Conference back in 2013.
Registration
for the conference included a “Meet the Agents” session. In reviewing the agent
resumes and trying to decide which agents I wanted to sign up for, I came
across one whose write-up specified, “No cozy mysteries, please.” Wait. What? As
you can guess, I immediately went on line and googled “cozy mystery”.
The first
listing I found was https://www.cozy-mystery.com/. That was
my aha moment. As I read the home page introduction, I clicked off the
major characteristics of the genre one by one. Amateur sleuths. All the
characters lived in the same neighborhood. No blood and gore. Yes, indeed. I
was writing a cozy mystery.
Once I was
able to put that specific tag on what I was writing, people started providing
me with lots of helpful information. I learned about Malice Domestic, an
organization that holds an annual fan convention in Bethesda, MD every year and
celebrates traditional mysteries. I still recall how I felt attending that
first conference…I’d found my people.
I belong
to two book clubs and we read some serious literature, but I have to admit, I’m
happiest curled up inside a mystery--and not just any mystery--a cozy mystery. As I wrote in one of my blog posts,
“Especially when the world seems gray and gloomy, whether literally or
figuratively, I know no better escape than reading about a plucky heroine who
says and does all the things I can’t, a shero
who conquers the bad guys and finds true love with some hunky hero.”
Before
starting to write this post, I searched “Mary Higgins Clark” to find the title
of the book I’d listened to several years ago and discovered she and her mother
have written at least five Christmas cozies. Then I searched “Christmas Cozy
Mysteries”. I’m guessing
“Christmas Cozies” will eventually become its own sub-genre. I have to close
now and place my order for at least one or two in time to read this holiday
season. If you’re looking for a cozy Christmas read, I hope you’ll consider Frost on the Bloom.
Frost on the Bloom
In this
second book in the Holly and Ivy mystery series, one of Holly Donnelly’s former
students, Becky Powell, asks the look-alike sisters for help when they all
spend Christmas at Skyview Manor, and Becky becomes the prime suspect in the
attempted murder of her manipulative grandmother, Lyla Powell. Once again the
plucky sisters are reluctantly drawn into a murder investigation, convinced
that Mrs. Powell’s duplicitous friends and greedy Powell family members have
framed Becky for the crime. Holly’s involvement becomes a source of contention
between her and Detective Nick Manelli, threatening their budding romance. Can
their relationship continue to sizzle as the investigation heats up and the
sister sleuths try to catch a cold-blooded killer?
Buy Links
3 comments:
Frost on the Bloom is now available at most digital stores. Click the following link for links to your favorite store. https://books2read.com/u/mYgYpG
I love Christmas cozies, Sally! Thanks for a fun post.
Thank you, Linda. Hope you enjoy it. Merry Christmas!
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