“A line will take us hours maybe, but if it seems more than a moment’s thought our stitching and unstitching is for naught.” William Butler Yeats was talking about poetry, but he may as well have been talking about cozies. These fun character-driven mysteries need to come across as frothy and light – and only those of us who have been there understand just how hard the author works to maintain this illusion. As the wonderful and talented Sherry Harris knows, serendipity can sometimes play a part. As she welcomes A Time to Swill, the followup to From Beer to Eternity, that bit of inspiration came from a supporting character – or, more accurately, his first wife, whom he had declared dead…

When A Line of No Importance Becomes Important

So much of the writing process is mystical to me. From the where do ideas come from to why I give characters certain traits. That really played out when I was writing A Time to Swill, the second Chloe Jackson Sea Glass Saloon mystery and Three Shots to the Wind, the third book in the series.

 

One of the side characters in From Beer to Eternity is Ralph Harrison. He’s married to his high school sweetheart and although they are in their early seventies, they have only been married a few years. Because of racial prejudices in the sixties their parents made them break up. Both went on to marry other people. In From Beer to Eternity, I mention that Ralph’s first wife had disappeared twelve years earlier and that Ralph had her declared legally dead.

When I wrote that, I wasn’t thinking “I’m going to explore that in the next book.” I just dropped in it there for some reason. However, when I started writing A Time to Swill, I have Chloe board an abandoned ship (for a very good reason) that gets swept back out to sea. While Chloe is onboard, she finds a skeleton. Once back on shore it becomes clear that the skeleton and other evidence on the boat points to Ralph’s missing wife. That sets Chloe on a journey even more unexpected than getting swept out to sea. 

I don’t write huge character sketches about my main characters before I start writing. I knew a few things about Chloe before I set out writing the first book From Beer to Eternity. Chloe was twenty-eight, she was from Chicago, was a children’s librarian, she ran almost every day, and she had a tragic event occur when she was ten that still was impacting her life. With those things in mind, I started writing the first book. As I went along, I wrote that she had an ex-fiancée. He was a nice but somewhat dull man. That’s all I said about him. He’s also mentioned in A Time to Swill but doesn’t even have a name. 

However, when I was writing the third book, Three Shots to the Wind, I started toying with the idea that ex-fiancée Perry Franklin (yes, he gets a name) shows up in Emerald Cove to try to win Chloe back with disastrous results. Chloe soon finds out that the man she dismissed as dull wasn’t who she thought he was and as the story unfolds it’s one shock after another for Chloe. 

Maybe my subconscious is working on things without me realizing it. Ah, that is the magic of writing. I love when some tiny little grain of an idea or in this case a line, turns into something much bigger. 

Sherry Harris is the Agatha Award nominated author of the Sarah Winston Garage Sale mystery series and the Chloe Jackson Sea Glass Saloon mysteries. Sherry is a past president of Sisters in Crime, a member of the Chesapeake Chapter of Sisters in Crime, the New England Chapter of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America. Sherry loves books, beaches, bars, and Westies — not necessarily in that order. She is also a patent holding inventor. Sherry blogs with Wicked Cozies at https://wickedauthors.com/ Find her on Twitter –  Sharrisauthor , Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SherryHarrisauthor , and Instagram at SherryHarrisAuthor