I’m thrilled to welcome cozy mystery author Diane Kelly as today’s Cluesletter featured author. As the author of more than forty mysteries, Diane’s cozies are themed everything from taxes to moonshine.
Diane’s latest release, Primer and Punishment, is the fifth book in her House-Flipper Mystery series. (Don’t you just love that theme?) Our interview below covers fixer uppers, publishing paths, and the career advice she’d give her younger self.
Connect with Diane on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, and her website. Sign up for her newsletter here. Grab Primer and Punishment from all retailers here.
Primer and Punishment is book five in your House-Flipper Mystery series. True to its theme, this series follows carpenter Whitney Whitaker as she turns fixer-uppers into charming homes. In your opinion, what makes for a good cozy mystery theme? And/or, what was the inspiration for this house-flipping series?
A good cozy mystery theme is one with broad appeal that also has many aspects to be explored. As evidenced by the popularity of home improvement shows, renovation is something a lot of people find interesting, including me! There are a wide variety of housing styles, including houseboats like the one featured in this story, and the theme has given me a lot to work with. My characters have remodeled a stone cottage, a colonial, a decrepit roadside motel, an old country church, and now a houseboat.
When I launched this series, I knew I wanted to set it in Nashville, where I lived from 2014 to 2016. Such a vibrant and creative city! I considered various ideas and discussed my thoughts with my friend Paula over lunch. She pointed out how Nashville was booming and that a lot of renovation was going on. I owe the idea to her. As they say, fiction writers are liars and thieves, though in this case the theme was more of a gift from a friend.
You also write several other series, including the Mountain Lodge Mysteries, Southern Homebrew Mysteries, Paw Enforcement, and tax-themed Tara Holloway series. Do you have a favorite series to write? Does your writing process change depending on the series?
I love all of my series for different reasons, so it’s hard to pick one and say it’s my favorite. I will say that Laying Down the Paw, the third book in my Paw Enforcement series, is the one I am most proud of. I dug much deeper emotionally in that book than in any other. There’s a teen boy character—Dub—who is in crisis. My husband and I were doing respite foster care at the time and saw firsthand what these children go through. I drew on that experience in writing the book. I cried a bit while writing it, but I hope it brought some understanding of what some children are forced to endure when they don’t have a loving, supportive family. Even though cozies are generally lighter books, I try to bring attention to issues in subtle ways when I can and when it fits the story.
I’m also very partial to Death, Taxes, and a French Manicure, my first published book, because it was proof my dream had come true and that my hard work had finally paid off. It was such a thrill when my editor gave me the cover image for that book. That’s when it first really felt real.
You have published both traditionally and independently—what are the differences between self-publishing your books and working with a traditional publisher? Can you share the advantages and disadvantages to each, and share some advice for authors?
The great thing about traditional publishers is that they get your books into bookstores, do some publicity for you, design the covers, edit your work, and do any necessary formatting and uploading, so the author can focus more on the writing. With self-publishing, the author has to take care of each and every detail, or hire the parts out. But the upside is that publishing independently gives a writer much more flexibility. Stories don’t have to be a specified length. They also don’t have to fit neatly within genre guidelines, which publishers and bookstores generally prefer because it makes the books easier to market and sell. An author can write what they want, when they want, and get it out for sale much quicker—but their chances of seeing their indie books in bookstores or libraries are very slim. Most stores and libraries only carry traditionally published books. Whether a book is traditionally or independently published, authors need to do quite a bit of promotion on their own.
Choosing which avenue to pursue comes down to the amount of control an author wants to have, and whether the story fits within a publisher’s guidelines. For me personally, I like putting my full-length novels in the hands of a traditional publisher’s professional team. But for my novella-length work or short stories, I’ve found indie is the way to go since there aren’t a lot of high-paying markets for shorter works and it can take a lot of time to shop them around. I’d rather just get them out for sale when I have them ready and skip the middleman.
Having written so many novels, what advice would you give your younger self? Do you have advice for newer writers and authors hoping to find similar writing success?
Buy noise-canceling headphones immediately! Haha. Seriously, though, when I discovered them, it was a game changer. When I have my headphones on, I can get “in the zone” much quicker and ignore things that might otherwise distract me.
For new authors, I’d advise them to schedule writing time and find a place to do it where nobody else will be around and interrupt them. If someone really wants writing to become their career, they have to treat it like they would any other job. They have to show up on schedule and do the work. Other things have to take a back seat during that time. If they aren’t willing to make some sacrifices, it simply won’t happen.
Lastly, I know you have a few new books on the horizon. Can you share what they are? Are you working on anything else that you’d like to talk about?
Fiddling With Fate, the third book in my Southern Homebrew moonshine series, will release on April 4. It’s centered around a bluegrass band that Hattie Hayes, my modern-day moonshiner, hires to sing a jingle for her Moonshine Shack. My next Mountain Lodge Mystery, Snow Place for Murder, will release on October 24. I’m working on that book right now and having so much fun with it!
Thanks so much to Diane for the interview. Sleuths, I hope you enjoyed it! If you aren’t already subscribed, please be sure to sign up for the Cluesletter and get author features like this alongside other mystery goodies, delivered to your inbox every other Tuesday.