Maddie Day Guest Post
Building a Town One Book at a Time
Thanks so much, Debra for inviting me over to share the bench with all you fabulous book lovers – I am one of you! We authors would be nowhere without our readers, and we’re all readers, too.
I’m getting excited for my next Cozy Capers Book Group Mystery to release. Murder at Cape Costumers is the eighth in the series, and it will be out on August 26th. The books take place in fictional Westham on Cape Cod in the general area of Falmouth. If you don’t know the Cape, Falmouth is at the other end of the peninsula from the curved scorpion’s tail that ends in Provincetown.
This series started back in 2019 with Murder on Cape Cod, the title of which was my editor’s idea. What does a title have to do with building a town? Well, my editor then suggested that each book be a murder in or at a Main Street business in Westham. In the same way I often respond to his suggestions, I said, “I can do that.” (John S. has excellent suggestions.)
I built Westham’s main thoroughfare and my fictional book group at the same time. Mackenzie Almeida’s livelihood is the bike shop she owns and runs, Mac’s Bikes. That was the first Main Street business I created. In the beginning of the series, Mac lives behind the shop in a tiny house with Belle, her African gray parrot.
Mac’s good friend Gin is also a cozy book club member. Gin owns, runs, and lives upstairs from Salty Taffy’s, the candy and saltwater taffy shop in town, which I’d created in book one. Book two? Murder at the Taffy Shop. I half-arbitrarily placed the candy shop near the opposite end of Main Street.
Then I needed a location for the homicide in book three. Why not use the local seafood takeout shop? Murder at the Lobstah Shack became book three. That homicide also takes place at a book group member’s place of business.
I changed up the naming scheme a bit for book four. Murder in a Cape Cottage begins inside Mac and her fiance’s home. Six days before their wedding, she and Tim tear down a wall in preparation to build a downstairs bathroom. They didn’t expect to encounter a ninety-year-old skeleton wearing a wedding dress chained to the wall.
Every small town needs a bookstore, right? Murder at a Cape Bookstore came next. After that? I had invented a Westham pub called the Rusty Anchor in Cape Cottage. I decided it was time for a murder there, which led to Murder at the Rusty Anchor, book six.
The August book is set at Halloween in a new costume shop that opened up in Westham. I haven’t even described Town Hall, the library, Tim’s bakery, the sushi restaurant, the police station, King Distillery and Fine Wines, or the pet supply shop, not to mention the UU church where Mac’s father is minister, Our Lady of the Sea Catholic Church, or the Friends Meetinghouse. There’s a synagogue in town, too.
With each new place I invent, I have to imagine squeezing it into my mostly mental map of Main Street. One of these days, I’ll hire a book mapmaker to create an actual visual map of the town.
Now we have a new business, the Toy Soldier. Does a murder occur there in book eight? You better believe it does. I’m two-thirds of the way through writing Murder at the Toy Soldier, which is my fortieth novel. Do I know who did it and how the story ends? I do not! Thus is the life of the author who would rather gradually pull aside the foggy veils as she writes than plot the book out in advance.
Wish me luck!
Readers: Have you been surprised by how a mystery turns out? Do you have a favorite ending? Also, what you think of maps of your favorite cozy series?
Maddie Day writes the Country Store Mysteries, the Cozy Capers Book Group Mysteries, the Cece Barton Mysteries, and the historical Dot and Amelia Mysteries. As besotted first-time Grammy Edith Maxwell, she writes the Agatha-Award winning historical Quaker Midwife Mysteries and short crime fiction. She’s a member of Mystery Writers of America and a proud lifetime member of Sisters in Crime. Maxwell/Day lives north of Boston with her beau and their cat Martin, where she writes, cooks, gardens, and wastes time on Facebook. Find her at her web site, at WickedAuthors.com, and at Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen.
Posted in Guest Post • Tags: Country Store Mysteries, cozy author, Cozy Capers Book Group Mysteries, Edith Maxwell, Maddie Day | 31 Comments
Books look and sounds like great reads really would like to read them in print format so I can review
Thanks! It will be out in print, ebook, and audio on release day.
Wonderful way to roll out a series! I haven’t read any of these and I love Cape Cod, so I guess have to begin at the the beginning (as Maria sings in ‘Sound of Music.’)
I hope you love the stories as much as the Cape, Maren!
This sounds like a really interesting series – so does your Quaker Midwife Mysteries series (as Edith Maxwell)! I will look for them the next time I am buying new ebooks 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
Thanks! I hope you love the stories.
Welcome to Booklover’s Bench, Edith! I absolutely adore a map for a new-to-me cozy village. Almost as much as I love a cast of characters!
Thanks, Cheryl! I have to get going on that map.
So glad to have you here with us at Booklover’s Bench, Edith! Like Cheryl, I love a map for cozy series. However, I haven’t gotten around to making maps for any of my series, other than something rudimentary. After all, shops can be large or small depending on how many I need to squeeze into a block… Best wishes! Maggie aka Valona Jones
Thanks so much, Maggie.
I like seeing maps – it helps to visualize location when it is mentioned in the story.
Agree. Barb Ross had a great one made for the Maine Clambake Mysteries. When I get around to it, I’ll use the same mapmaker – he lives near my son!
I loved her maps.
I am a huge fan of maps of fictional locations. They are a great aid for my poor visualization abilities! Love Mac and her book club gang, so very happy to hear there are still so many untapped locations in Westham! Also a big fan of the Country Store and Cece Barton books. Thanks for all the fun hours of reading!
Thanks so much, Ma! Yes, we can kill lots more people on Westham’s main drag. ;^)
Edith,
Sounds like another great new series! I’ve created an island smack in the middle of the Long Island Sound for my new series. I know how much time and research goes into creating a new setting amid real places.
True, Marilyn!
These books all sound like great fun. Love the titles and the concept. That’s quite a feat of world building you have done. I could use a map for the book I’m currently working on. It takes place in a museum and a blueprint would be handy!
Thanks so much, Nancy.
I love your books. I love maps also. Barbara Ross also sent you prints of her maps which is cool. There are a couple of other authors that do maps but not many. There are a few mysteries that totally surprise me with their endings. I figure out many of the endings though. I love sleuthing. Then there are those endings where the series ends, and they don’t tell you and the character is out there in limbo, and I want more. Then there are one are two that a favorite character dies, and I hate that even more. Ellen Byron has known ahead of time on two of her series and does an epilogue. Barbara Ross did that with her Maine Clambake series also if I remember correctly though it has been a long time and I did not like Julia breaking up with Chris.
Thank you!
Sounds fun. Congratulations on your new release. Deborah
Thank you, Deborah.
I have so enjoyed all of your books that I have read. Looking forward to the newest one. Will be pre-ordering it.
I appreciate that, Virginia. Preorders are so important for authors!
They sound wonderful. I’m always amazed at the creativity authors bring to their stories and this series sounds fantastic with the map being a great asset to it.
Such a good blog and list of books. I am really anxious to get a lot of reading done during the summer while I have some time.
Glad to have you today. I’m like you – a pantser in the city I’m creating… but it all seems to work out. I guess they call that vision.
Excellent blueprint for a series! Thanks for sharing, Maddie.
Sounds like a fabulous book. I’ve vacationed in Cape Cod many times and love it.
Your book looks amazing! All your books look amazing! I have been surprised by a cozy mystery and the way the mystery happened. Which is what I love!
I also absolutely love maps in books!