Featuring guest authors; crafting tips and projects; recipes from food editor and sleuthing sidekick Cloris McWerther; and decorating, travel, fashion, health, beauty, and finance tips from the rest of the American Woman editors.

Note: This site uses Amazon affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Wednesday, June 26, 2024

MYSTERY AND PARANORMAL ROMANCE AUTHOR MICHELE DRIER ON ADDING LOVE TO THE MIX

Michele Drier is a fifth generation Californian. During her career in journalism at daily newspapers in California, she won awards for investigative series. She started out writing mysteries with the Amy Hobbes series then segued into paranormal romance—short on the violence, long on the romance—with her eleven-book series The Kandesky Vampire Chronicles. She’s also a book editor and teaches basic writing skills. Learn more about Michele and her books at her website.

Is Love the End?

 

Writing a series has its good and bad. Good because the characters have backstory that doesn’t need to be recreated in each book, and this allows them to grow.

 

Bad because they may never be able to have a Happily Ever After. The emotional and sexual tension between the protag and his or her love interest has kept the series fresh. Will a HEA release that tension?

 

I didn’t set out to write mysteries with a romantic subtext, but somehow there was always an attractive man (my protags are usually women) hanging around, wanting to be acknowledged. And the protags are all women who have never counted commitment as a need in their lives.

 

In my paranormal romance series, The Kandesky Vampire Chronicles, I managed to keep this tension going through the first nine books, but finally Maxie Gwenoch, the protag, had to make a decision. And now, as I set out to write the twelfth book, the tension has shifted but love and sex is still there.

 

In my mystery series, The Amy Hobbes Newspaper Mysteries and the Stained Glass Mysteries, both protags seem to be moving toward commitment, so will the subtext shift or will the couple become like the wise-cracking Thin Man series, with wit and humor keeping the zeitgeist alive?

 

In July, the third book in the Stained Glass series, Resurrection of the Roses, will see the light of day and a new female attraction will be introduced. How will this affect the budding relationship between Roz and Liam? Or has the murder of Roz’ husband affected her so deeply that she can’t entertain even having another relationship?

 

There are times when, as an author, my decision to leave the question of “will she or won’t she” up to the reader, has backfired. My readers have all wanted to know! And they wanted a HEA.

 

One of the reasons I started writing mysteries, and why the genre still attracts me, is that I love puzzles. Reading and solving a mystery has such a sense of satisfaction that even the romantic subplot needs a resolution, even if it’s a HFN (happily for now).

 

I think most of us are creatures of gratification, and wrapping up a mystery or relationship question gives us a feeling of making the world right again.

 

How about you? As a reader do you want the book (or series) to end on a HEA, or are you satisfied when the author leaves some ambiguity?

 

Resurrection of the Roses, the third book in The Stained Glass Mysteries, will be available in July.

 

Resurrection of the Roses

The Stained Glass Mysteries, Book 3

 

When Roz Duke receives an invitation to speak on stained glass at a medieval crafts conference in Paris, she’s torn about accepting. Then her friend Liam spots the invitation and conjures up a summer touring France, a lure Roz can’t resist.  Before the conference officially kicks off, though, the body of a man, impaled on a large shard of ruby red stained glass, stops her. Once again, she’s the finder of dead bodies. Who is the dead man? And why her? One of the first police officers on the site is a beautiful French Surete inspector, Celie Lejeune, who instantly homes in on Liam. 

 

Set against the vineyards and wineries of Burgundy, Roz, Liam and her rescue greyhound Tut, learn about making stained glass, wine and medieval crafts, but another body turns up and a couple of French cathedrals burn down. Arson? 

 

Roz and Liam’s idyllic French summer takes on a distinct menacing tone, dogged by an inscrutable French policewoman. Does she have designs on Liam? Or is it Roz in her sights? 


Preorder Link

9 comments:

Michele Drier said...

Hi Lois,
Thanks for having me! It's always fun to chat with Anastasia...
Michele

Heather Haven said...

A great article, Michele. Speaking of love, I loved reading about you and your protagonists or Protags, I should say. Hopefully you won't mind if I steal that word and use it in the future myself? Off to play Lois's trivia game. What a lovely way to start my morning!

Anonymous said...

Love this! It is so hard to find the sweet spot between a suspenseful love interest and the payoff with a HEA.

Michele Drier said...

Heather you can "steal" from me any time! It's the most sincere form of flattery...
And anonymous, yes, it's a sweet spot!

ANASTASIA POLLACK said...

Always a pleasure having you pay us a visit, Michele!

Linda T. said...

I've read all of your series and can attest that you always find interesting and unique ways to incorporate relationship ups and downs that add just the right touch to those great plots and stories.

Pamela Ruth Meyer said...

Great topic, Lois and Michelle. I love the tingle romance brings to a story, and I agree with Michelle's thought that both the mystery and the relationship need puzzling out and resolution to be satisfying. Give me that Happy For Now ending, and I'll be reaching for the next book in the series by the time my eyes encounter the word 'Acknowledgements.'

Michele Drier said...

Thanks Linda! And Pamela...yes, HFN leaves just enough suspense. Roz and Liam have been nagging me and there will be another one, #4 as yet untitled! Stay tuned.

Ana said...

Hi Michele and Lois! I'm so glad to see the pre-order for the next mystery, Michele! Paris! Regarding HEA or HFN, I'm okay if the romance isn't resolved as long as the ending tells me there's another book coming. In my next book, I have HEA , the killer captured, and the underlying crime of government theft left un-investigated and swept under the rug, (that's Mexico for you) so both satisfying and unsatisfying. I'll find out if people like it. It sounds like you're leaving us knowing another is coming. Happy!!!!!