Author Interview: Michelle Cox

The Cluesletter is so pleased to welcome Michelle Cox, author of the Henrietta and Inspector Howard series, as a featured author. Michelle’s books blend mystery and romance against a 1930s backdrop, and while most are set in Chicago, her newest release goes abroad. Book six, A Spying Eye, sees the couple honeymoon in Europe—and engage in some high-risk sleuthing to find a missing work of art.

Michelle has some wonderful bits of wisdom on writing, the intersection of mystery and romance, and author marketing. My favorite advice that she shares?

“The sooner you see your writing career as a business, the better off you will be.”

Read on for the rest of the interview—I think you’ll like it. And as always, I hope you enjoy the issue.

Connect with Michelle on Facebook, Instagram, Goodreads, and her website. A Spying Eye is available now through various retailers: Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Indiebound, Apple, and Google Play.

Hi Michelle, thanks so much for joining! A Spying Eye is book six in your Henrietta and Inspector Howard series, which follows Henrietta Von Harmon and Inspector Clive Howard as they co-investigate crimes in 1930s Chicago (and beyond!). What kind of research did you do while writing, and/or is there a special reason you picked this time period for the series? What do you like about setting mysteries in the 1930s?

It is a little bit strange that I ended up writing a series set in the 1930s because my affinity has always been with the 1940s. However, when I was trying to think of an idea for a new book, I decided to create a character based on a woman I had met while working in a nursing home in Chicago in the early 1990s. This woman was a real firecracker and would frequently follow me around and tell me all about her life in Chicago in the 1930s and 40s.

“Once upon a time,” she would say, “I had a man-stopping body and a personality to go with it!”

Even back then, I thought she would make a great character in a novel. She had so many strange jobs around Chicago during the Depression, including working for a Dutch Rubber company at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1933. I loved that detail so much that I decided to set the novel in the 1930s. I didn’t realize at the time that I was starting a whole series (I just thought it would be a one-off), or I might not have made that decision. But later I realized that this was a sort of forgotten era, a lost decade between the wars, and came around to the idea of having it be set firmly in the 1930s.

As the series has gone along, I’ve had to increase my research, though I try not to do too much ahead of time because it’s too tempting to use all of it. I’m not like most historical fiction writers who love the research as much or more than the writing. For me, I much prefer to just write the story and fill in the blanks later. That way, I’m not tempted to info-dump, and I think the story is better for it.

How do you approach writing your mysteries? Are you an outliner, or do you like to write and see how the mystery unfolds? What does your writing process look like?

I’m definitely an outliner (plotter). I need to know ahead of time who the killer is, what the motive is, and how he or she did it. As a genre, mystery has to be pretty tightly paced, so there isn’t a lot of room to veer off course. Each scene/chapter has to progress the plot, and without knowing where I’m headed, this becomes too difficult to accomplish.

The only exception to this has been book seven of the series, oddly, which I’m just finishing up now. It’s sort of an Agatha Christie-type mystery with a big manor house, a dead body, and several guests who each could have committed the murder and who all have a motive. When I started writing, I had a pretty good idea who the murderer was, but when I got to the big reveal scene at the end, I realized that I had written each character so convincingly that any one of them could have done it! I finally had to pick someone and then had to spend a lot of valuable time going back through the manuscript to fix the parts that no longer worked. Never again! Too much time was wasted going back and forth. That doesn’t mean, however, that I’m not open to inspiration while I write. That always happens. Things pop up in my mind, and I change the story accordingly. But I really need a framework before I begin.

I love that your books blend romance and mystery. What do you love about mixing these two genres, and how do you balance them in a book? How has Henrietta and Clive’s relationship developed over the series so far?

I think that mystery and romance go together perfectly because the combo provides the reader with two mysteries to follow: the actual crime and the question of “will they/won’t they?” get together. It’s also good because the romance portion of a novel can give readers a little break from the tension and suspense of the case. It helps with the pacing. The Henrietta and Inspector Howard series is really not a traditional mystery series in which the same set of characters simply solve a different crime each book. I realized pretty early on that I was much more interested in character growth and development, not only of Henrietta and Clive, but of the many other characters that contribute to the various subplots.

Also, since I wasn’t super familiar with genre fiction when I began writing the series, I didn’t realize that it was a cardinal sin to have the two protagonists get together by the end of book one! I didn’t realize that I should have strung their attraction out over the whole series. So, to remedy that and to continue the romantic suspense, I of course had to introduce some doubt in the minds of Henrietta and Clive as to whether a relationship really made sense. Likewise, I began to develop romantic tension between the side characters.

At this point, I’m not sure I would be able to write any book without some sort of romantic intrigue. I feel it is essential to creating realistic, multi-dimensional characters and to give an added depth to the story.

I found your book through iRead Book Tours, which is a great way to nab reviews and buzz, but I know you are active with marketing in other ways. Do you have any marketing advice for other authors?

The subject of marketing a book is as vast as the subject of writing one. But if I had to sum it up, I’d say that the key to all marketing is relationships, and it’s never too early to start building those. Also, the sooner you see your writing career as a business, the better off you will be. Think of your book (or books) as products, not as beloved children! The sooner you can do that, the smarter and more efficient you’ll be about marketing.

I think a newsletter is really important because you can directly market to your subscribers and also because you own those names. All social media can disappear in an instant and all of your followers on those platforms with it. But a newsletter list is your own. I have built mine over the years by joining Book Funnel and Book Sweeps, which basically consist of joining together with other authors to promote a set of free books in exchange for email sign-ups. Another great strategy is to regularly put together big prize package giveaways which require people to sign up for your newsletter for a chance to win. Or giving away a short story, novella, free guide, or similar “reader magnet” in exchange for an email signup.

Secondly, start building a platform on various social media sites. Don’t overthink it—that’s a mistake I made with Instagram. I spent so much time (like two years!) studying the platform and trying to think up the perfect content, that the platform shifted before I could put any of my strategies into effect. So don’t hesitate; just jump in!

Join various author/reader-centric Facebook groups to not only get advice but also to give advice. Being a good literary citizen goes a long way. It’s never too early to start networking. Show up to other author’s events. Read their books and review them. Comment and engage on posts! Form relationships.

Also, start going to conferences! They are great way to learn more about the industry, craft, and marketing. Authors at any stage can benefit from them for different reason, but they are especially helpful to newbies. It’s a great way to start making connections that will help you every step of the way. Most authors are introverts, but if you’re at a conference, try to fight against the urge to hide in your room! Get out there and mingle!

If you’re just starting out, do every single thing that comes your way. Try everything! When my first book was coming out, a very upscale bookstore asked me to be part of their “indie author day.” I was thrilled to be asked, but not so much when I realized that they simply wanted me to be a greeter—essentially to hold the door for people. But I said yes! And I kept on saying yes and yes and yes to whatever came my way. Do the same; you never know where things might lead or who you might meet in the process.

Lastly, what’s on the horizon for you? Can we expect to see more Henrietta and Inspector Howard in the future, and/or do you have plans for other books or series?

Right now, I’m editing book seven of the series, tentatively called A Haunting at Linley, which will sadly end this series. From there, I’m not sure. I have two completed standalone novels I’d like to publish, and I plan to start a new series. This one will be a historical fantasy that opens with World War I. I’d also like to take some of the characters from Clive and Henrietta and spin them off into their own series, or maybe advance the series by ten years and start it back up again. There are so many possibilities in my head; just not enough time to do them!

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Thanks so much to Michelle 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.